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How Digital Twin Technology Can Enhance IoT Product Development and Lifecycle
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Applied Technology Review | Wednesday, May 11, 2022
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The increased demand for IoT and AI has fueled the development of digital twin technology.
FREMONT, CA: A digital twin is precisely what it sounds like: a digital copy of a physical device. Digital twins enable developers and data scientists to glean insights from raw data and conduct simulations before the physical form of the technology is constructed.
NASA was the first organization to implement this technology. Scientists fabricated replicas of space capsules to simulate and detect faults. The usefulness of the mockups led to the development of fully digital simulations (digital twins). Beyond its origins in aerospace, the technique is now adaptable to large-scale manufacturing. Currently, IoT, AI, and data analytics utilize the technology.
A digital twin gets input from sensors and collects data from its physical counterpart to imitate the original thing in real-time. It may be designed based on a physical product's prototype, or it may act as a prototype before a physical version is constructed.
Having a digital copy in data analytics and IoT enables engineers to optimize deployments and build what-if scenarios. This has the potential to eliminate costly rework and bug fixes. What are some ways that digital twin technology can improve the development and lifecycle of IoT products?
Predict the future before construction
Imagine being able to predict the performance of a product before businesses create it. They can deal with digital twin technology! By executing tests based on changeable data, digital twins can be utilized to predict distinct outcomes. Before anything is physically installed, they enable engineers to optimize an IoT deployment and delve into operating features.
The ability to replicate a physical object in real-time provides developers with insight into how the physical product will function and the capacity to identify potential issues. Whether the twin serves as a prototype or a digital counterpart to a physical device, the ability to simulate operation and functionality before deployment is an enormous benefit, it saves time and money by previewing how something will function before product deployment.
Have companies ever seen a crazed scientist in a science fiction movie yelling at an aide to "run the scenario"? Digital twins facilitate this capability. They can test all desired scenarios before touching the actual gadget.
Simplified troubleshooting
A digital twin connects the physical and digital worlds through data. When anything goes wrong, or a product has to be modified, the twin can provide feedback and serve as a testing site before actual alterations are made. Referring back to the "run the scenario" example, with a digital twin, firms can diagnose problems without touching the physical equipment by running scenarios. This makes troubleshooting simpler (and cheaper) because they can safely work through a problem in their test environment.
When companies mix machine learning and artificial intelligence with their digital twin technology, their development team will be able to deploy a model that will learn habits and foresee possible issues. This combination could accelerate testing and help companies discover difficulties they were unaware of.