A primer on digital twin technology

In the 21st century, the concept of a twin need not be confined to fraternal or identical--a twin can be digital too. Digital twins have caught the eyes of some of the biggest companies in the world--Amazon and Nvidia, for instance, both made announcements about new digital-twin initiatives within the last month--as well as those of specialists like infrastructure engineering software company Bentley Systems. The concept started gaining traction at the beginning of the century, and picked up steam in the early 2010s when the rise of IoT made digital twins more feasible. As of 2020, it was estimated to be a $3.1 billion market, per Markets and Markets, and projected to grow into a $48.2 billion industry by 2026. So...what is a digital twin?