AI upgrades the digital twin

Virtual representations and simulated models of manufacturing models – or digital twins – were first proposed by Dr Michael Grieves at the Society of Manufacturing Engineers conference in 2002. It was based on the idea that a "digital informational construct about a physical system could be created as an entity on its own. This digital information would be a twin of the information that was embedded within the physical system itself and be linked with that physical system through the entire lifecycle of the system". As factories adopt the internet of things (IoT), combined with condition-based machine to machine (M2M) devices for monitoring and tracking machinery and operations, digital twins are becoming commonplace. Analyst firm, Gartner predicts that by 2022, over two thirds of companies that have implemented IoT will have deployed at least one digital twin in production.