What is a Digital Twin Anyway? Deriving the Definition for the Built Environment from over 15,000 Scientific Publications

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Auteurs principaux: Abdelrahman, Mahmoud, Macatulad, Edgardo, Lei, Binyu, Quintana, Matias, Miller, Clayton, Biljecki, Filip
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Abdelrahman, Mahmoud
Macatulad, Edgardo
Lei, Binyu
Quintana, Matias
Miller, Clayton
Biljecki, Filip
author_facet Abdelrahman, Mahmoud
Macatulad, Edgardo
Lei, Binyu
Quintana, Matias
Miller, Clayton
Biljecki, Filip
contents The concept of digital twins has attracted significant attention across various domains, particularly within the built environment. However, there is a sheer volume of definitions and the terminological consensus remains out of reach. The lack of a universally accepted definition leads to ambiguities in their conceptualization and implementation, and may cause miscommunication for both researchers and practitioners. We employed Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to systematically extract and analyze definitions of digital twins from a corpus of more than 15,000 full-text articles spanning diverse disciplines. The study compares these findings with insights from an expert survey that included 52 experts. The study identifies concurrence on the components that comprise a ``Digital Twin'' from a practical perspective across various domains, contrasting them with those that do not, to identify deviations. We investigate the evolution of digital twin definitions over time and across different scales, including manufacturing, building, and urban/geospatial perspectives. We extracted the main components of Digital Twins using Text Frequency Analysis and N-gram analysis. Subsequently, we identified components that appeared in the literature and conducted a Chi-square test to assess the significance of each component in different domains. Our analysis identified key components of digital twins and revealed significant variations in definitions based on application domains, such as manufacturing, building, and urban contexts. The analysis of DT components reveal two major groups of DT types: High-Performance Real-Time (HPRT) DTs, and Long-Term Decision Support (LTDS) DTs. Contrary to common assumptions, we found that components such as simulation, AI/ML, real-time capabilities, and bi-directional data flow are not yet fully mature in the digital twins of the built environment.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_19005
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle What is a Digital Twin Anyway? Deriving the Definition for the Built Environment from over 15,000 Scientific Publications
Abdelrahman, Mahmoud
Macatulad, Edgardo
Lei, Binyu
Quintana, Matias
Miller, Clayton
Biljecki, Filip
Computation and Language
The concept of digital twins has attracted significant attention across various domains, particularly within the built environment. However, there is a sheer volume of definitions and the terminological consensus remains out of reach. The lack of a universally accepted definition leads to ambiguities in their conceptualization and implementation, and may cause miscommunication for both researchers and practitioners. We employed Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to systematically extract and analyze definitions of digital twins from a corpus of more than 15,000 full-text articles spanning diverse disciplines. The study compares these findings with insights from an expert survey that included 52 experts. The study identifies concurrence on the components that comprise a ``Digital Twin'' from a practical perspective across various domains, contrasting them with those that do not, to identify deviations. We investigate the evolution of digital twin definitions over time and across different scales, including manufacturing, building, and urban/geospatial perspectives. We extracted the main components of Digital Twins using Text Frequency Analysis and N-gram analysis. Subsequently, we identified components that appeared in the literature and conducted a Chi-square test to assess the significance of each component in different domains. Our analysis identified key components of digital twins and revealed significant variations in definitions based on application domains, such as manufacturing, building, and urban contexts. The analysis of DT components reveal two major groups of DT types: High-Performance Real-Time (HPRT) DTs, and Long-Term Decision Support (LTDS) DTs. Contrary to common assumptions, we found that components such as simulation, AI/ML, real-time capabilities, and bi-directional data flow are not yet fully mature in the digital twins of the built environment.
title What is a Digital Twin Anyway? Deriving the Definition for the Built Environment from over 15,000 Scientific Publications
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.19005