The Global Digital Twins Market 2022 report, published in April this year, not only predicts new ways of using digital twins, but also analyzes the technologies that use or support them. At the same time, it brings the results of an interesting survey. According to this, up to 93% of IoT platforms will use some form of digital twins within 5 years.

According to the authors, the solutions supported by digital twins will reach the value of 54.6 billion dollars (in the previously mentioned five-year time horizon). Today, the figure is estimated at $10.3 billion

The report works with terms such as “digital twin of physical property” and “digital object”. The first can provide status and layout data, the second can be used for manipulation and control in a real environment. The authors perceive this form of cyber-physical connectivity, signalling, and control as a key ability to realize the vision of Industry 4.0 in order to fully digitize production.

There are many potential options for using digital twins. In addition to monitoring and simulation, this also concerns the remote control of physical processes through virtual objects. The implementation of digital twins will enable distributed remote asset control, which will place an increasing burden on IoT identity management, authentication, and authorization. Market IoT authentication solutions are also important to support IoT-related “things” that are different from the devices used to detect, activate, signal, connect, etc. This will be especially important with regard to the integration of digital twin solutions.

The Digital Twin Consortium includes the key sectors linking the cyber and physical realities of aviation, healthcare, manufacturing, the military, natural resource management, and the public security sectors. Regarding the integration of technology and digital twin solutions with telecommunications and enterprise infrastructure, there is a perceived need for careful planning in terms of system integration, testing, and implementation. This will be especially important for mission-critical applications.

Interesting numbers at the end:

  • Almost 50% of respondents to a recent survey had never heard of digital twins.
  • Digital twin-backed solutions in smart cities will reach $ 4.8 billion by 2027.
  • As many as 93% of all IoT platforms will include some form of digital twin by 2027.
  • By 2028, the digital twin will become a standard feature to support IoT applications.
  • More than 42% of executives in a wide range of industries understand the benefits of the digital twin, and 59% plan to integrate it into their operations by 2028.