Foundational Research Gaps and Future Directions for Digital Twins (2024) / Chapter Skim
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8 Summary of Findings, Conclusions, and Recommendations
8 Summary of Findings, Conclusions, and Recommendations
Pages 114-124
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From page 114... ...
The bidirectional interaction between the virtual and the physical is central to the digital twin. SYSTEMIC, TRANSLATIONAL, AND PROGRAMMATIC FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS The report emphasizes that a digital twin goes beyond simulation to include tighter integration between models, data, and decisions.
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From page 115... ...
as essential tasks for the responsible development, implementation, monitoring, and sustainability of digital twins across all domains. Conclusion 2-2: Digital twins require VVUQ to be a continual process that must adapt to changes in the physical counterpart, digital twin virtual models, data, and the prediction/decision task at hand.
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From page 116... ...
Despite the existence of examples of digital twins providing practical impact and value, the sentiment expressed across multiple committee information-gathering sessions is that the publicity around digital twins and digital twin solutions currently outweighs the evidence base of success. Achieving the promise of digital twins requires an integrated and holistic research agenda that advances digital twin foundations.
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From page 117... ...
. This collective ability should be reflected in a digital twin grand challenge research and develop ment vision for DOE that goes beyond the current investments in large-scale simulation to advance and integrate the other digital twin elements, including the physical/virtual bidirectional interac tion and high-consequence decision support.
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From page 118... ...
For example, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Institute of Stan dards and Technology, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration should be included in the discussion of digital twin research and development, drawing on their unique missions and extensive capabilities in the areas of data assimilation and real time decision support. VVUQ is a key element of digital twins that necessitates collaborative and interdisciplinary investment.
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From page 119... ...
These assessments should drive the definition and establishment of new programs similar to the National Science Foundation's Natural Hazards Engineering Re search Infrastructure and Cyberinfrastructure for Sustained Scientific Innovation programs. These programs should target specific communi ties and provide support to sustain, maintain, and manage the life cycle of digital twins beyond their initial creation, recognizing that sustain ability is critical to realizing the value of upstream investments in the virtual representations that underlie digital twins. The report calls out a number of domain-specific digital twin challenges, while also noting that there are many research needs and opportunities that cut across domains and use cases.
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From page 120... ...
. Conclusion 7-4: Fostering a culture of collaborative exchange of data and models that incorporate context through metadata and provenance in digital twin–relevant disciplines could accelerate progress in the development and application of digital twins. Recommendation 7: In defining new digital twin research efforts, federal agencies should, in the context of their current and future mission priori ties, (1)
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From page 121... ...
DIGITAL TWIN RESEARCH FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATION The study identified foundational research needs and opportunities associated with each of the elements of a digital twin: the virtual representation, the physical counterpart, the physical-to-virtual flowpath, and the virtual-to-physical flowpath. These findings, conclusions, and recommendation cover many technical areas, including multiscale, hybrid, and surrogate modeling; system integration and coupling; data acquisition, integration, and interoperability; inverse problems; data assimilation; optimization under uncertainty; automated decision-making; human-in-the-loop decision-making; and human–digital twin interactions.
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From page 122... ...
Finding 3-4: Advancing mathematical theory and algorithms in both data driven and multiscale physics-based modeling to reduce computational needs for digital twins is an important complement to increased computing resources. Finding 3-5: Hybrid modeling approaches that combine data-driven and mechanistic modeling approaches are a productive path forward for meeting the modeling needs of digital twins, but their effectiveness and practical use are limited by key gaps in theory and methods. Finding 3-6: Integration of component/subsystem digital twins is a pacing item for the digital twin representation of a complex system, especially if different fidelity models are used in the digital twin representation of its components/subsystems. Finding 3-7: State-of-the-art literature and practice show advances and suc cesses in surrogate modeling for models that form one discipline or one component of a complex system, but theory and methods for surrogates of coupled multiphysics systems are less mature.
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From page 123... ...
Strategies for data sharing and collaboration must address challenges such as data ownership and intellec tual property issues while maintaining data security and privacy. Conclusion 5-1: Data assimilation and model updating play central roles in the physical-to-virtual flow of a digital twin. Data assimilation techniques are needed for data streams from different sources and for numerical mod els with varying levels of uncertainty.
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From page 124... ...
The abundance or scarcity of data, complexity of the decision space, need to quantify uncertainty, and need for interpretability are all drivers to be considered in advancing theory and methods for digital twin decision-making. Conclusion 6-2: Communicating uncertainty to end users is important for digital twin decision support. Finding 6-5: In addition to providing outputs that are interpretable, digi tal twins need to clearly communicate any updates and the corresponding changes to the VVUQ results to the user in order to engender trust. Conclusion 6-3: While the capture of enough contextual detail in the meta data is critical for ensuring appropriate inference and interoperability, the inclusion of increasing details may pose emerging privacy and security risks. This aggregation of potentially sensitive and personalized data and models is particularly challenging for digital twins.
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