Digital Twin Applications: A Survey of Recent Advances and Challenges
Rafael da Silva Mendonça, Sidney de Oliveira Lins, Iury Bessa, Florindo A. C. Ayres, Renan Landau Paiva de Medeiros, Vicente Ferreira de Lucena
Abstract
Industry 4.0 integrates a series of emerging technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cyber-physical systems (CPS), cloud computing, and big data, and aims to improve operational efficiency and accelerate productivity inside the industrial environment. This article provides a series of information about the required structure to adopt Industry 4.0 approaches and a brief review of related concepts to finally identify challenges and research opportunities to envision the adoption of so-called digital twins. We want to pay attention to upgrading older systems aiming to provide the well-known advantages of Industry 4.0 to such legacy systems as reducing production costs, increasing efficiency, acquiring better robustness of equipment, and reaching advanced process connectivity.