Towards a Unifying Reference Model for Digital Twins of Cyber-Physical Systems

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2507.04871v1
• Date: Mon, 07 Jul 2025 10:57:00 GMT
• Title: Towards a Unifying Reference Model for Digital Twins of Cyber-Physical Systems
• Authors: Jerome Pfeiffer, Jingxi Zhang, Benoit Combemale, Judith Michael, Bernhard Rumpe, Manuel Wimmer, Andreas Wortmann,
• Abstract summary: Digital twins are sophisticated software systems for the representation, monitoring, and control of cyber-physical systems.<n>Existing definitions and reference models of digital twins are overly abstract, impeding their comprehensive understanding and implementation guidance.
• Score: 3.315540837345407
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: Digital twins are sophisticated software systems for the representation, monitoring, and control of cyber-physical systems, including automotive, avionics, smart manufacturing, and many more. Existing definitions and reference models of digital twins are overly abstract, impeding their comprehensive understanding and implementation guidance. Consequently, a significant gap emerges between abstract concepts and their industrial implementations. We analyze popular reference models for digital twins and combine these into a significantly detailed unifying reference model for digital twins that reduces the concept-implementation gap to facilitate their engineering in industrial practice. This enhances the understanding of the concepts of digital twins and their relationships and guides developers to implement digital twins effectively.

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