Digital twin

A digital twin copies the shape and movement of a real factory, building or machine into a computer just as it is. What makes it different from a plain three-dimensional picture is that it is connected to reality. It takes in data sent by sensors on the real machine, so the virtual twin follows the machine's current state exactly.

This lets you try many things in advance without stopping the factory. In the virtual twin, you first check where a jam would form if you changed the machine layout, whether a new robot would bump into people, and which part is about to break down. The burden is that building an accurate twin and keeping it in sync takes a lot of effort.

It is like moving furniture around on a floor plan of your home before you move in. The difference is that a digital twin's plan keeps changing to follow the real home's current state.

More and more manufacturers test things in the virtual world first, before building a new factory or bringing in robots. It also connects with the trend of training robots in virtual space.