1. The digital twin for engineering

A digital twin is a digital replica of a real system. Unlike a digital simulation, where the static part of the model represents the state of the system at a specific point in time, the digital twin evolves identically to the real system, and adapts based on data from the real system. The digital twin therefore enables us to trace the system's history, analyze its current state and anticipate its future state.

This section describes how to use digital twins for complex systems engineering, and presents the characteristics of a digital twin, as well as the different possible uses.