The role of dynamics in digital twins and its problem-tailored representation

Abstract In Smart Manufacturing, the Internet of Things technology brings about new possibilities as for the interaction of Cyber-Physical Systems with their virtual models—in Industry 4.0 jargon, Digital Twins. Besides traditional roles in engineering and control design, Digital Twins cab play innovative ones by evolving together with their cyber-physical counterpart: predictive maintenance, fault detection, or fast training of data-based decision aid tools. In this paper we focus on the relevance of dynamic models in this scenario, particularly as for the co-existence of continuous-time and discrete-event models wherever control and planning are involved. We argue that in such cases, models with analysis-specific levels of detail have to co-exist, interact and maintain mutual consistency. We propose a modelling approach to address the problem, and present a supporting example based on an object-oriented modelling language.