Date of Publication :17th January 2024

Abstract: Digital Twins (DTs) continue to evolve, continuously increasing the variety of definitions of DTs in the literature, resulting in misconceptions and confusion. To date many reviews on DTs, but none provide a comprehensive analysis of the DTs’ technologies; Therefore, there is a need to consolidate a comprehensive research analysis of the DTs technology to maintain a common and shared understanding of the technology and ensure that future research efforts are based on a solid foundation. The literature states that DTs can be applied to any application; however, there is a lack of integration of actual DTs in most industries; Therefore, there is a need to identify what is still missing to make DTs technology compliant with its description in the literature. Many approaches have been proposed to design and implement DTs to date; however, most, if not all, of them lack a comprehensive examination and analysis of all techniques and methods used to maximise the benefits of DTs. This paper; (A) Comprehensively analyses the DTs technology by incorporating the science mapping method for the first time. (B) Deeply examine DTs’ concept, maturity, creation, values, applications, techniques, and technology to identify the most suitable way to implement DTs. (C) Guide the status of DTs development and application in today’s academic and industrial environment. (D) Consolidate the different types of DTs throughout the literature to easily identify DTs from the rest of the favourable terms such as ‘product avatar’, ‘digital thread’, ‘digital model’, and ‘digital shadow’. (E) Proposes a generalised concept that encompasses the breadth of options available and provides a detailed characterisation which includes criteria to distinguish the Digital Twin from other digital technologies “Digital Twins are a live virtual replica that continuously simulates the entire mechanical behaviour of anything”.

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