Digital Twin Standardization

Credit: Image by Saul from Pixabay

The importance of standardization in digital twins (DTs) is critical for advancing the technology beyond customized, isolated solutions into a scalable and widely adopted industrial tool. Without common standards, the implementation of DTs remains fragmented, leading to high development costs, slow deployment times, and significant interoperability barriers, preventing different DT systems, components, and organizations from communicating effectively. Standardization, such as that provided by frameworks like ISO 23247, establishes the essential common terminology, reference models, and interfaces needed for a functional ecosystem. This shared blueprint facilitates the creation of modular and reusable components, ensures the reliability and trustworthiness of the digital models, and ultimately lowers the entry barrier for smaller enterprises, enabling the global market for DTs to mature and realize its full potential across sectors like advanced manufacturing. Presented below are NIST works on standardization for DTs. 

• Use Case Scenarios for Digital Twin Implementation Based on ISO 23247
  • Shao, G. (2021). Use Case Scenarios for Digital Twin Implementation Based on ISO 23247. Advanced Manufacturing Series (NIST AMS) – 400-2. National Institute of Standards and Technology. https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.AMS.400-2
• An Analysis of the New ISO 23247 Series of Standards on Digital Twin Framework for Manufacturing
  • Shao, G., Frechette, S., & Srinivasan, V. (2023). "An Analysis of the New ISO 23247 Series of Standards on Digital Twin Framework for Manufacturing." Proceedings of the ASME 2023 18th International Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/MSEC2023-101127
• Manufacturing Digital Twin Standards
  • Shao, G. (2024). "Manufacturing Digital Twin Standards." ACM/IEEE 27th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems Companion (MODELS-C). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3652620.3688250
• Towards Ontologizing a Digital Twin Framework for Manufacturing
  • Drobnjakovic, M., Shao, G., Nikolov, A., Kulvatunyou, B., Frechette, S., Srinivasan, V. (2023). "Towards Ontologizing a Digital Twin Framework for Manufacturing." In: Alfnes, E., Romsdal, A., Strandhagen, J.O., von Cieminski, G., Romero, D. (eds) Advances in Production Management Systems. Production Management Systems for Responsible Manufacturing, Service, and Logistics Futures. APMS 2023. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 690. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43666-6_22
• Digital Twins for Advanced Manufacturing: The Standardized Approach
  • Shao, G. , Kibira, D. and Frechette, S. (2024), Digital Twins for Advanced Manufacturing: The Standardized Approach, Digital Twins, Simulation, and Metaverse, Springer Nature, Washington, DC, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=957417