by Edgar Weippl (SBA) and Benjamin Sanderse (CWI)

This special issue addresses the current state of digital twin research, illustrating the many facets of this growing scientific field. The contributions collected here give insight in ongoing projects and allow for a glimpse into the future of digital twin technology.

by Stefan Boschert and Roland Rosen (Siemens AG)

Railroad switches, also called turnouts or points, are a key element of the rail network infrastructure. They are distributed all over the network and their maintenance is crucial to guarantee safety and undisturbed operation. Within a railway network, the turnouts are responsible for a high amount of the operational costs as monitoring and maintenance is mainly manual. Using a combination of measurement data and physics-based simulations – a typical Digital Twin application – has a high potential to identify failures before they become critical. Defining a general methodology to derive such solutions which make use of all the relevant information created along the lifecycle is the subject of our current research. 

by Christophe Ponsard, Renaud De Landtsheer and Birgit Palm (CETIC)

Reflecting the state of a complex physical asset or process into its digital twin cannot be a perfect process. However, accurate reasoning must stay possible on a digital twin even in case of partial or temporary degradation of its connection with its physical counterpart. In the scope of an Industry 4.0 project, we are investigating how to deal with such a challenge for the optimised operation of a steel factory.

by Jacques Verriet, Jack Sleuters and Richard Doornbos (TNO-ESI)

Modern smart systems are incredibly complicated. Building a digital twin of the system allows engineers to ensure that it works correctly and root out many problems before it is installed.

by Felix Strohmeier, Christoph Schranz and Georg Güntner (Salzburg Research)

The i-Maintenance toolset is a messaging system that constitutes the technical foundation for digital twins of industrial assets by collecting, monitoring and analysing life cycle data. The messaging solution can be used in an innovative way to set up a prototypical digital twin of a production asset by integrating maintenance management, condition monitoring, IoT and predictive analytics solutions.

by Cor van Kruijsdijk (Shell Global Solutions International bv)

Shell is using Digital Twin applications to improve operation, maintenance and safety, for example in chemical plants and offshore platforms.

by Gerardo Santillán Martínez (Aalto University), Tommi Karhela (Aalto University), Reino Ruusu (Semantum Ltd), and Juha Kortelainen (VTT)

Simulation-based digital twins (SBDTs) of process plants can be used for a number of important industrial applications. They have various advantages compared to digital twins based on data-driven models. However, wider industrial adoption of SBDTs is hindered by laborious development of their underlying simulation model as well as by the lack of integration methods with the operational process. The Engineering Rulez research project has tackled these issues by developing a novel automatic model generation method as well as a simulation architecture based on OPC UA, a well-established industrial interoperability standard. The proposed SBDT automatic generation method aims to enable a wider industrial adoption of digital twins based on first principle models.

by Gábor Závodszky, Alfons G. Hoekstra (University of Amsterdam)

In-silico models of human physiology and pathology are aimed at progressing and complementing medicine in several ways. These models can reproduce physiological processes and events on multiple scale levels. The goal of the individual models is to help predict the outcome of a specific disease or to support the decision-making process during treatment.

by Vagelis Harmandaris (UOC & IACM-FORTH), Evangelia Kalligiannaki (IACM-FORTH) and Markos A. Katsoulakis (UMass Amherst, USA)

The development of novel materials with desirable properties, such as nanocomposites, polymers, colloids and biomolecular systems, relies heavily on the knowledge of their structure-property relationships. The prediction of such relationships is the subject of computational materials design. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations at the atomistic level can provide quantitative information about structural and dynamical properties of molecular systems. The recent enormous advances in computational power allow us to perform intense atomistic-level simulations. However, the broad range of length and time scales appearing in such complex (e.g., macromolecular) materials still presents significant computational challenges, especially in tackling engineering and design tasks.

by Jannis Teunissen (CWI and KU Leuven) and Ute Ebert (CWI and TU/e)

We have developed a framework for efficient 2D and 3D computations on adaptively refined grids, which can be used on shared-memory computers. By using efficient methods, we aim to make interactive (quick!) simulations possible on modest hardware.

by Matthias Eckhart (TU Wien) and Andreas Ekelhart (SBA Research)

In recent years, the concept of digital twins has received increasing attention. Virtual replicas of cyber-physical systems (CPSs) can be leveraged for monitoring, visualising and predicting states of CPSs, leading to new possibilities to enhance industrial operations. Yet, the benefit of this concept goes beyond typical Industry 4.0 use cases, such as predictive maintenance. Recent efforts explore how digital twins can increase the security of CPSs.

by Markus Tauber (FH Burgenland) and Christoph Schmittner (AIT)

The digital twin of a system should contain not only the existing information but also an up-to-date picture of the current status. While this is easy with physical properties, which can be measured by sensors, it is more challenging to measure and to provide an up-to-date picture of properties like security and safety. We have investigated the modelling of such dependencies in use cases related to transparency as well as to self-adaptability. Based on our experience we propose further extensions of domains like reliability. This also has the potential to provide legal support to Industry 4.0 use cases when required.

by Violeta Damjanovic-Behrendt (Salzburg Research)

We have designed a digital twin prototype for detecting security, privacy and safety critical issues for the smart automotive sector, based on work done in the ongoing IoT4CPS project (Trustworthy IoT for cyber-physical Systems.

by Matthias Jarke (Fraunhofer, FIT and RWTH Aachen), Günther Schuh, Christian Brecher, Matthias Brockmann and Jan-Philipp Prote, (RWTH Aachen and Fraunhofer IPT)

Due to highly sophisticated, specialised models and data in production, digital twins, as defined as full digital representations, are neither computationally feasible nor useful. The complementary concept of digital shadows will provide cross-domain data access in real time by combining reduced engineering models and production data analytics.

by Thomas Usländer (Fraunhofer IOSB)

Representing real world objects as digital models has been a central topic of computer science for many years. However, in order to reduce the complexity and owing to the memory and processing limitations of IT devices, the digital models have always been quite tightly focused. Digital Twins (DT) are about to change this. The DT concept conveys the idea that digital representations should possess many of the essential properties of their real-world counterparts along their whole lifetime and even before and beyond. We propose an engineering methodology that allows an engineer to systematically motivate and derive these properties from use cases, and to deploy a DT as an interacting component in IIoT platforms.

by Jacopo Parri, Samuele Sampietro and Enrico Vicario (University of Florence)

The JARVIS project (Just-in-time ARtificial Intelligence for the eValuation of Industrial Signals) exploits a domain logic of digital twins to connect the IoT layer with enterprise scale components in a Lambda architecture for Industry 4.0.

by Olaf Sauer (Fraunhofer IOSB)

Together with colleagues from the Fraunhofer Industrie 4.0-community Fraunhofer IOSB is working on a definition of digital twins and on use cases that show their benefits. A Fraunhofer whitepaper is under work, where we take into account various aspects of digital twins such as material science, product development, manufacturing process development, digital factories, manufacturing operations and reference architectures. In this paper we describe some general aspects of digital twins and illustrate the concept with some examples from companies that have been early to adopt the concepts of digital twins.

by Tamás Cserteg, Gábor Erdős and Gergely Horváth (MTA SZTAKI)

Multiple, linked research projects on the topic of human-robot collaboration have been carried out in MTA Sztaki with the aim of developing ergonomic, gesture driven, robot control methods. Although robots are already used in many different fields, the next generation of robots will need to work in shared workplaces with human operators complementing and not substituting their work. The implementation of such shared workplaces raises new problems, such as security of the human operator and defining simple and unambiguous communication interface between the human operator and the robot. To overcome these problems a detailed, up-to-date model, i.e., a digital twin, has been created.

by Bruno Levy (Inria)

Research teams at Inria and University Paris Sud are elaborating new mathematical methods to simulate the physics of fluids. This has the potential to improve a crucial component of digital twin technology.

by Ludovic Hoyet (Inria)

In years to come, the development of new immersive media (including digitalisation of industries) will lead to a massive spread of avatars, the users’ representation in the virtual world. By leveraging the complementary expertise of six Inria teams, the project “Avatar” aims to design the next generation of avatars for digital worlds in order to reach new levels of user embodiment in and through their virtual replica.

by Sebastian Haag and Reiner Anderl (Technische Universität Darmstadt)

Digital twins enable the analysis of systems under real world conditions using multiphysics models, sensors and bidirectional data connections between the digital and its physical twin. At the research lab of the Department of Computer Integrated Design (DiK) of Technische Universität Darmstadt, a digital twin demonstrator was developed that enables a real-time motion-structural simulation of a bending beam test bench. The approach provides proof of many of the publicised benefits through a comprehensible digital twin system.

by Stéphane P.A. Bordas, Sundararajan Natarajan, and Andreas Zilian (University of Luxembourg)
 
To work with digital twins, researchers must have the skills to select and adapt mathematical models to data as it is being acquired. Luxembourg’s National Research Fund (FNR) finances the first pan-Luxembourg Doctoral Training Centre in Data-DRIVEN Modelling and Discovery [L1], bridging artificial intelligence with modelling from first principles. The Centre will train the next generation researchers at the interface between computational and data science and application areas ranging from social inequalities to neurodegenerative diseases, through psychology and the science of science. These researchers will lay the foundations enabling digital twinning in a variety of application areas.

by Erik Peeters (TNO ICT Unit)

High-tech equipment companies increasingly use simulations and models to predict the planned requirements of the machines they build. This “digital twin” provides major benefits to the industrial sector, but it seems that model calculations are rarely compared to the end product. The consequence is that development processes and product maintenance are inadequate and that upgrades don’t benefit from existing models. The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO)’s Industry 4.0 ambitions support organisations with effective use of models and virtual representations of physical systems to understand, predict, optimise and upgrade their systems and systems behaviour in the field.

Martina Lindorfer was selected as the winner of the 2018 Cor Baayen Young Researcher Award. The award committee recognises Martina's impressive achievements and outstanding quality of her research in the field of systems security, especially the analysis of malicious software and mobile operating system vulnerabilities. Martina Lindorfer is a tenure-track assistant professor in the Security & Privacy group at TU Wien. Until recently, she was a postdoctoral researcher in the Computer Security Group (SecLab) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, US. She received her PhD from TU Wien, where she was working at the International Secure Systems Lab (iSecLab). During her PhD, she was also a researcher with SBA Research, the largest research centre in Austria which exclusively addresses information security, where she was advised by Edgar Weippl, SBA Research’s research director.

Bruno Sportisse was appointed Chairman and CEO of Inria on 27 June 2018 by a decree of the President of the French Republic. He replaces François Sillion who has been acting as Inria’s Chairman since 22 January 2018.

The ERCIM-managed Horizon 2020 project “VRE4EIC” has successfully developed a reference architecture and software components for Virtual Research Environments (VREs).

by Florian Skopik (AIT)

Cross-organizational cyber risk assessments are the cornerstone of an effective implementation of national cyber security strategies. Only those nation states who know the overall key risks to critical infrastructures and main weaknesses of providers of essential services, can anticipate future cyber security problems and appropriately plan for counter measures. Therefore, the aim of the project CRISCROSS [L1] is to come up with a design and proof-of-concept prototype that enables efficient distributed risk assessments within critical organizations, the timely reporting of findings via an intuitive web platform to the authorities, and the harmonization, aggregation and interpretation of received data at the national level.

by Manuel Le Gallo, Abu Sebastian and Evangelos Eleftheriou (IBM Research Zurich)

There is a pressing need for energy-efficient non-von Neumann computing systems for highly data-centric artificial intelligence related applications. We have developed an approach that efficiently performs a wide range of machine learning tasks such as compressed sensing, unsupervised learning, solving systems of linear equations, and deep learning.

by Aris S. Lalos (University of Patras and ISI ATHENA), Stavros Nousias and Konstantinos Moustakas (University of Patras)

GamECAR is a Euroean project that aims to teach drivers to adopt an eco-friendly driving style through a serious games platform.

by Joaquín Rodríguez and Antonio Álvarez (ATOS)

The goal of the H2020 project CIPSEC is to create a unified security framework that orchestrates state-of-the-art heterogeneous security products to offer high levels of protection in IT (information technology) and OT (operational technology) departments of CI.

by Emmanouil G. Spanakis (FORTH-ICS)

The vision of the SpeechXRays project [L1] is to provide a user recognition system combining voice biometrics, which are convenient and cost effective, with video, which can help to improve accuracy, and to introduce superior anti-spoofing capabilities. SpeechXRays aims to outperform other state-of-the-art solutions in the areas of security, privacy, usability and cost-effectiveness.

by Emanuele Salerno and Giuseppe Fusco (CNR-ISTI)

Through its unit Integrated Technologies for Quality of Living [L1], CNR-ISTI is a partner of a soon-to-commence project, UNIversalhoUSING. Its purpose is to establish a set of design guidelines for near-zero-emission buildings strictly integrated with their technological facilities, to ensure full compliance with both the existing norms and to meet the needs of inhabitants of different demographics, such as single people, young couples, families with children, and elderly people. A demonstration building will be designed and built on the CNR premises in Pisa, Italy.

by Evangelia Daskalaki, Katerina Psaroudaki (FORTH) and Paraskevi Fragopoulou (FORTH)

In today’s digital world, digital literacy and the ability to think one step ahead when utilising the net is vital. The Digital Agenda for Europe [1] aims to provide and promote digital literacy for every European citizen, with a particular focus on children, owing to their particular needs and vulnerabilities on the internet.

Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik is accepting proposals for scientific seminars/workshops in all areas of computer science, in particular also in connection with other fields.

CWI mathematician and computer scientist Monique Laurent opened the World Women in Mathematics event (WM)² in Rio de Janeiro on 31 July with the keynote lecture 'Convergence analysis of approximation hierarchies for polynomial optimization'. The daylong satellite event (WM)² united women mathematicians from all over the world and preceded the International Congress of Mathematicians, which took place from 1-9 August 2018.

On 17 November 2018 it was thirty years ago that the Netherlands was the first country in Europe to be connected to the public Internet. System administrator Piet Beertema from CWI (Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica in Amsterdam) then received the confirmation that CWI, as the first organization outside the USA, officially gained access to NSFnet, an academic computer network that later evolved into the global Internet. CWI celebrated this festive anniversary with the publication of a mini-documentary and the unveiling of a timeline with highlights in the building where the Internet in Europe started thirty years ago.