The National Digital Twin Programme (NDTP) has updated its guidance on what a digital twin is and how industries, companies, and individuals can contribute.
Image credit: SumitAwinash - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Programme is currently developing the standards, processes, and tools that will build the foundation of a functioning market in digital twins and create growth, including security measures that control access to sensitive information.
The NDTP defines a digital twin as a virtual model of an object, a system, or a process which connected to its real-world counterpart by a 2-way flow of right-time data - meaning it mimics it in all aspects.
Digital twins have applications across all sectors, including:
- water
- energy
- transport
- health
The National Digital Twin (NDT) will not be a single digital twin of the UK. Instead, it will provide the mechanisms that will allow people to bring together the information and models that they require to help answer specific problems or use cases.
The NDT will be able to encompass digital twins of the natural environment, the built environment and infrastructure, and the delivery of services.
The NDTP is developing an Integration Architecture (IA) solution combines technology and policy to allow the right information to be made available to the right people, at the right time that will support managing and sharing information across organisations. It also enables the user to understand the quality of the information they receive.
IA - open source technology which can be used with no expenditure for the software
The IA is being developed to be open source – meaning that any organisation wishing to take part in the NDT can deploy the IA with no expenditure for the software itself and can adapt and extend it as necessary without the original developer’s involvement.
The IA will be a distributed system enabling each stakeholder to operate their own IA, called an IA node, which is able to share and consume data from other IA nodes. This will allow information to be assembled from multiple relevant sources. This sharing will be controlled by legal frameworks and protected by security controls which limit access to sensitive information.
The NDTP is being developed under the aegis of the Department For Business and Trade - industries, companies and individuals are being invited to participate in the NDTP in a variety of ways, including:
partnership: work together on projects, regardless of the size of your company - your unique insights can help shape the future of digital twin technology
innovation: propose forward-thinking solutions or ideas that can improve the development or delivery of the demonstrator programme
participation: get involved in events, establish connections with other stakeholders and engage in discussions
advocacy: help raise awareness about the NDTP and its mission – helping to bring in more contributors and partners
For further information email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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