Digital Twins for Simulation-Based Decision-Making

This book introduces the concept of digital twins and their purposive usage, including the technology infrastructure and the method support necessary for their construction. The landscape of digital twins is illustrated through a range of use cases spread across different application domains such as strategy and business assessment in enterprises, logistics networks, manufacturing industries, chemical and refinery systems, sustainable food ecosystems, and public healthcare.  All these examples show how digital twins are exploited to simulate complex scenarios depending on various external factors – all of which would not be feasible as real-world simulations because of their high costs, potential fatal damages, and unpredictable side effects.

The book is written for professionals in industry who would like to learn about the application of these powerful methodologies and tools in various areas as well as for researchers in computer science who would like to draw inspirations for further development of this technology from real-world applications.

Vinay Kulkarni is TCS Fellow at Tata Consultancy Services in Pune, India, where he heads the Software Systems and Services research group. His research interests include enterprise digital twins, learning-native software systems, multi-agent systems, model-driven software engineering, and enterprise modelling. His vision is to integrate modelling, artificial intelligence, and control theory to support the dynamic adaptation of complex systems of systems by using digital twins.

Tony Clark is Professor of Software Engineering and Pro-Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Aston University, UK. He has a long experience of working in both academia and industry on a range of software projects and consultancies. His current interests are using adaptation and model-based techniques to create digital twins.

Balbir S. Barn is Professor of Software Engineering and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology at Middlesex University, UK. His current research interests are methodologies and software tools for defining digital twins, languages and modelling for agent-based adaptive systems.