Defining infrastructure requirements for the creation of Digital Twins

Along with the evolution of the new technologies such as industrial internet of things (IIoT), big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), etc., the amalgamation between the cyber and physical worlds in the industrial field has become necessary to realize and achieve the smart factory and increase its productivity. The emergence of the Digital Twin (DT) concept as a technology that ties the physical and digital worlds has gained significant attention around the world during the last years. However, this concept is relatively new; the literature related to this concept is limited, and its application is still under development and requires further participation from both the industry and academia. This thesis project presented the main requirements and the steps for building a DT. Three research questions have been formulated and answered separately to fulfill the objective of this research study. The answer to the first two research questions was mainly based on surveying the scientific literature to explore this concept's background, main infrastructure, related technologies, its applications in the manufacturing domain, open issues, and some opportunities and challenges that hinder its implementation. Further, the answer to the last research question is represented in proposing a general methodology with some detailed steps for DT's building process and validating this methodology with an existing case study to show it works in practice. Further, several aspects needed for future work have also been addressed