Key-Components for Digital Twin Modeling With Granularity: Use Case Car-as-a-Service

Abstract

Digital technologies are changing the way people interact with the world. The Digital Twin (DT) is one of the key enablers of Industry 4.0. It provides a virtual representation of an observable element of the real world. These elements can be both physical objects such as devices or non-physical such as interactions and processes. Digitalization of the real world enables new business models, transforming traditional products into services, as for instance, the Car-as-a-Service (CaaS). To integrate all components that will be part of systems like CaaS or Smart Cities, it is necessary to have well-defined standards for modeling and defining an architecture especially taking into consideration the granularity level of the system. This paper proposes the main components needed for building DT-based systems with different levels of granularity. These components have been arranged in layers to specify the concerns of each part of the system. A case study has been developed to demonstrate the modeling and the deployment of the Digital Twin, highlighting how this concept can be one of the key enablers for CaaS.