Multi-domain ubiquitous digital twin model for information management of complex infrastructure systems

Abstract

Digital twin is a comprehensive digital equivalent of an object or an activity, reflecting the semantic and geometric properties and behaviors through virtual models and data. Digital twin and related information technologies are widely used in the construction, operation and maintenance of infrastructure and facility. Transdisciplinary stakeholders are always involved in the long-term and cross-scene management of IoT and digital twin-enabled smart infrastructures and facilities. The intensive interactions among stakeholders often cause conflicts due to the variations in experience, knowledge, and interests. Moreover, with the change propagation of digital twins, cyber-physical resources can’t be efficiently and consistently established, connected, and utilized with multi-domain information through selective simplification and structured methods. This paper proposes a Ubiquitous Digital Twin model for the information management of complex infrastructure systems based on Domain-Driven Design. To achieve the unified and structured description, six domains are deployed in the proposed model with sequential or parallel tuples for shared understanding of overall system framework or specific functional modules. Three cases of one smart nuclear plant management scenario are hierarchically instantiated to evaluate the proposed model.