Digital Catapult has led on the development for proposals for a Digital Twin Centre in Northern Ireland supported by four founding industry partners; Artemis Technologies, National Air Traffic Services, Spirit AeroSystems and Thales UK. The centre will be the first of potentially several complementary Design Smarter: Digital Twin Centres across the UK for complex product design and high value manufacturing.
A digital twin is a virtual digital model designed to accurately reflect and study a real physical object (or twin). The purpose of the digital twin is to fast track the time from idea to successful transformational product or process adoption within the marketplace; reducing the costly rework, waste and reliance on multiple expensive prototypes that traditional non-digital twin development processes rely on.
The Digital Twin Centre will provide common, shared physical and digital infrastructure to support the development of digital twins, elements of which include common data architecture, tools, models, software, systems and hardware. The centre will initially focus in sectors including maritime, aerospace and defence but will have the capability and plans to explore other sectors. Digital Catapult plans for the Digital Twin Centre are intended to support the diffusion of Digital Twin research, development and innovation projects regionally and nationally. It will support the longer-term sustainability of industry in Northern Ireland.
Digital twins are also seen as a key contributor to net zero ambitions as they will allow crucial real-time information about how physical assets are performing in the real world and take action to ensure optimal performance including in relation to energy resources.
