National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of ISO/IEC 30173:2023.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee IOT/1, Internet of Things and Digital Twin.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

The UK committee advises users of its concerns regarding the following aspects of this standard.

‘DTw’: it is the opinion of the UK committee that within the majority of UK sectors and industries using the term ‘digital twin’, ‘DT’ is the most commonly used abbreviation. It advises users that this standard uses the abbreviation ‘DTw’ to prevent any possible confusion with the use of ‘DT’ as an abbreviation for ‘digital transformation’. The UK committee acknowledges the potential for more common use of ‘DTw’ as an abbreviation for ‘digital twin’ by UK sectors and industries following publication of this standard.
Terms: it is the opinion of the UK committee that several of this standard’s terms in Clause 3 do not align with the principles of BS ISO 704Terminology work — Principles and methods.
‘Real-time’: when the standard uses the term ‘real-time’, users are advised it is the opinion of the UK committee that the frequency of synchronization is dependent on the use case being addressed. Therefore, users are advised to take care to ensure that digital twins are not overburdened by potentially excessive synchronization.
Stakeholders: when applying Clause 6, ’Digital twin stakeholders’, the UK committee advises users to also consider how smaller, more discrete, digital twins could be established, as it notes that other stakeholder relationship models exist and might be more appropriate.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 January 2024.

FOREWORD

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are members of ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical committees established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical activity. ISO and IEC technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the work.
The formal decisions or agreements of IEC and ISO on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all interested IEC and ISO National bodies.
IEC and ISO documents have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC and ISO National bodies in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC and ISO documents is accurate, IEC and ISO cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any misinterpretation by any end user.
In order to promote international uniformity, IEC and ISO National bodies undertake to apply IEC and ISO documents transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence between any IEC and ISO document and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in the latter.
IEC and ISO do not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC and ISO marks of conformity. IEC and ISO are not responsible for any services carried out by independent certification bodies.
All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this document.
No liability shall attach to IEC and ISO or their directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and members of its technical committees and IEC and ISO National bodies for any personal injury, property damage or other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this ISO/IEC document or any other IEC and ISO documents.
Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this document. Use of the referenced publications is indispensable for the correct application of this document.
IEC and ISO draw attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a) patent(s). IEC and ISO take no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, IEC and ISO had not received notice of (a) patent(s), which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at https://patents.iec.ch and www.iso.org/patents. IEC and ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

ISO/IEC 30173 has been prepared by subcommittee 41: Internet of Things and Digital Twin, of ISO/IEC joint technical committee 1: Information technology. It is an International Standard.

The text of this International Standard is based on the following documents:

Full information on the voting for its approval can be found in the report on voting indicated in the above table.

The language used for the development of this International Standard is English.

This document was drafted in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, and developed in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1, available at www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs and www.iso.org/directives.

IMPORTANT — The "colour inside" logo on the cover page of this document indicates that it contains colours which are considered to be useful for the correct understanding of its contents. Users should therefore print this document using a colour printer.

INTRODUCTION

Digital transformation continues to reshape the world at multiple scales, from a city to a building, a factory, an automobile, a process and so on. The concept of a digital twin (DTw) is not new. The concept of twinning in aerospace has been in use for over 50 years. Advances in digitalization, for example those related to the industrial Internet of Things, have enabled the concept to develop and spread outside of capital-intensive industries.

Digital twin has the potential to be widely used in multiple domains such as smart manufacturing, smart cities, smart agriculture, smart energy, smart buildings, smart health care, smart mining and many other fields. However, different fields have developed in isolation, leading to different concepts and terminology. The benefits that can be derived from the use of a digital twin will depend on the use case or cases that it has been conceived to satisfy. The degree to which the benefits are realized is dependent on the implementation of the digital twin and the degree to which it can be trusted to represent the behaviour of the target entity it represents. For example, it can help:

simulate and predict products or production lines, resulting in production cycle reduction and cost reduction for manufacturing companies;
optimize city construction based on simulation models, and realize visualization, convenience and intelligent city management for city planners;
monitor and optimize production operations, and perform predictive diagnosis on machinery and equipment for agricultural producers;
achieve visual monitoring management of energy production and transmission processes, as well as fault analysis and remote operation and maintenance for energy managers;
monitor patients' real-time conditions, provide personalized medical solutions, dynamically optimize medical resources for doctors, and so on.

The essence of digital twin is a pairing of two things:

something that provides a functional purpose in reality, for example, an automobile or a petrochemical platform, designated as a target entity in this document;
a representation of that target entity as a digital entity for the purpose of connection, integration, analysis, simulation, visualization, optimization, collaboration or, when necessary, providing external management for that target entity.

In view of the increased interest in and potential applications of the digital twin technologies, there is a need to establish a common basis and terminology to enable collaboration and cooperation, and to promote a common understanding of the concept.

The purpose of this document is to:

provide a common basis for understanding the concept and composition of a digital twin through definitions of digital twin-related concepts;
provide an overview of the life cycle of a digital twin in relation to the target entity it represents;
provide a basis for the development of standards, specifications and use of digital twins.

This document provides generic digital twin concepts and terminology that can be applied in any domain or across domains.

1 Scope

This document establishes terminology for digital twin (DTw) and describes concepts in the field of digital twin, including the terms and definitions of digital twin, concepts of digital twin (e.g. digital twin system context, life cycle process for digital twin, types of digital twin), functional view of digital twin, and digital twin stakeholders.

This document can be used in the development of other standards and in support of communications among diverse, interested parties or stakeholders.

This document is applicable to all types of organizations (e.g., commercial enterprises, government agencies, and not-for-profit organizations).

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

3.1 General terms

3.2 Data-related terms

3.3 Model-related terms

3.4 Performance-related terms

3.5 Application-related terms

4 Symbols and abbreviated terms

5 Concepts

5.1 General

5.2 Advantages and benefits of digital twin

5.3 Digital twin and related concepts

5.4 Digital twin applications

5.5 Digital twin system context

5.6 Life cycle process for digital twin

5.7 Types of digital twin

6 Digital twin stakeholders

6.1 General

6.2 Digital twin system stakeholders

6.3 Ecosystem partners

7 Functional view of digital twin

Bibliography

BS ISO/IEC 30173:2023

Digital twin. Concepts and terminology

Current

Published:

31 Jan 2024