사회적 거리두기 확산에 따라 기존처럼 행동하는 것에 제약이 따르면서 과거만큼의, 혹은 과거 이상의 사업 효율을 끌어내기 위한 업무처리 방식의 혁신이 요구되고 있다. 정부는 디지털 전환을 이끌기 위한 10대 과제 중 하나로 디지털 트윈을 꼽았다. 등장 초기 디지털 트윈은 제조업 혁신의 수단으로 주목받았으나 싱가포르 정부가 도시 운영 효율을 높이기 위해 사회 필수 인프라와 도시 정보를 데이터로 수치화하는 버추얼 싱가포르 플랫폼을 공개한 후부터 산업뿐만 아니라 인간 생활 전체 영역에 긍정적인 변화를 불러오는 아이디어로 자리 잡았다.
Digital Twin, Digitally Representing the Real World
Implemented with copy-control-simulation-alliance-autonomous technology
Domestic digital twin technology is only 82% of that of the US As social distancing spreads, restrictions on acting as before are imposed, and innovation in work processes is required to achieve business efficiency as high as or higher than in the past. In July, the government selected ‘digital twin’ as one of the 10 major tasks to lead the ‘digital transformation’ of society as a whole.

▲ With Dassault Systèmes’ ‘3D Experience City’
Digitally implemented city of Rennes, France [Graphics = Dassault Systèmes]
The concept of digital twins has been around since 2002, but it really started to receive attention in October 2016, when it was included in the 'Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2017' announced by Gartner, an American technology consulting firm. At that time, GE's industrial cloud-based open platform 'Perdix' and Siemens' cloud-based open IoT operating system 'MindSphere' emerged as means of innovation in the manufacturing industry.
Then, in 2018, the Singapore government unveiled the 'Virtual Singapore' platform, which digitizes essential social infrastructure and city information into data to improve the efficiency of city operation. This established the idea that digital twins can bring about positive changes not only in industry but also in all areas of human life.
◇ What is a digital twin? Digital twins are defined differently by each organization and company developing the technology, depending on how and in what field they are used. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport defined digital twins as a 3D implementation of a twin of a real space and object in digital space.
GE Digital sees itself as software that detects, predicts, prevents and optimizes physical assets, systems and processes in real time. Gartner defines it as a digital representation of real-world entities and systems, while Deloitte defines it as an evolving digital profile that records past and present activities of physical objects or processes used in business.
Deuk-Young Jeong, a director at the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Planning and Evaluation (IITP), defined a digital twin as “an intelligent technology platform that synchronizes physical objects or digital objects that replicate them in real time or close to real time, analyzes situations for various purposes, and optimizes the physical objects based on the simulation results.”
He added that ▲visualization and operation ▲analysis ▲multidimensional modeling and simulation ▲connection ▲data and security ▲synchronization ▲federation technology constitute a digital twin.
◇ 'Imitation-Control-Simulation-Union-Autonomy' Digital Twin Technology 5-Stage Model Gartner defined the digital twin technology model in three stages. Stage 1 is real-world replication (3D visualization), stage 2 is real-world control (real-time monitoring), and stage 3 is real-world optimization (analysis/prediction/optimization). This model assumes a single real-world digital replication, and therefore has limitations in dealing with complex real-world issues.

▲ Digital Twin Stage-by-Stage Technology Scope [Figure = IITP]
The phenomena of the real world are organic and complex. The responsibility of the government is to add a second stage to the existing three-stage digital twin technology model of reality simulation-control-simulation. Stage 4 is the 'Federated Real World' stage, where optimized individual physical objects are interconnected to form a composite digital twin to optimize the interoperability of physical objects.
Stage 5 is the 'Autonomous Real World' stage, where individual and complex digital twins autonomously recognize and resolve problems to optimize physical objects. Through this, companies and organizations can link digital twins built for their own purposes to identify the causes of previously unidentifiable phenomena and create new values.
◇ Domestic digital twin technology is only at 82% of the US level According to the R&D project status of the National Science and Technology Information Service (NTIS), the number of projects supported related to digital twins (12 in 2017, 36 in 2018, 127 in 2019, and 259 in 2020) has been increasing every year since 2017.
However, the results (22 patents, 44 papers) are inadequate, and in particular, there was only one foreign SCIE-level paper. The head of the department pointed out that “most of the research content for each task is 3D simulation of space and IoT-based linked monitoring model research.”
In August 2019, IITP published the '2018 ICT Technology Level Survey Report' and stated that the domestic technology level in the digital twin field was only 82.3% of that of the United States, falling behind Europe (93%), Japan (87%), and China (83.3%).
According to an October 2020 Gartner survey, 31% of respondents said they are using digital twin technology to ensure the safety of employees and customers.
Digital twins can be used for rapid disaster warning and blocking, crop growth environment prediction, power supply and demand optimization, disease prediction and management, product production simulation, security infrastructure testing, and ultimately, preemptive derivation of solutions to urban issues through the implementation of virtual cities.
This is impossible at the level of virtually replicating reality. Collaboration between multiple digital twins created in different fields is required. Jeong emphasized, “In order to reduce the global technology gap for digital twins and lead digital innovation, a detailed nationally led digital twin development strategy is needed.”