There are, broadly speaking, seven integrated software components of a digital twin, all of which have been around for several decades, some even longer.
Integration of these technologies, powered by the enabling drive of cloud computing, has taken digital twins from the lab to industry reality in under twenty years.
| Label | Paragraph | Icon |
| User Interface | the way a user connects and controls the digital twin, using Search or other tools, via laptop or mobile device | mobile phone |
| Visualisation | information relay typically through a dashboard integrating often complex data around the needs of the user | dashboard |
| Alerts and events | workflow-based prompts or warnings to drive action | exclamation mark |
| Modelling | complex calculations and analytics to simulate, predict and actuate | calculator |
| Knowledge graph | hub and directory to all data and documents via information standards and algorithms | hub directory |
| Data | information from documents, sensors and models | data |
| Cloud | delivery of computing services – servers, storage, networking, software – over the Internet | cloud |
These seven components are the building blocks of all Eigen digital twin projects.
At Eigen we don’t believe a single digital twin can solve the complex challenges our oil and gas clients face. Nor do we believe in a single digital twin technology – it’s a combination, integrated with oil and gas domain knowledge and experience.
We work with clients to solve a specific problem, using these digital twin technologies to bring information and insight to the client to accelerate decision-making and drive team productivity. Then we work incrementally, use-case by use-case to extend the capabilities of the digital twin, integrating them with other technologies and other digital twins to help our client deliver their digital transformation.
Sidebar:
Whilst each element of the digital continues to be super-charged by new technology and access to data, high performance computing, faster and more capable algorithms, the component that has taken the digital twin from science fiction and proof of concept to industry norm for almost every sector is cloud computing.
Also around for decades, cloud computing has become mass market, with governments and businesses of every size migrating to the cloud.
Cloud computing has unlocked low-cost, fast bi-directional communication between physical assets and their digital twins via an ever-increasing number of sensors deployed through Internet of Things. Coupled with advances in knowledge graph software, the scope and capabilities of the digital twin have extended to make science fiction a reality.
