b'The Digital Twin | Engineer InnovationApollo 13 crew arrive on the prime recovery ship U.S.S. Iwo Jima following the ocean landing and rescue in the South Pacific. Leaving the helicopter are (from left) Fred Haise, mission Commander James Lovell and John Swigert. Credit: NASAastronauts on-board, Apollo 13 is amodern digital twins need to be perfect example of this.based around a single grand unifiedConnected: Digital twins requiremodel that predicts every aspect constant feedback of data fromof the physical device is also false. the physical asset that can be usedContemporary digital twins consist of to update their condition, andmultiple interacting models that can then is used to inform engineeringbe combined to account for different decisions: a key requirement of aaspects of performance. digital twin. Modern digital twins Responsive: The events of Apollo 13 typically use the Internet of Thingsplayed out over just 3 and half days, to achieve this aim, NASA achievedduring which incredible amount the same purpose with advancedof adaptation and re-engineering telecommunications which includedoccurred. I doubt whether many two-way data transfer.contemporary digital twins couldAdaptable: Digital twins need to behave be deployed so quickly after flexible enough to react to changescritical damage to their physical asset. in the physical asset. NASA were able to reconfigure their simulatorsFinally, if you are wondering what in a matter of hours to reflect aSiemens had to do with all of this: we configuration that had never beenmade the incandescent lamps that envisaged during their design and useilluminated the instrument panels of those simulations to provide criticalApollo 13 with magical green light. information to the crew.Apparently, the lamps consumed almostThreaded: There wasnt a singleno electricity, which is useful when you digital twin for the Apollo program;are stuck on a broken spacecraft NASA used 15 different simulators200,000 miles from home. nto master the various aspects of the mission. The conception that 17'