Federated Digital Twins as an Enabling Technology for Collaborative Decision-Making

Over the last few years, Digital Twin (DT) has emerged as an innovative concept that integrates multiple technologies to mirror physical assets, systems, and processes. Assisted by data analytics, predictive models, and optimisation techniques, DTs are suitable for enhancing operations in virtual space before transferring information into real-world counterparts. Moreover, initiatives considering DTs as part of a composite complex system might consider federated ecosystems for exchanging insights and relevant information. In this context, the Federated Digital Twin (FDT) concept is a potential solution to address interaction among virtual entities, enabling advanced operations and ensuring collaborative decision-making. This study describes a comprehensive FDT framework inspired by principles and methodologies considered by well-studied federated systems. Furthermore, a reference abstract architecture allowing seamless integration among multiple agent-based DTs is provided as a tool to develop a wide range of DT-based applications.