Collaborative Digital Twins (CDT)

Task and objective

The Collaborative Digital Twins (CDT) is a joint project group established by the prostep ivip Association and the VDA (German Association of the Automotive Industry). The project group was set up in 2022 with the aim of developing a definition and content for digital twins from the perspective of the prostep ivip Association and to bundle current activities. Several existing project groups are working on topics that are related to digital twins and whose results can be used in the context of developing digital twins. CDT thus hosts and bundles the discussions conducted within the prostep ivip Association that are relevant to digital twins from a methodological, technical and legal perspective. This makes it possible for member companies to tread the path to collaborative digital twins.

Focus and concrete results 2023

Focus of the work performed in 2023 was placed on establishing such a project group, which involves the relevant stakeholders from industry, service providers, suppliers and academia. First of all, the objectives and organizational structure of the project were agreed on and defined. The content-related work then began, including developing user stories for the creation and use of digital twins in industrial applications. In addition, a basic understanding of the collaborative digital twin from the user's perspective was developed in 2023 with particular focus placed on the aspect cross-company collaboration.
As far as the vendors involved in the project are concerned, it is the requirements of industrial users in the context of mapping the digital twin in IT systems and the cross-enterprise exchange of digital twin content that are of particular interest. Demonstrators for the collaborative digital twin will be of particular importance. Participation in the development of the demonstrators means that vendors can make note of requirements and validate their solutions for mapping and using the digital twin.

Organizational and technical challenges 2023

As the project was still in the start phase and great interest in participation was shown by users, vendors, service providers and academia, 2023 was dominated first and foremost by organizational challenges. In addition, the breadth and complexity of the topic in general and of the project in particular is the prime technical and subject-specific challenge.

Planning for the current year 2024

The aim for 2024 is to implement the first use cases for a CDT demonstrator. To do this, the use cases need to be described, agreed on in the project group and defined in greater detail. Concepts for "CDT-ready" IT architectures will be developed and harmonized with the results of other organizations such as Catena-X and Gaia-X and project groups such as CPO and DDP. A comprehensive glossary will be created and a CDT-specific ontology defined that will serve as the basis for these activities. From an organizational point of view, the consortium fees will be collected for the first time and the presentation of CDT to the outside world will be put on a more professional footing.

What the project coordinator says:

"It was great to get the 2023 project group up and running, and we were particularly pleased to see the high level of interest shown by such a wide variety of industries. More than 60 people from 29 companies are now working in the project group." – Dr. Sebastian Schweigert-Recksiek, :em engineering methods AG

What the project managers say:

"The Collaborative Digital Twins project group is of great importance to Mercedes-Benz. It offers a platform on which discussions with many of our partner companies about digital twins can be bundled from a methodological, technical and legal perspective. This involves giving thought to, among other things, suitable data exchange formats, semantic models and ontologies that are needed. We are building bridges to other initiatives, most notably the Catena-X data space, by working continuously on industry-wide standards with anyone who is interested in collaborating. By developing new use cases and iteratively improving existing use cases, we encourage discussion and the change processes needed in brownfield legacy IT as well as in standards and interfaces. This holistic view creates the basis for treading the path to collaborative digital twins."
Dr. Sebastian Handschuh, Mercedes-Benz

"Schaeffler Technologies sees the Collaborative Digital Twin project as an opportunity to use new technologies to redesign cross-enterprise engineering within the framework of true collaboration on a cross-enterprise digital twin with the experts from the CDT project group. Shared, networked data and intelligent access control can greatly increase both the speed of development and the quality of the results across all the disciplines while at the same time significantly reducing the effort involved, the likelihood of errors and the risks. I hope that in 2024 the excellent and open cooperation between all the parties involved will continue in a target-oriented manner and that the first concrete results and standards can be implemented."
Peter Gerber, Schaeffler Technologies