ABSTRACT
The concept of digital twin, first propounded about two decades back, has developed into a highly promising technology for furthering the goal of digitalization. The core principle is that, for any physical entity or an asset, a digital equivalent can be designed and built in the virtual world with two-way communication and synchronization between them for the entire life of the object. This has been possible due to the convergence of multiple technologies such as internet of things fitted with sensors, 4G/5G networks, 3D (three-dimensional) simulation, Big Data analytics, edge and cloud computing, and various tools of artificial intelligence (AI). The initial applications of digital twins are already noticed in manufacturing, automobiles, healthcare, smart cities, and industrial systems. In the manufacturing industries, the immediate gains are foreseen in the crucial activities such as diagnostics, prognostics, and optimization, and also as a platform for learning and training.
A modern cement manufacturing set-up, being an industrial internet of things equipped with smart sensors and control systems based on fuzzy logic, neural networks, or model predictive approaches, is in a state of readiness to introduce the application of digital twins. With this objective in view, this chapter attempts to trace the development trends of digital twin concept and the strategy to be adopted for its introduction to cement manufacturing.
