Center to Boost Digital Twin Efficiency in Manufacturing

Digital twins have been around for a long time, but researchers at the University of Michigan (U-M) and Arizona State University (ASU) are launching a new center that they believe will take digital twins to the next level. 

“Most digital twins are built in silos,” explained Dawn Tilbury, the Ronald D. and Regina C. McNeil Department Chair of Robotics at U-M. “One of the main goals of the new Center for Digital Twins in Manufacturing will be to increase the interoperability of digital twins.” 

Advancing digital twin interoperability

The center will work to “help to define the necessary glue or connectivity that enables digital twins to work together—to be composable, reusable, and maintainable,” Tilbury stated.  

Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as part of its Industry-University Cooperative Research Center program, the center will begin research projects once it has at least six industry members. The NSF will contribute $1.5 million over five years to support administrative costs, while industry partners will pay annual dues of $90,000 to fund the research projects. As a result, the center will have two sites, located at U-M and ASU.  

The term “digital twins” means different things to different people, but Tilbury said her team has a very specific definition.  

“It’s a piece of software or cyber component that represents a specific aspect of its physical twin and makes an estimate or prediction about its physical twin that’s useful for some specific purpose,” she said.

For example, a digital twin of a milling machine might represent the progress of a part hewn from a block of metal, checking in every tenth of a second to make sure that its model is in lockstep with the real machine. The twin can make predictions about part quality, when maintenance will be needed, and more. However, lack of standardization makes digital twins difficult to implement in manufacturing. 

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The new center will seek to change that and many other aspects of digital twins. Faculty, students, and industry representatives will work side by side on precompetitive projects with the goal of making digital twins more useful for manufacturing.  

“The key opportunity we see is to be able to take this data that already exists and put it together to make new estimates or predictions that can be useful,” Tilbury said. Researchers will work to increase transferability between digital twins.  

“Let’s say you build a digital twin to predict the maintenance schedule for one robot, based on a lot of data and analysis, and then you want to use a different robot.” So, how much of that existing work can you transfer to a new robot without having to start all over from scratch? Transferability is a research opportunity that will be useful for everybody, not only for one company,” Tilbury said. 

The center’s focus will be on projects that are precompetitive. The projects will also have low technology-readiness levels, be specific to manufacturing, and have an emphasis on interoperability, scalability, and integration with existing “brown-field” solutions.  

The universities are currently recruiting industry partners to join the center, and there appears to be plenty of interest. Thirty people from 23 organizations attended an informational meeting about the center this past July.  

“We’re optimistic that many of them will sign the membership agreement and join, and then we can launch the center, with the new projects starting in January,” Tilbury said. 

Industry collaboration and talent pipeline

At the July meeting, industry participants explored key opportunities for the new center, focusing on how digital twins could reshape the field. They emphasized the need for standardized frameworks and modular components that could operate across different systems, ensuring consistency and flexibility in modeling and communication.

Discussions also delved into practical applications, from using digital twins to reconfigure existing equipment to tracking individual parts throughout manufacturing for proactive maintenance. Beyond technology, the group highlighted the economic potential of digital twins and the importance of preparing the workforce, including training students and reskilling current employees to keep pace with these emerging tools. 

Discover the Benefits of ASME Membership

Organizations that join the center will be making a significant investment in digital twins, but the payoff could be substantial, Tilbury said. Members can expect to see gains in productivity across both existing and new manufacturing systems, while positioning themselves ahead of the competition. The center will also serve as a pipeline for top-tier talent, providing access to professionals who are trained and ready to contribute from day one.

Financially, participants may benefit from increased revenue, lower costs, and stronger profitability. Beyond individual gains, membership offers the chance to collaborate closely with customers, suppliers, and even competitors within a cutting-edge technical environment, creating opportunities for shared innovation and industry-wide advancement.

Claudia Hoffacker is an independent writer from Minneapolis.