Since its inception, the digital twin has proven to be a revolutionary design tool for the aerospace and defense (A&D) industry. The ability to develop and test new products using virtual models (digital twins) before producing them physically has saved companies valuable time and money.
Digital twins are used throughout the program lifecycle and have reduced engineers’ reliance on physical prototypes. Yet, will there be a time when can we stop building prototypes altogether?
There are still multiple obstacles in the A&D industry preventing a comprehensive digital twin from completely replacing physical counterparts. Barriers can be narrowed down to culture, processes, and technology.Imagine hearing on your next commercial flight, “Welcome to Autonomous Airways. This is our inaugural pilotless flight.” Then you hear the pilot’s welcome message from a voice that sounds like your iPhone. Most of us would unbuckle our seatbelts and leave the plane.
The technology to enable pilotless commercial flight already exists. But it hasn’t been certified, and, more importantly, it is not yet culturally acceptable. Ninety percent of your last commercial flight was flown by a computer, but we all feel much better knowing that a real human pilot is there to take over if the computer makes a mistake.
People will need to build confidence in autonomous aircraft in careful, methodological steps. Creating such trust in digital twins as they replace physical prototypes will be no different. Engineers, program leaders, and regulatory agencies will need to learn to accept digital twins as prototypes, starting with less complex systems like circuit boards and landing gear struts, then gradually scaling up toward full aircraft models.
This will require a change in our processes relating to prototypes and digital twins. Presently, engineers build a digital twin to model what they expect from physical hardware. These digital twins have enabled a “fly-it-before-you-build-it” mindset.
Next, engineers build and test a physical prototype of the hardware and use data gathered from those tests to validate the digital twin. This type of process gauges truth in the physical piece, not the digital twin. To replace physical prototypes, engineers, program leaders, and regulatory agencies need to believe that the digital twin is the truth, eventually circumventing the need for validation testing with real hardware.
Engineers already have tools and software to virtually replicate complex systems. However, the integration of these simulated systems must continue to improve. Add this integration to seamless, out-of-the-box simulation, with the right fidelity, operating in real time, then confidence in digital twin performance will significantly increase. Continually validating and optimizing these digital twins with data and insights from physical tests will eventually provide the fidelity and assurance needed to enable modeling and validation of complex systems that have yet to be built in the physical world.
Replacing physical prototypes with digital twins requires visionary industry leaders who believe it can be done and can inspire their companies to believe in it, too. Obstructions in culture, processes, and technology may prevent it now, but they will be overcome in time, and physical prototypes will go the way of slide rules and 8-track tapes.
Connect With Us
