Abstract
The TWINKLE project (digital TWIN continuum: a Key enabler for pervasive cyber-physicaL Environments) aimed to advance the state of the art in Digital Twin (DT) technology by introducing the concept of Digital Twin Continuum (DTC). The project addressed the growing need for interoperable, distributed, and pervasive digital representations of physical assets that can operate seamlessly across the edge-to-cloud computing spectrum. The main objective was to move beyond traditional siloed DT implementations toward an open, service-oriented framework where DTs function as active entities with their own behaviors, capable of seamless collaboration with applications across distributed environments. The project focused on three main research pillars: DT as a Service, enabling pervasive use of DTs virtualizing physical and logical assets; Ecosystems of DT, supporting dynamic networks of connected DTs mirroring complex physical environments; and Deployment Independence, allowing flexible DT deployment across edge-to-cloud infrastructure.
Results achieved
The project achieved its main objectives through a structured organization that addressed the theoretical, technical, and validation aspects of the Digital Twin Continuum (DTC) vision. The project outcomes demonstrate significant progress in advancing the state of the art in DT technology, with concrete results in terms of scientific publications, software frameworks, and validated use cases. The foundational concepts and abstract models for the DTC were established during the initial phase of the project. This work included the definition of DT lifecycle, cyber-physical matching between application requirements, Digital Twin capabilities and platform availability together with the interaction patterns between DTs and physical assets. The theoretical foundations provided the framework for subsequent development activities and are reflected in publications addressing DT modeling and interoperability principles. The concept of DTC emerged as a unified approach to bridge the physical and digital worlds, moving beyond isolated DT implementations toward an integrated ecosystem where DTs can be deployed, discovered, and orchestrated across distributed computing environments. The software platform that supports the execution and management of DTs as active entities was designed and implemented through software libraries, frameworks and prototypes, resulting in an integrated DT development approach based on web standards, cloud-native principles and interoperability. The middleware architecture supports the dynamic creation and disposal of DTs, their discovery and observation, and provides services for the application layer to interact with DTs in a uniform manner across different domains. The DTC acts as the enabling layer that allows applications to consume DT services without being bound to specific platforms or implementations, realizing the vision of DTs as service-oriented components rather than passive data repositories. The challenge of distributed DT deployment across the edge-cloud continuum was addressed through the development of architectures and algorithms for the effective orchestration of DTs. This work considered computing and communication resources, applications requirements, and mobility constraints. The research on communication protocols and traffic steering mechanisms enables seamless interaction between DTs, physical assets, and applications across multiple network levels. The DTC platform vision was realized through the combination of container-based virtualization, orchestration functions that translate high-level cyber-physical requirements into low-level resource allocations, and protocols supporting DT mobility and migration. The outputs from the middleware and infrastructure activities were integrated and the feasibility of the DTC approach was demonstrated through proof-of-concept implementations. The integration validated the interfaces between different layers, while testing and applications in Industrial, Smart City and healthcare related use cases allowed to identify the practical applicability of the proposed solutions. The validation activities confirmed that the DTC can effectively support cross-domain applications by providing a uniform abstraction layer over heterogeneous physical assets and computing infrastructure. The dissemination activities produced a substantial body of scientific publications and established a visible presence in the research community through workshops, open-source contributions, and the project website at https://twinkle-project.github.io/.Dettagli del progetto
Responsabile scientifico: Alessandro Ricci
Strutture Unibo coinvolte:
Dipartimento di Informatica - Scienza e Ingegneria
Coordinatore:
Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia - UNIMORE(Italy)
Contributo totale Unibo: Euro (EUR) 60.450,00
Durata del progetto in mesi: 29
Data di inizio
28/09/2023
Data di fine:
28/02/2026
