Digital Twin Modeling Instructions

Digital engineering frameworks have become popular in the aerospace industry for addressing problems that require extensive cross-disciplinary collaboration. This work will demonstrate a new framework for automating the exchange of design information between disciplines using a unified set of Digital Twin Modeling Instructions (DTMI). DTMI is a standard syntax for describing systems or components in human-readable language. The instructions include a description of the geometry and material of the structure, as well as environments in which the system will operate. These instructions serve as the authoritative source of truth for the design. A compiler is used to interpret the DTMI and generate a database representation of the design. CAD and subdiscipline models can then be automatically created using model rendering engines, which leverage APIs to communicate with discipline-specific software tools. Digital manufacturing instructions are currently used to automate additive manufacturing with robotics. The DTMI workflow extends this concept to automate the generation of a digital twin for design and analysis. The result is a modular digital engineering framework that can assess the effect of design changes across disciplines with minimal user effort, facilitating rapid model updates and version control. This manuscript will discuss the current state of development and demonstrate the use of a additive manufacturing process model rendering engine.