An artist's visualization of a smart city. metamorworks / iStock
A team of scientists claim they have developed a new AI-assisted digital twin model that can adapt and control the physical machines its paired to in real-time.
In a study published in the journal IEEE Access, the team explains that the new concept could alter the way smart cities operate in the future. It could allow smart autonomous systems to fully visualize entire infrastructures.
This could have wide-ranging implications for logistics, public transport, healthcare, defense, and other sectors.
An autonomous digital twin
Digital twins are one-to-one digital replicas of machines in the physical world. They are twinned with real objects and are constantly updated with a stream of data. This allows scientists and engineers to visualize and assess the state of the machine with this wealth of data.
Now, the scientists behind the new study have developed a method that allows digital twins to act autonomously. In their paper, they introduced the concept of Intelligent Acting Digital Twins (IADT).
“Imagine a drone chasing an enemy aircraft. A traditional digital twin would simulate different scenarios and suggest possible moves,” Dr. Ahcene Bounceur, the lead author of the study, explained in a press statement. “But with IADT, the digital twin can actually autonomously control the drone, learning from human pilots and eventually making its own decisions.”
The team behind the new concept believes it can have a wide-ranging impact on the manufacturing industry, as well as in other spheres.
“Bridging the gap between virtual and physical, and by learning from humans and acting independently, IADT could be useful in many fields — health care, smart cities, self-driving cars, and improving real-time responses even in the event of a disaster,” Dr. Bounceur, from the University of Sharjah’s College of Computing and Informatics in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), continued.
In their paper, the scientists claim they have validated their concept via several tests using the digital twin simulation platform, CupCarbon.
“These implementations demonstrate how the IADT integrates virtual and physical components to create a unified and effective framework, offering a significant advancement in the application of digital twin technology across various domains,” they wrote.
The future of smart cities
The thinking behind the IADT concept is that smart cities will increasingly need to process vast amounts of data. Allowing digital twins to act autonomously could have implications for city infrastructure management, the healthcare industry, emergency response, and defense.
The study’s co-author, Mostefa Kara of King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia, stated, “A true digital twin should not just mirror the real world — it should interact with it, adapt to it, and even control it. That’s what we have achieved with IADT.”
“The future isn’t just automation, it’s intelligence. We are building systems that don’t just follow commands, but understand their environment, make decisions, and act in real-time,” he continued.
In the paper, the authors explain that they envision IADT eventually eliminating the need for direct human intervention. “By combining machine learning, AI, and digital twins, we move toward a future where machines can act and adapt without waiting for human input,” they explain.
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All of this draws up some serious logistical and even ethical questions. Will autonomous smart cities become so complex that even the most intelligent human beings don’t fully understand their inner workings?
This is already the case on a smaller scale with Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT. Scientists have claimed they don’t fully understand how some of these models reason and learn.
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Chris Young Chris Young is a journalist, copywriter, blogger and tech geek at heart who’s reported on the likes of the Mobile World Congress, written for Lifehack, The Culture Trip, Flydoscope and some of the world’s biggest tech companies, including NEC and Thales, about robots, satellites and other world-changing innovations.