Digital Twins & the Industrial Metaverse

Since it was announced in 2021, the metaverse has been interpreted as a single, all-encompassing digital world. In practice however, the metaverse can be categorised into three discreet subsets.

1.     Consumer

2.     Enterprise

3.     Industrial

I wrote about the Web3 and emerging Web4 worlds extensively in my book, Bad Money. Topics such as the ‘Economy of Things,’ M2M Commerce, Smart Cities and the Metaverse feature prevalently.

Much of this thinking originally stemmed from research I led at Siemens some thirteen-years-ago combined with subsequent projects/ventures I’ve either led or continue to participate in today.

I’m pleased to see that Siemens in partnership with MIT Tech Review have published a paper which has modernised this thinking substantially, particularly with the emergence of the metaverse paradigm.

The industrial metaverse is a metaverse sector that is intended to mirror and simulate real machines, factories, cities, transportation networks, and other highly complex systems. In many ways it is anticipated to transcend and bridge the Web3 and Web4 worlds. It is envisioned to offer its participants a fully immersive, real-time, interactive, persistent, and synchronous representation as well as simulation of the real world.

The industrial metaverse will likely amalgamate the digital and real worlds. It is intended to facilitate a constant and fluid exchange of information, data, design language, and decisions that will empower industries to solve extraordinarily complex real-world problems digitally. Essentially, altering the manner in which organisations operate whilst surfacing substantial societal benefits.

A core concept which functions as an essential metaverse ‘building block’ is the ‘digital twin’ paradigm.

These virtual models simulate real-world objects in detail. The next generation of digital twins will likely be photorealistic, geospatially scaled, physics-based, AI-enabled, and will be interoperable in metaverse ecosystems as well as the API economy.

The industrial metaverse is anticipated to be transformative over nearly every industry. Currently, existing digital twins illustrate the power and potential of the industrial metaverse to revolutionise design and engineering, testing, operations, and knowledge transfer.

Everyday life will likely be radically altered as this paradigm gains traction and matures. The industrial metaverse has the potential to change the dimensions through which we can experience the physical environment and how we work, live, manufacture goods, and collaborate. It will aid us in solving real problems and hopefully make our world more productive and sustainable.

Key capabilities and ecosystems that will enable this vision are still emerging. These include connectivity, computational power, digital twin fidelity, interoperability, and privacy as well as security. Marketplaces, FinTech, and regulatory frameworks for metaverse tools and applications will have to be designed, built, and curated.

Partnerships will be critical. Realising the industrial metaverse vision and bringing it to fruition will require substantial cross-industry collaboration, particularly in areas centred on standardisation, infrastructure, doctrine, and regulation. Organisations may partner with suppliers, competitors, and/or customers to develop and assemble the higher-order systems which underpin metaverse participation. Metaverse participants ranging from established incumbent businesses to start-ups and from governments to individual enthusiasts will bring new ideas, perspectives, and practices into the industrial metaverse.

Do you envision this emerging concept will gain traction?

Kindly comment or share using buttons below.