A taxonomy of digital twins

Since the last few years, the topic of Digital Twins receives considerable attention in research and with practitioners. A Digital Twin describes the connection between physical and virtual objects. However, a unified definition for Digital Twins is still missing. While existing literature reviews mainly focus on the application of Digital Twins, this review is analyzing the explanations, definitions, and elements of the Digital Twins described in the literature. Based on an examination of 233 papers, this paper proposes a multi-dimensional taxonomy of a Digital Twin and sorts the most common definitions. The taxonomy developed in this contribution allows classifying the various definitions and concepts of Digital Twins that emerged in literature over the years. That may help the reader to gain profound insights into the domain of Digital Twins.