Transport systems will depend increasingly on digital twins to function and to advance decarbonisation, researchers have suggested.

Digital twins are virtual replicas of the physical world that are already being widely used across the transport sector for functions including predictive maintenance, fleet management, route planning and product design.

In a report for UK research hub TransiT, researchers predict that transport systems will become “increasingly reliant” on digital twins for their operation.

The report, Twinning for Decarbonisation: Internet of Things Enablement for Transport Digital Twins, also highlights the “significant positive impact” digital twins can have on decarbonisation efforts, helping to reduce emissions and promote sustainability.

But many challenges remain to the widescale adoption of digital twinning technologies, including data security and storage, common standards, cost and developing digital twinning skills and culture in the workforce.

The report was commissioned by TransiT, the UK’s largest research hub dedicated to rapidly decarbonising transport using digital twins, and compiled by CENSIS, Scotland’s Innovation Centre for sensing, imaging and Internet of Things technologies.

Professor David Flynn, the Joint Programme Lead of TransiT, said: “Decarbonising transport is hard, because it requires changing whole systems – vehicles, infrastructure, energy supply, business models and user behaviour – all of which have been built around fossil fuels for decades. The transition is costly and uncertain.

“And progress in one area, for example, vehicles, only works if the other areas – like grid capacity, charging networks and planning rules – move in step.

“Digital twinning can help address these challenges by allowing us to explore the ‘big picture’ and enabling stakeholders to explore alternative pathways towards decarbonisation.

“With digital twins, we can explore ‘what-if’ futures safely, and coordinate investment and policy decisions before spending real money or locking in the wrong solutions. They help identify the most cost-effective pathways, reduce risk, and align infrastructure roll-out with real operational demand, speeding up delivery of low-carbon transport systems.”

The report found that digital twinning can aid organisations in mapping their decarbonisation programmes an their impact, for maximum efficiency.

However, researchers also noted some risk and barriers to implementing digital twins at scale. Data security is key in keeping these systems safe and secure, and also presents a risks.

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Further, organisations should do appropriate cost benefit analysis as digital twins can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds when created at scale.

Still, these projects can create return on investment while ensuring decarbonisation goals are met.

“The potential of digital twins in the transport sector is immense,” Natalia Lukaszewicz, lead author of the CENSIS report said.

“They can play a crucial role in reducing transport’s environmental impact, for example by identifying fuel consumption savings or transport planning improvements. But industry-wide action is needed to unlock this potential.

“This includes agreeing cybersecurity frameworks and common standards, developing strong business cases for digital twins, including financial assessments, and understanding the impact of digital twins on an organisation’s skills and culture.”