Systems of Twinned Systems: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Modern systems exhibit unprecedented complexity due to their increased scale, interconnectedness, and the heterogeneity of their digital and physical components. In response to scaling challenges, the system of systems paradigm proposes flexible aggregations of subsystems into a larger whole, while maintaining the independence of subsystems to various degrees. In response to the cyber-physical convergence, the digital twin paradigm proposes a tight coupling between digital and physical components through computational reflection and precise control. As these two paradigms address distinct parts of the overall challenge, combining the two promises more comprehensive methods to engineer what we call systems of twinned systems. The noticeably growing body of knowledge on systems of twinned systems calls for a review of the state of the art. In this work, we report on our systematic literature survey of systems of twinned systems. We screened over 2,500 potential studies, of which we included 80 and investigated them in detail. To converge system of systems and digital twins, we derive a classification framework for systems of twinned systems that is backward compatible with the currently accepted theories of system of systems and digital twins.