Digital twin

According to Council, N. R. "NASA space technology roadmaps and priorities: restoring NASA’s technological edge and paving the way for a new era in space." The National Academies Press., Washington, DC (2012): 376.

A Digital Twin is an integrated multiphysics, multiscale simulation of a vehicle or system that uses the best available physical models, sensor updates, fleet history, etc., to mirror the life of its corresponding flying twin. The Digital Twin is ultra-realistic and may consider one or more important and interdependent vehicle systems, including propulsion/energy storage, avionics, life support, vehicle structure, thermal management/TPS, etc.

nestli is a co-simulation environment for benchmarking the performance of BACS (building automation and control systems). In its core, nestli is an EnergyPlus model of the Urban Mining and Recycling (UMAR) unit at NEST of Empa. The EnergyPlus model is wrapped into a functional mockup unit (FMU) to enable co-simulation. Measurements at UMAR are conducted at various nodes and registered in one-minute intervals. The real time operation is illustrated below.

We introduce nestli, an open test environment that forms the core of the digital twin with options to run assessments offline or in real-time. nestli allows researchers to benchmark the performance of new controllers against that of a baseline controller. nestli also enables researchers to assess the reliability of their controllers amid uncertainties in climate or building operation.

• Open-source code on Gihub