Towards a Unifying Reference Model for Digital Twins of Cyber-Physical Systems

Jerome Pfeiffer; Jingxi Zhang; Benoit Combemale; Judith Michael; Bernhard Rumpe; Manuel Wimmer; Andreas Wortmann

Towards a Unifying Reference Model for Digital Twins of Cyber-Physical Systems

Jerome Pfeiffer^*, Jingxi Zhang^*, Benoit Combemale^*, Judith Michael^*, Bernhard Rumpe^*, Manuel Wimmer^*, Andreas Wortmann^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Institute of Business Informatics - Software Engineering

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference proceedings › peer-review

Abstract

Digital twins are sophisticated software systems for the representation, monitoring, and control of cyber-physical systems, including automotive, avionics, smart manufacturing, and many more. Existing definitions and reference models of digital twins are overly abstract, impeding their comprehensive understanding and implementation guidance. Consequently, a significant gap emerges between abstract concepts and their industrial implementations. We analyze popular reference models for digital twins and combine these into a significantly detailed unifying reference model for digital twins that reduces the concept-implementation gap to facilitate their engineering in industrial practice. This enhances the understanding of the concepts of digital twins and their relationships and guides developers to implement digital twins effectively.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	ETFA 2025 - 30th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation
Number of pages	5
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 26 Aug 2025

Fields of science

102020 Medical informatics
102022 Software development
102006 Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW)
102027 Web engineering
502050 Business informatics
102040 Quantum computing
102016 IT security
503015 Subject didactics of technical sciences
509026 Digitalisation research
102015 Information systems
102034 Cyber-physical systems
502032 Quality management
211928 Systems engineering

JKU Focus areas

Digital Transformation

Access to Document

https://inria.hal.science/hal-05224789v1/

Cite this

@inproceedings{f0e73093abcc497ab7dbec8de500f96d,

title = "Towards a Unifying Reference Model for Digital Twins of Cyber-Physical Systems",

abstract = "Digital twins are sophisticated software systems for the representation, monitoring, and control of cyber-physical systems, including automotive, avionics, smart manufacturing, and many more. Existing definitions and reference models of digital twins are overly abstract, impeding their comprehensive understanding and implementation guidance. Consequently, a significant gap emerges between abstract concepts and their industrial implementations. We analyze popular reference models for digital twins and combine these into a significantly detailed unifying reference model for digital twins that reduces the concept-implementation gap to facilitate their engineering in industrial practice. This enhances the understanding of the concepts of digital twins and their relationships and guides developers to implement digital twins effectively. ",

author = "Jerome Pfeiffer and Jingxi Zhang and Benoit Combemale and Judith Michael and Bernhard Rumpe and Manuel Wimmer and Andreas Wortmann",

year = "2025",

month = aug,

day = "26",

language = "English",

booktitle = "ETFA 2025 - 30th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation",

}

TY - GEN

T1 - Towards a Unifying Reference Model for Digital Twins of Cyber-Physical Systems

AU - Pfeiffer, Jerome

AU - Zhang, Jingxi

AU - Combemale, Benoit

AU - Michael, Judith

AU - Rumpe, Bernhard

AU - Wimmer, Manuel

AU - Wortmann, Andreas

PY - 2025/8/26

Y1 - 2025/8/26

N2 - Digital twins are sophisticated software systems for the representation, monitoring, and control of cyber-physical systems, including automotive, avionics, smart manufacturing, and many more. Existing definitions and reference models of digital twins are overly abstract, impeding their comprehensive understanding and implementation guidance. Consequently, a significant gap emerges between abstract concepts and their industrial implementations. We analyze popular reference models for digital twins and combine these into a significantly detailed unifying reference model for digital twins that reduces the concept-implementation gap to facilitate their engineering in industrial practice. This enhances the understanding of the concepts of digital twins and their relationships and guides developers to implement digital twins effectively.

AB - Digital twins are sophisticated software systems for the representation, monitoring, and control of cyber-physical systems, including automotive, avionics, smart manufacturing, and many more. Existing definitions and reference models of digital twins are overly abstract, impeding their comprehensive understanding and implementation guidance. Consequently, a significant gap emerges between abstract concepts and their industrial implementations. We analyze popular reference models for digital twins and combine these into a significantly detailed unifying reference model for digital twins that reduces the concept-implementation gap to facilitate their engineering in industrial practice. This enhances the understanding of the concepts of digital twins and their relationships and guides developers to implement digital twins effectively.

UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.04871

M3 - Conference proceedings

BT - ETFA 2025 - 30th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation

ER -

Towards a Unifying Reference Model for Digital Twins of Cyber-Physical Systems

Abstract

Fields of science

JKU Focus areas

Access to Document

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Research output

Towards a Unifying Reference Model for Digital Twins of Cyber-Physical Systems

Cite this