Digital twins: behind the duplicate
On October 30 2026
A digital twin is not merely a three-dimensional model, a stream of data or a simulation model —it is a bit of all of these at once. However, these elements must be integrated into an architecture capable of tracking a system throughout its entire lifecycle. After analyzing dozens of use cases, two researchers from Télécom SudParis have written a book on the foundational elements that are still missing for building these virtual doubles.
Digital twins are not simply virtual copies. Their value lies in their ability to connect data collected from a system with models that can describe and explain its behavior and evolution. But how should these components be organized to support a product or service from design through to operation?
Noel Crespi and Roberto Minerva, researchers at Télécom SudParis, began exploring this question while co-editing a first collective volume on the subject with Adam T. Drobot. Published in 2023, The Digital Twin brought together more than 80 specialists from research and a range of application fields. They described the available technologies and their uses in industry, healthcare, energy and cities.
Yet in this comprehensive volume of more than 1,200 pages, only one chapter—around 20 pages—dealt directly with software architecture. Applications and technological building blocks were plentiful, but little had been written about how to organize them within a complete system. Some solutions focused on data management and exchange, others on model specification, while large companies kept their know-how closely guarded.
“We realized there was a real lack of architectural thinking around digital twins. Apart from proprietary solutions, there is still no clear path to follow,” says Noel Crespi. Where should a development team begin? How should the different modules be selected and connected? How can predictive capabilities be added? Teams seeking to develop their own digital twins still have to find their own answers to these questions.
To address this gap, the two researchers wrote in 2026 The Foundation for Digital Twins: An Architectural, Technical, and Software Perspective. They present it as an open set of functions, rules and constraints intended to guide the development and operation of digital twins.
Read the full article on the Institut Mines-Télécom’s I’MTech blog.
