(rocket launches)
- On April 13, 1970, NASA's Apollo 13 spacecraft
some 200,000 miles from Earth and with three astronauts
on board, was on its way to a landing on the moon.
Suddenly, a spark from an exposed wire
in the oxygen tank caused a fire,
ripping apart one oxygen tank and damaging another
inside the spacecraft.
Astronaut Jack Swigert alerted Ground Control
with the now-famous words "Houston, we've had a problem."
Over the next few days, ground engineers
got creative and simulated potential fixes
using a physical replica of the spacecraft.
When confident with the solution,
they sent instructions to the crew
who then implemented a workaround.
Four days later, Apollo 13 safely returned to Earth.
It never made it to the moon.
Today, because of high performance computing
and remarkable software, physical replicas
can be fully simulated digitally.
Modeling a physical object virtually
is what we call a digital twin.
New tools and processes associated with digital twins
are becoming game changers in such areas as
product lifecycle management, designing buildings,
aircraft engines, and wind turbines,
modeling smart cities, and improving all aspects
of healthcare, from hospitals to the human body.
Already between 30 to 50% of large industrial companies
are adopting digital twins to improve the results
of their organizations.
The introduction of the internet of things,
low-cost sensors, and ubiquitous network connectivity
is further accelerating the ability
for data to be harvested and then fed
to dynamic digital copies of physical objects.
This is helping to run factories better,
and to operate and maintain all types of complex machinery.
Digital twins are enabling a transformation in manufacturing
we call Industry 4.0, an important dimension
of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Hi, I'm Jonathan Reichental.
- And this is our Introduction to Digital Twins course.
- We'll cover the origin of the digital twin concept
and describe in detail what it is and why it matters.
- We'll explore its roles
across Product Lifecycle Management
that includes design, production, optimization,
and operations and maintenance.
- We'll look at skills and demand, and also
the cybersecurity and data management challenges.
- The business of digital twins is growing rapidly.
It's a fascinating and important area
for a wide range of stakeholders and industries.
- Let's jump in and discover the amazing
cyber-physical world of digital twins.