Standardising transport digital twins

The digital twin design framework is detailed in the journal Sustainable Cities and Society and is described as the first to adapt an international standard for digital twin design in manufacturing – ISO-23247 – to the transport sector.

Research lead author Dr Maryam Farsi is a TransiT co-investigator and a senior lecturer in engineering optimisation at Cranfield University’s Centre for Digital and Design Engineering. She said: “While digital twin technologies are increasingly being used in transport, it’s very fragmented, and most existing systems focus on specific areas or assets, like electric vehicle charging, traffic management or fleet operations. There’s limited interoperability between different modes of transport and few systems address decarbonisation.

“The framework we propose fills this gap by bringing together vehicles, personnel, transport infrastructure, processes, energy and data systems, climate factors, human decision-making and many other elements into a single, standardised digital environment.”

The researchers say the aim of their work is to help policymakers, industry and researchers by providing a common structure for organising the development of transport digital twins that are tailored to system-level decarbonisation across road, rail, maritime and air modes.

The work involved reviewing more than 100 academic studies and analysing over 10,000 records from literature and expert workshops. The research team then worked with a panel of specialists from three UK universities to refine and validate the design, adding more detail in areas including personnel, operational processes, alternative fuels, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, data exchange and cybersecurity.

The resulting framework combines five core elements: real-world observable assets such as vehicles, charging infrastructure and fuel systems; communication technologies that collect and exchange data; the digital twin itself; user-facing tools for planners and operators and cross-system functions covering interoperability, cybersecurity and governance.

“The framework is designed to incorporate emissions monitoring, energy efficiency analysis and carbon accounting as core capabilities rather than treating them as secondary features,” the authors explained. “This would allow organisations to test different decarbonisation strategies virtually before investing in real-world changes.”

To demonstrate their framework, the researchers present a use case involving the transfer of freight from air to road transport. This includes electric airport ground vehicles, electric heavy goods vehicles and planes using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) – non-petroleum-based fuels that emit significantly fewer greenhouse gas emissions than traditional fossil-based jet fuels.

In the scenario, a digital twin helps coordinate SAF supplies, electric ground support equipment, electric trucks and charging infrastructure, while monitoring emissions and operational performance across the system.

The authors say the framework is intended as a reference architecture rather than a finished product and will require further testing through pilot projects and real-world deployment.

Future research should include testing interoperability; developing user interfaces, security protocols and governance requirements and working with a wide range of stakeholders to further assess the tool and consider broader applications.