Digital Twins for Industry 5.0: Unlocking the Human Potential

Abstract

The holy grail of Industry 5.0 resides in the intersection of the three dimensions; sustainable, resilient, and human-centric manufacturing. While the Industry 4.0 paradigm addresses resiliency and sustainability through increased flexibility and efficiency, the human component of manufacturing systems has been largely neglected. Despite rapid developments in artificial intelligence, human intelligence remains superior in terms of creative and critical thinking. Digital twins have emerged as a concept that effectively merges the physical and the digital worlds in cyber-physical production systems. The computational power of digital systems is leveraged to collect and aggregate data that are analyzed and presented to a human decision-maker. Taking a human-centric perspective, the digital twin should be designed to enhance human capabilities, accommodate the needs of people, and mitigate shortcomings of the human mind. This paper addresses these issues by discussing how humans may utilize and better interact with digital twins. A conceptual framework for a human-centric digital twin is proposed with use cases for various interfaces for operators, engineers, and managers.