A Digital Twin System for Railway Infrastructure

Abstract

This paper presents a concept and case study implementation for a system of digital twins (DTs) aimed at supporting the management of railway infrastructure maintenance. The system of DTs includes DTs and software services. The case study uses, as physical asset, a subset of the railway infrastructure managed by the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA). The DT system concept is evaluated, using a case study, to assess its ability to meet users’ information requirements and contextual requirements. The paper also evaluates the generality of the case study results. The case study illustrates that the DT system can acquire and integrate data from diverse data sources and be adapted to a changing context (in terms of user requirements, infrastructural elements, and data sources). Even though the case study considers only a subset of infrastructure, the scalability of the DT system is illustrated, indicating its potential for larger implementations, within and beyond PRASA. The paper, therefore, shows that the DT system concept can provide an integrated view of the data on the railway infrastructure, thereby supporting data-led decision-making by infrastructure maintenance managers.