Exploring Devops Practices for Lifecycle Management of Physical and Digital Twins in Cyber-Physical Systems

Exploring Devops Practices for Lifecycle Management of Physical and Digital Twins in Cyber-Physical Systems

연구 분야: Software Development

학회: 2025 IEEE 8th International Conference on Industrial Cyber-Physical Systems (ICPS)

As industries increasingly adopt Digital Twins (DTs) as strategic tools for enhancing the intelligence, interoperability, and overall quality of cyber-physical systems, managing their development and lifecycle has become increasingly complex. Unlike traditional software systems, DTs necessitate the seamless integration of digital and physical components, introducing challenges in design, development, testing, and deployment. These challenges are compounded by the unique nature of Physical Twins (PTs), which are costly, time-intensive to modify, and often unavailable during critical phases of the development process. This paper explores how DevOps practices can be adapted to address these complexities and support the effective development of DT-enabled systems. Central to this adaptation is the use of PT mocks, which mitigate the challenges of PT unavailability by simulating realistic interaction scenarios. PT mocks enable iterative and scalable development by reducing dependencies on PTs and accelerating testing and deployment cycles. Furthermore, the paper introduces a shared software architecture that enhances modularity by allowing PT mocks and DTs to reuse common software components ensuring consistency between physical and digital elements, and fosters alignment throughout the system lifecycle.