Research trends in digital twins based on Scopus database: a
scientifical literature review
Abstract
In recent years, with the updating and iterating of new global
technologies, digital twins (DTs) originated in the aerospace industry
has been widely used in smart manufacturing, smart construction, and
smart management as a new type of informatization management tool. It is
therefore important for scholars to understand the current state of
research on DTs to conduct more targeted research in the future. Based
on Scopus, 7384 publications related to DTs were found from 1951 to 2023
in this study. With VOSviewers, the major countries, authors, and
institutions researching DTs globally were analyzed and discussed. In
conclusion, the study found that since 2018, increasing numbers of
scholars around the globe, especially in China and the United States,
have conducted relevant research in relation to DTs. Manufacturing and
construction are the most common application areas for DTs. Over the
past three years, the integration of AI, IoT, cloud, and digital
technologies has developed into a hotpot of research. Additionally,
communication technologies such as 5G and 6G contribute to the
development of DTs. In the future, it can be predicted that DTs will be
utilizing machine learning, blockchain and other technologies as a
result of advancements in becoming smarter and more secure over the
years.