Towards next generation digital twin in robotics: Trends, scopes, challenges, and future

Area of Science:

• Robotics and Automation
• Cyber-Physical Systems
• Industry 4.0 Technologies

Background:

• Industry 4.0 integrates technologies like IoT, AI, and cyber-physical systems.
• Digital twins (DT) offer significant potential for robotics, representing a new frontier.
• Understanding the fusion of DT with robotics is crucial for advancing the field.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a comprehensive literature review on digital twin integration in robotics.
• To identify research gaps, emerging trends, and declining areas in DT-robotics.
• To propose a framework for the future of digital twin-integrated robotics.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature review of DT-robotics research across diverse domains.
• Trend analysis to identify rising and falling research areas.
• Identification of challenges and potential solutions in DT-robotics implementation.

Main Results:

• Analysis of DT-robotics trends in both high and low research-saturated domains.
• Identification of key challenges and viable solutions for DT integration in robotics.
• Mapping of current research landscape to pinpoint future opportunities.

Conclusions:

• A significant research gap exists in fully leveraging digital twins for robotics.
• The proposed framework provides a hypothesis for the future paradigm of DT-incorporated robotics.
• Further research is needed to realize the full potential of digital twin technology in robotics.