Digital Twin-Based Research in the Maritime Industry: A Brief Survey

In this work, a survey of DT-related research in the maritime industry is presented. A five-dimensional DT model for the maritime industry is presented and explained. Moreover, research object and characteristics of DT in maritime industry are categorized and discussed. The research objects of DT in the maritime industry are classified into ships, marine structures, underwater vehicles and marine engines. The characteristics of the maritime industry DT models are discussed in terms of target system, research contribution and simulation method. In addition, DT in the context of product life-cycle perspective in the maritime industry is analyzed and discussed in terms of design, manufacturing, operation, and maintenance phases. Based on our analysis and discussion of the research, we found that the current DT research in the maritime sector is mainly focused on relatively small modules, or small systems, or even only on individual components. In addition, only a small fraction of the reviewed DT-related papers focuses on the whole life-cycle in the maritime industry. The reason may come from that the models and sub-models are not yet flexible and adaptive enough at different life-cycle stages. Therefore, we believe that the development of DT technology is still in the developmental stage in the maritime industry.