{"ID":2897473,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.04871","arxiv_id":"2507.04871","title":"Towards a Unifying Reference Model for Digital Twins of Cyber-Physical Systems","abstract":"Digital twins are sophisticated software systems for the representation, monitoring, and control of cyber-physical systems, including automotive, avionics, smart manufacturing, and many more. Existing definitions and reference models of digital twins are overly abstract, impeding their comprehensive understanding and implementation guidance. Consequently, a significant gap emerges between abstract concepts and their industrial implementations. We analyze popular reference models for digital twins and combine these into a significantly detailed unifying reference model for digital twins that reduces the concept-implementation gap to facilitate their engineering in industrial practice. This enhances the understanding of the concepts of digital twins and their relationships and guides developers to implement digital twins effectively.","short_abstract":"Digital twins are sophisticated software systems for the representation, monitoring, and control of cyber-physical systems, including automotive, avionics, smart manufacturing, and many more. Existing definitions and reference models of digital twins are overly abstract, impeding their comprehensive understanding and i...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.04871","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.04871v1","authors":"[\"Jerome Pfeiffer\",\"Jingxi Zhang\",\"Benoit Combemale\",\"Judith Michael\",\"Bernhard Rumpe\",\"Manuel Wimmer\",\"Andreas Wortmann\"]","published":"2025-07-07T10:57:00Z","proceeding":"cs.SE","tasks":"[\"cs.SE\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false}