Digital Twins in Aerospace Engineering

Digital Twin (DT) is defined by the Committee on Foundational Research Gaps and Future Directions for Digital Twins of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine as follows: "A digital twin is a set of virtual information constructs that mimics the structure, context, and behavior of a natural, engineered, or social system (or system-of-systems), is dynamically updated with data from its physical twin, has a predictive capability, and informs decisions that realize value. The bidirectional interaction between the virtual and the physical is central to the digital twin." The use of DTs is becoming more relevant to address complexity in structure and behavior of systems, particularly when these systems embody intelligence and thinking such as required for autonomous behavior.

In aerospace in particular, autonomous systems and operations are enabling capabilities for upcoming air transportation systems with autonomous vehicles, for establishing space stations and other spacecraft, for commercial Moon Surface development, and for Mars exploration. Given the high relevance of DTs in multiple disciplines, it is timely and very important to address this topic with focus on aerospace.

All manuscript types are welcome and new articles will be added to this collection as they are published.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Digital twin, digital engineering, autonomous systems, digital transformation, autonomy testbeds, digital testbeds, aerospace

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.