Leveraging Middleware to Support Digital Twin System Development

Digital twin (DT) systems encompass virtual counterparts of physical entities that enable advanced monitoring, simulation, and decision-making processes. Despite their transformative potential, DT systems face significant challenges due to the heterogeneity of technologies and data and the complexity of maintaining synchronized interactions between physical and virtual elements. A middleware solution, with its capability ofoffering standardized development interfaces and runtime services, can abstract these complexities and promote interoperability among diverse components of a DT system. This paper addresses these concerns by proposing MidDiTS, a middleware designed to support the development and operation of DT systems. MidDiTS aims to meet essential requirements for DT systems by providing services for storing DT models, managing DT instances, maintaining causal connections between physical and virtual entities, and integrating with third-party applications. This paper focuses on demonstrating how middleware can facilitate the development of DT systems via a proof of concept involving a DT-powered smart house.