Cognitive Digital Twins and their role for Circular Manufacturing strategies

This paper brings a reflection on the role of the Cognitive Digital Twin as a novel artifact to contribute to the deployment of Circular Manufacturing strategies. The paper aims to provide an initial discussion with the purpose of contributing to the development of a research vision towards the habilitation of Circular Manufacturing strategies through the support of the adaptive cognitive-based responsiveness promised by the Cognitive Digital Twin technology. Specifically, the paper proposes a framework to identify the industrial problems that can be addressed and to envision the role of Cognitive Digital Twins with respect to the deployment of Circular Manufacturing strategies. The automotive manufacturing industry is adopted to set the scene where the role of Cognitive Digital Twins for Circular Manufacturing strategies is discussed, also through the illustration of a few exemplary cases as possible applications.