From cognitive to circular: A Digital Twin systematic review

This paper aims to clarify the characteristics of Digital Twins (DTs) in their most advanced conceptual development, Cognitive Digital Twins (CDTs), and analyze their support for the implementation of the Circular Economy (CE). A systematic literature review was conducted using a specially developed five-dimensional analytical framework to characterize DT proposals and their potential for CE based on an established framework for circularity strategies. The study indicates that cognitive and hybrid DT approaches tend to cover high levels of interoperability, data flow, system levels, and cognitive processes. However, CDT use in CE demands harmonizing different strategies to cover the complete product lifecycle, which recent research on DTs has not fully addressed. This study is the first to systematically review cognitive digital twins and their relation to circularity, offering an analytical framework that can be expanded for future research in various application areas of Industry 5.0.