Braking as Active Safety: A Digital Twin Review of Automotive Braking Systems

The braking system is among the most critical active-safety technologies in road vehicles, and its continuous development has been driven by increasing requirements for vehicle safety, performance, and reliability. The analysis and optimization of these systems require the monitoring of numerous operating parameters, making the Digital Twin concept a promising solution for creating a virtual representation of the physical system. This paper analyzes and synthesizes the main research directions reported in the literature regarding the application of the Digital Twin concept to automotive braking systems. Current approaches include condition monitoring, fault diagnosis, and predictive maintenance. In addition, the paper reviews existing Digital Twin architectures and presents a conceptual architecture for automotive braking systems. Comparative analyses of representative Digital Twin implementations and Digital Twin maturity frameworks are presented to assess the current maturity of Digital Twin solutions for braking systems. The review also discusses the main advantages of this technology, including maintaining braking-system performance, supporting component-life optimization through condition monitoring and predictive maintenance, and enhancing data-driven decision making, together with current limitations such as modeling complexity, the need for high-quality data, and integration challenges. Finally, the review identifies research gaps and outlines future research directions for the development and application of Digital Twin technology in automotive braking systems, positioning Digital Twin-enabled braking as a key enabler of next-generation active vehicle safety systems.