Digital twin applications in urban logistics: an overview

Urban traffic attributed to commercial and industrial transportation largely affects living standards in cities due to external factors like pollution and congestion. To counter this, smart cities deploy technologies such as digital twins (DT)s to achieve sustainability.

Research suggests that DTs can be beneficial in optimizing the physical systems they are linked with. The concept has been extensively studied in many technology-driven industries like manufacturing. However, little work has been done about their application in urban logistics.

In a recent paper, researchers seek to provide a framework by which DTs could be easily adapted to urban logistics applications. To do this, the researchers survey previous research on DT applications in urban logistics as we found that a holistic overview is lacking. Using this knowledge and identifying key factors in urban logistics, they produce a conceptual model for the general design of an urban logistics DT through a knowledge graph.

The researchers illustrate how the conceptual model can be used in solving a relevant problem and showcase the integration of relevant DDO methods. They finish by discussing research opportunities and challenges based on previous research and our practical experience.

Source: Abdo Abouelrous, Laurens Bliek & Yingqian Zhang (2023) Digital twin applications in urban logistics: an overview, Urban, Planning and Transport Research, 11:1, DOI: 10.1080/21650020.2023.2216768

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