Digital Twin Integration in Automotive Model Based System Engineering

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">The automotive industry faces increasing challenges in managing vehicle lifecycle complexity, including inefficiencies in design, manufacturing, and maintenance. Traditional reactive maintenance approaches often lead to unexpected downtimes, increased costs, and diminished customer experience. Moreover, rapidly evolving technologies demand agile and adaptive development processes. The Digital Twin (DT) concept which involves leveraging advanced technologies to create virtual representations of physical systems offers a promising solution by enabling real-time simulation, prediction, and optimization throughout the vehicle lifecycle. By bridging physical and digital realms, Digital Twins provide a powerful tool for improving system efficiency, adaptability, and quality. This paper highlights the benefits of applying Digital Twin principles at the systems engineering level, offering a solution for more resilient, innovative, and customer-centric vehicle systems. This study explores the integration of Digital Twin technology within a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) framework, focusing on system-level applications. Using the example of a feature within Seating Systems, we demonstrate how Digital Twin can streamline feature development, improve integration across component-level designs, and proactively identify potential issues. The proposed approach aims to reduce development iterations, enhance feature robustness, and improve user experience.</div></div>