Lluïsa Marsal

 Local Digital Twin (LDT) technology in Europe is currently experiencing huge potential and drive, especially in relation to AI combined with LDT. AI-LDT open big opportunities for SMEs since AI  applications for DTs are quite unexplored and, consequently, industrial players are in an arms race to lock-in the market with proprietary solutions. It is therefore important the creation of standards in the area of LDT-AI applications that ensure market neutrality and thus grant market share and access to SMEs before the big players with more resources and R&D capacity. In that regard, the ETSI EN 304 181 AI-based EU Local Digital Twin Reference Architecture is a step in the right direction.

In addition, besides the combination of LDT with AI, the LDT combined with metaverse-related technologies such as VR, AR and XR also deserves attention, as declared by the EU Commission in the HLF of European Standardisation. Outside Europe there are already several standardisation initiatives exploring the potential of LDTs with metaverse (ITU and IEC, primarily). In Europe, besides the Citiverse initiative (not directly related to standardisation) there is nothing else. The European industry needs standards and references that respond to market needs. This will be the natural continuation of this fellowship in a later application.