Symbiotic Autonomous Systems with Consciousness Using Digital Twins

The IEEE work-group for Symbiotic Autonomous Systems defined a Digital Twin as a digital representation or virtual model of any characteristics of a real entity (system, process or service), including human beings. Described characteristics are a subset of the overall characteristics of the real entity. The choice of which characteristics are considered depends on the purpose of the digital twin. This paper introduces the concept of Associative Cognitive Digital Twin, as a real time goal-oriented augmented virtual description, which explicitly includes the associated external relationships of the considered entity for the considered purpose. The corresponding graph data model, of the involved world, supports artificial consciousness, and allows an efficient understanding of involved ecosystems and related higher-level cognitive activities. The defined cognitive architecture for Symbiotic Autonomous Systems is mainly based on the consciousness framework developed. As a specific application example, an architecture for critical safety systems is shown.