Simulation-based Verification with Experimentable Digital Twins in Virtual Testbeds

As modern systems become more and more complex, their design and realization, as well as the effective management of engineering projects evolve to increasingly challenging tasks. This explains the continuous need for appropriate cross-domain methodologies in order to handle complexity and thereby create reliable systems. One important aspect is the substantiation that a specific system design is suitable for its intended use, which is usually achieved by testing. Unfortunately, those tests are carried out after the system has been produced so that the elimination of possible errors and defects causes high efforts and costs. This paper introduces a systematic approach for a simulation-based verification and validation support by using experimentable digital twins during the entire product life cycle. It allows to test the system under development in various virtual scenarios before it is implemented and tested in reality and thus reduces the risk of lately detected system design errors which increases the reliability of the development process.