The life cycle of a digital twin

The life cycle described here only applies to the context of the Digital Twin Registry. The digital twin has its own life cycle outside of the context of the Digital Twin Registry, for example a digital twin can exist without ever being registered in the Digital Twin Registry, meaning it’s not discoverable by solutions.

A digital twin has the following life cycle phases:

Registration

Whenever a digital twin is created, it should at some point be registered in the Digital Twin Registry in order for solutions to be able to find and use this digital twin. A digital twin can be registered at the Registration endpoint. A digital twin is registered without aspects. When a digital twin is registered, the Digital Twin Registry generates an ID for the digital twin. This ID is then used for all subsequent interactions with this digital twin in the other life cycle phases.

Discovery

During this life cycle phase a digital twin can be found by any solution using the Digital Twin Registry. During this phase the twinType, twinCategory and description of the digital twin may be updated. A client may also add and remove aspects using the Aspect endpoint as well as add and remove Local Identifiers.

Deregistration

A digital twin may be deregistered at any point in time using the Deregistration endpoint. However, when a digital twin is removed from the Digital Twin Registry, it must be deregistered, i.e., its entry in the Digital Twin Registry must be deleted.