Digital Twin-based Cyber Physical System for Sustainable Project Scheduling

Abstract

In the presence of increasingly dynamic environments, frequent uncertainties, high customer specifications, strict project deadlines, and stricter requirements on sustainability, modern project managers are challenged in their ability to schedule and control projects. Thus, in the context of sustainable project scheduling problem, two important elements are to be considered as decision variables: the input elements of a scheduling (e.g. resources: workforce, machine, money) that enable the realization of a schedule for a project and the output element that are consequences of the realization of the project (e.g. completion time, energy, noise, pollution, waste etc.). In this context, integration of innovative approaches and concepts under the framework of fourth generation industrial revolution is must to build up a sustainable project scheduling model (SPSM). Considering this burning issue, this paper introduces digital twin (DT) technology and cyber physical system (CPS) principles to develop effective and efficient sustainable project scheduling systems and proposes a framework to show how they are interconnected through physical and cyber layers. The proposed framework is also applied to a real-life energy system as a case study for identification of the degradation of a physical layer.