Shaping the role of the digital twins for human-robot dyad: Connotations, scenarios, and future perspectives

Abstract

The field of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) represents one of the fast-growing focus areas of Digital Twins (DTs). However, the role of DTs applications in human-robot collaborative systems is still uncertain. This review article provides a comprehensive perspective of DTs' critical design aspects (i.e. Objectives, associate technologies, and application scenarios) in the broad application areas of human-robot systems. This article uses a multi-faceted approach to comprehend 43 DTs' state-of-the-art applications in HRI. The study investigates the literature body across two dimensions (i.e. DT roles and HRI application characteristics). The conclusion of this work draws the attention of the relevant scientific community towards potential DTs' application scenarios and provides insights into DT's future research directions.