The Role of Digital Twin Technology as a Smart Application in Railway System Planning and Management

Abstract

The railway industry, a crucial component of Turkey's economic structure, shows a great need for intelligent development as the globe moves into an era dominated by the information economy. In fields like digital modeling, simulation, and predictive analysis, digital twin technology is a valuable tool for increasing productivity. Building a Digital Twin Railway makes it feasible to accomplish thorough lifecycle perception, analysis, and interaction of railway operations, hence offering dependable technical assistance for the wise development of railroads. By offering a virtual reproduction of physical systems, Digital Twin (DT) technology is transforming the railway industry by facilitating real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, and improved decision-making. This systematic literature review examines the status, enabling technologies, applications in Turkey, and frameworks for DT applications in railway systems with 651 selected papers from Web of Science. The most recent research on DT applications in railway systems is thoroughly reviewed in this work. Compared with the existing surveys, this study covers research articles from a holistic DT and railway system standpoint, spanning a broad variety of DT areas like ‘Construction and Building Management’, ‘Smart Cities and infrastructure’, ‘Automotive, transportation and logistics’. Additionally, we perpetuated the research with the design of a strong four-layer architectural framework for Digital Twin Railway (DTR) systems, which was successfully validated using a functional prototype interface.