Standards Development

Scope

This document specifies the architectural framework and foundational principles for autonomous digital twins (ADTs).

It establishes:

• the conceptual model of autonomous digital twins (ADTs);

• architectural roles and functional components supporting governed operation of ADTs;

• autonomy boundaries and their role in governing autonomous operations and state transitions;

• functional separation between decision logic, lifecycle representation, and system integration; and

• the architectural relationship between ADTs and their associated target entities, including synchronization and controlled autonomous operation.

This document defines autonomy governance at the architectural level. It does not specify detailed governance enforcement mechanisms, cryptographic protection mechanisms, identity lifecycle controls, interoperability specifications, or conformity assessmen t requirements. These aspects may be addressed in subsequent parts of this series.

Purpose

Autonomous digital twins (ADTs) are increasingly applied to the monitoring, control and operation of physical, digital and cyber-physical systems across multiple sectors, including manufacturing, energy, transportation, healthcare, defence, scientific research, critical infrastructure and other regulated or mission-critical environments. As ADTs progress toward higher levels of autonomy, they perform autonomous operations and independent state transitions with increasing operational, safety, security and regulatory implications. Ensuring that such autonomous operations remain governed within defined autonomy boundaries is essential to maintaining trust, accountability and predictable system behaviour.

Existing International Standards, including ISO/IEC 30173, ISO/IEC 30188, ISO/IEC 30151, ISO/IEC 30152, IEC 62832 and ISO 23247, provide important foundations for digital twin terminology, architectures, interoperability, industrial integration and data ex change. However, they do not establish a common architectural framework for governed autonomous digital twins that defines autonomy boundaries, governance, functional separation, identity continuity, or the architectural relationship between autonomous digital twins and their associated target entities.

In particular, there is currently no common architectural basis for:

• governance of autonomous operations and state transitions;

• autonomy boundaries governing permitted autonomous behaviour;

• functional separation between decision logic, lifecycle representation and system integration;

• architectural relationships between autonomous digital twins and their associated physical, digital or cyber-physical target entities; and

• identity continuity, traceability and accountability supporting governed autonomous operation.

The absence of a common architectural framework contributes to fragmented terminology, inconsistent architectural approaches and vendor -specific implementations, making it more difficult to achieve consistent and trustworthy deployment of autonomous digita l twins across sectors and jurisdictions.

The proposed work introduces architectural concepts specific to governed autonomous digital twins that extend beyond the objectives of existing digital twin architecture standards. This document establishes Part 1 of a multi-part standard series for governed autonomous digital twins (ADTs). It specifies the architectural framework and foundational principles for governed autonomous digital twins, including the conceptual model, archi tectural roles, functional components, autonomy boundaries, functional separation, and the architectural relationship between ADTs and their associated target entities. It establishes the architectural foundation upon which subsequent parts of this series may address governance enforcement mechanisms, identity lifecycle controls, interoperability specifications and conformity assessment requirements.

The proposed work is globally relevant because autonomous digital twins are increasingly being adopted across industrial sectors and national infrastructures. A common architectural framework will promote a consistent understanding of governed autonomous d igital twins, reduce fragmentation, facilitate cross-sector adoption, and provide a stable foundation for future international standardization.

This work complements ongoing standardization activities within ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 41 by establishing common architectural principles for governed autonomous digital twins. It does not specify artificial intelligence models, learning algorithms or reasoning mechanisms, which remain within the scope of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42, nor does it specify cryptographic algorithms or security protocols, which remain within the scope of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27.