Tech Deep Dive: Digital Twin. Are We There Yet?

This is another in a series of articles exploring the digital twin in safety critical industry training programs. The most recent piece focused on the commercial maritime sector.

An expanding number of safety critical training enterprises beyond commercial maritime are using digital twin in their instructional strategies. The digital twin’s technology underpinnings continue to mature and evolve. At the same time, the providers of learning products with this enabler and their customers report attention-getting ROIs on their simulation and training investments.

Here's an appropriate question to ask on this point of digital twin’s journey: are we there yet in terms of this enabler meeting the training enterprises’ full expectations for ROIs and other outcomes?

The Role of Digital Twin Technology

Leaders at two, disparate S&T companies provided insights for this article.

One sector member, Toronto-based VR Vision, is committed to transforming individual and workforce training across safety-critical industries. As Co-Founder and COO Lorne Fade explained when he spoke with the author this 16 July, the company helps workers master complex, high-risk tasks using immersive technologies. VR Vision is active in energy (including oil, gas, and renewables), utilities, manufacturing, warehousing, construction, and crane operations.

Fade noted early in the conversation that digital twin technology is just one component of VR Vision’s broader instructional design framework. Their training solutions integrate a range of immersive technologies, with digital twins playing a key role in replicating real-world environments.

To illustrate, Fade referenced their white paper, What Does VR Training Actually Cost? A Clear-Cut Guide to Your Investment. The document outlines, in part, how digital assets are created in VR: “Digital Asset Creation in Virtual Reality Development can be approached through 360 Video or 3D models (digital twin creation).” These assets are then enhanced by interactions, user interfaces, localization and sound design.

“Our specialty is digital twins,” Fade explained. “We visit client sites, capture video and photos of real-world equipment and processes, and turn those into base 3D ‘gray boxes’ for modeling. From there, we texture and refine the assets until they closely match the real environment.”

He emphasized the importance of realism: “We aim to create a 1:1 replica of the real world so that when learners transition from VR to the actual task, it feels familiar. In many cases, they’re already up to speed before they even touch the real equipment.”

This 18 July, Jan Luc Zandjans, Founder at Steel Sim VR, said, “Digital twin is a broad term that varies widely across industries, from engineering-grade monitoring tools to lifecycle planning systems and AI-driven process models. At Steel Sim VR, our lens is focused on how digital twins can improve human performance through XR-enabled, hands-on learning.”

Steel Sim VR specializes in immersive crane training for the global steel sector. The company’s simulators are currently in use at several high-risk steel production sites where traditional training methods would expose operators to considerable danger or downtime. “You’ll find our systems operating at Tata Steel IJmuiden and Port Talbot, ArcelorMittal Gent, Bremen and Eisenhüttenstadt, EMSTEEL in the United Arab Emirates, and Algoma Steel in Canada,” the executive said and emphasized these are environments where operators handle heavy loads in complex, high-risk production areas. On cue, the corporate leader added, “Our simulators offer a safe, data-rich training alternative that prepares operators for those exact conditions.”

Netherlands-based Steel Sim VR’s “secret sauce” in its training solutions includes digital twin technology to create highly accurate virtual replicas of both cranes and their working environments, including real-world controls, physics, emergency procedures and plant-specific workflows. The corporate leader said these aren’t just visual representations, but full-behavior simulations. “Operators can experience how a crane reacts to load swing, inertia, or control missteps, exactly as they would on the shop floor.”

Steel Sim VR develops the digital twins in close collaboration with each client. “We collect CAD models, control system specs, and safety protocols, and use those to build immersive environments that reflect operational reality as precisely as possible. It’s a rigorous process, but the payoff in operator readiness and risk reduction is substantial.”