Leveraging digital twin technology for enhanced cybersecurity in cyber-physical production systems

The convergence of cyber and physical systems through Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) has been integrated into Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS), leading a paradigm shift towards intelligent manufacturing. Despite the transformative benefits CPPS provide, their increased connectivity expose manufactures to cyber attacks through exploitable vulnerabilities. This paper presents a novel approach on CPPS security protection by leveraging digital twin (DT) technology to develop a comprehensive security model for enhanced asset visibility and further support vulnerable component mitigation prioritization through DT-based virtual tuning, providing quantitative assessment results for effective mitigation. Our proposed DT security model also serves as an advanced simulation environment, facilitating the evaluation of CPPS vulnerabilities across diverse attack scenarios without disrupting physical operations. The practicality and effectiveness of our approach are illustrated through its application in a human-robot collaborative assembly system, showing the potential of DT technology in enhancing the security and resilience of CPPS against cyber threats.