International Journal of Computer Integrated

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A digital twin reference architecture for

pharmaceutical cannabis production

Orestis Spyrou, Cor Verdouw & William Hurst

To cite this article: Orestis Spyrou, Cor Verdouw & William Hurst (12 Sep 2023): A digital
twin reference architecture for pharmaceutical cannabis production, International Journal of
Computer Integrated Manufacturing, DOI: 10.1080/0951192X.2023.2257635

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/0951192X.2023.2257635

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING
https://doi.org/10.1080/0951192X.2023.2257635

A digital twin reference architecture for pharmaceutical cannabis production

Orestis Spyroua, Cor Verdouwa,b and William Hursta
a
Information Technology Group, Wageningen University and Research, Leeuwenborch, Wageningen, NL, The Netherlands; bMprise, Mprise
Agriware, Veenendaal, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The production of pharmaceutical cannabis is a complex and dynamic industry that has to meet Received 25 July 2022
critical challenges concerning product quality, compliance, traceability, food safety, sustainability Accepted 8 August 2023
and health. Digital twins have the potential to be powerful enablers for producers to meet these KEYWORDS
challenges. However, digital twins for the pharmaceutical production of cannabis are still under Digital twin; pharmaceutical
exploration and not yet researched. This paper contributes to overcoming this situation by cannabis; IoT; reference
proposing a reference architecture for the development and implementation of digital twins in architecture; gamification;
this domain. Based on a design-oriented methodology, it defines and applies a coherent set of smart production
architecture views for modelling digital twin-based systems. Furthermore, a proof of concept of an
immersive digital twin has been developed in order to test the applicability of reference architec­
ture. This digital twin is developed in the open, cross-industry platform Unity and includes an
extensive 3D model of a cannabis production facility. It is connected with real-world data through
an application programming interface integration displaying real-time sensor data from a live
greenhouse. The 3D environment is fully explorable, where the user takes control of an avatar
character to walk around the facility and view real-time sensor readings. The expert validation
shows that the developed digital twin is a valuable and innovative first step for remote manage­
ment of pharmaceutical cannabis production. Further developments are needed to leverage its full
potential, especially adding more types of sensor data, developing implementation-specific 3D
models, extending the digital twin with predictive and prescriptive capabilities and connecting it
to actuators.

1. Introduction system over its life cycle in a virtual space (Rosen,

Boschert, and Sohr 2018; Verdouw et al. 2021). Using
The production of pharmaceutical cannabis is
digital twins for production management enables the
a complex and dynamic industry that has to meet
decoupling of physical flows and processes from its
critical challenges concerning product quality, com­
planning and control. Production processes can be
pliance, traceability, food safety, sustainability and
managed remotely based on (near) real-time digital
health (van der Giessen, van Ooyen-Houben, and
information, which allows for fast, flexible and
Moolenaar 2016; Vanhove, Van Damme, and Meert
advanced analysis, decision-making and control deci­
2011). Digital twin technologies have the potential
sion-making (Ciano et al. 2021; Cimino, Negri, and
to be powerful enablers for producers to meet these
Fumagalli 2019; Onaji et al. 2022). As such, digital
challenges.
twins are considered in the literature as
A digital twin is a comprehensive digital represen­
a prerequisite for a cyber-physical production system,
tation of a physical system, to which it is both real-
which is a core element of industry 4.0 (Uhlemann,
time and remotely connected (Tekinerdogan and
Lehmann, and Steinhilper 2017, Ciano et a., 2021).
Verdouw 2020), thus providing stakeholders with fea­
tures such as data analytics and prediction of query Digital twin-driven systems may be implemented
data (Anthony Howard et al. 2020; Howard, Ma, and in different manufacturing domains, including the
Jørgensen 2020; Slot, Huisman, and Lutters 2020). production of pharmaceutical cannabis, which is the
Digital twin-driven technologies are able to mirror focus of the present article. This is a highly indus­
the behaviour, future or current states of the physical trialised type of greenhouse production, which is

CONTACT William Hurst will.hurst@wur.nl Information Technology Group, Wageningen University and Research, Leeuwenborch, Hollandseweg 1,
Wageningen, NL 6706 KN, The Netherlands
© 2023 Wageningen University. Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted
Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
2 W. HURST ET AL.
characterised by large-scale production and heavy
use of technology. Cannabis production differs sig­
nificantly from factory-wise production of other
medical products that can be fully standardized.
Depending on the purpose of usage, the virtualised
objects in greenhouse horticulture may range from
individual plants’ genetics to a greenhouse or the
complete value chain.
Digital twins have the potential to substantially
enhance greenhouse horticulture productivity and
sustainability (Defraeye et al. 2021; Howard, Ma,
and Jørgensen 2020; Tao et al. 2019; Tian et al.
2020). However, at the time of writing this article,
digital twins for the pharmaceutical production of
cannabis are still under exploration. As will be
highlighted in Section 2, recent studies focus on
the implementation of digital twins for a diverse
range of crops (Ariesen-Verschuur, Verdouw, and
Tekinerdogan 2022). However, to the best of our
knowledge, this article is the first to document the
use of a digital twin specifically for pharmaceutical
cannabis production.
Therefore, the contribution to knowledge provided
in this work involves analyses of how digital twins
(DTs) can advance pharmaceutical cannabis produc­
tion. The main output is the design of a reference
architecture for the development and implementa­
tion of DT systems in pharmaceutical cannabis pro­
duction. The novelty of the work is further enhanced
by the usage of immersive technologies (specifically
virtual reality) for more user-centric immersive DTs in
product management. Therefore, this reference archi­
tecture will provide a coherent set of predefined
models that can be used as a common language by
designers of DT and VR-based DT systems. Most exist­
ing DT solutions tend to be developed as siloed/one-
off applications, and the knowledge is not always
transferrable (Barricelli and Fogli 2022; Ma et al.
2019). There are also no specific standards or road­
maps for integration from a human-computer-
interaction perspective. Thus, the reference architec­
ture provided in this article offers a way to design by
means of a user-centric approach. Moreover, this
paper aims to develop a Proof of Concept of a DT in
3D visualization in order to test the applicability of the
reference architecture.
The remainder of this article is as follows: Section 2
provides a background discussion on DTs and related
applications within the agricultural domain. Section 3
outlines the methodology for the approach used in
this research, with the reference architecture pro­
vided in Section 4. The Proof of Concept is presented
in Sections 5. Finally, the main findings are summar­
ized and discussed in section 6.
2. Background
2.1. DT emergence
The principles behind the DT vision originate from the
Product Lifecycle Management domain (Grieves
2014), where it was proposed to use a digital counter­
part of each physical product as a central means to
manage product data along the product life cycle.
NASA introduced the concept DT for this idea and
used it for an ultra-high fidelity simulation of the
space vehicle that would allow the engineers on
earth to mirror the precise and actual conditions of
the real vehicle during the mission (Boschert and
Rosen 2016; Glaessgen and Stargel 2012).
Thus, DTs can be described as virtual, digital
equivalents of physical objects (Tekinerdogan and
Verdouw 2020). They are real-time and remotely con­
nected to real objects and provide rich representa­
tions of these objects and their context. This
representation may range from relatively basic digital
models to advanced 3D visualizations based on
immersive technologies (virtual, augmented and
mixed reality), which are also called embodied DTs.
The essence of a DT is the dynamic, bi-
directional mirroring with its physical sibling.
This discerns DTs from digital models, digital gen­
erators and digital shadows (Kritzinger et al.
2018). A digital model is synchronized through
manual intervention and does not include auto­
mated translation or interpretation between digi­
tal and physical objects. A digital generator goes
one step further by using a digital object to auto­
matically generate or enhance a physical object.
In the case of digital shadows, mechanisms are
provided (e.g. sensors) to provide an automatic
data flow to the digital object. A DT goes beyond
this one-way communication since digital and
physical objects are causally connected and
synchronized.
More specifically, a previous paper defined the
essential characteristics of DTs as summarized in
Table 1 (Verdouw et al. 2021).
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING 3

Table 1. DT characteristics.
Characteristic Definition
Timeliness DTs communicate with its physical twins in real-time. The state of the physical object are (instantly) identified and visually orchestrated
(Durão et al. 2018; Park et al. 2019; Tao et al. 2018; Verdouw et al. 2016).
Fidelity The reliability and the high levels of security must be indubitable providing the end user enormous trust towards decision-making
processes by the system (Durão et al. 2018; Tao et al. 2018; Verdouw et al. 2015).
Integration DTs should integrate data from different convergence input sources and aspects of the physical entity in a concise format (Kritzinger et al.
2018; Park et al. 2019; Schleich et al. 2017; Tao et al. 2018).
Intelligence DTs additionally may include models that illustrate, predict and analyse the behavior of their physical twins, creating them more intelligent
and independent towards decision making (Durão et al. 2018; Glaessgen and Stargel 2012; Kritzinger et al. 2018; Park et al. 2019;
Schleich et al. 2017).
Complexity DTs can represent a wide range of physical objects, resources process and activities in different level of detail scale (El and Fieee 2002;
Glaessgen and Stargel 2012; Grieves 2014; Kahlen, Flumerfelt, and Alves 2016; Verdouw et al. 2016).

2.2. Digital twins in manufacturing
DTs are expected to play a key role in smart, data-
driven manufacturing systems. They allow to simulate
and optimize production systems and provide
a detailed visualization of the manufacturing process
from single components up to the whole assembly
(Kritzinger et al. 2018). Manufacturing DTs plays a key
role in integrating across multiple stages of the life
cycle of a production system (He and Bai 2021;
Schleich et al. 2017). In the design stage, a digital
model allows early and efficient assessment of con­
sequences of design decisions on the manufacturing
process, reducing the need to develop costly physical
prototypes (Grieves and Vickers 2017; Schleich et al.
2017). Such a digital model, also called a digital mock-
up, can be considered as a precursor of a DT, since it is
not yet connected to a physical object. After the
design phase, the digital model of the production
system can be used to generate the physical twin by
serving as the basis to implement and configure the
production system. During operational usage, the
digital model is connected to the physical production
system by using sensors and actuators. The resulting
DT is used to remotely monitor the real-time state and
behaviour and to intervene in case of actual or pre­
dicted deviations. Finally, the disposal phase takes
place, in which the physical production system is
disposed, but the conceptual object may remain for
some period, e.g. for traceability, compliance and
learning.
In each life cycle stage, different capabilities are
required. For this reason, Verdouw et al. (2021) define
a typology of six distinct DTs, as listed in Table 2.
2.3. Pharmaceutical cannabis production
After the decriminalisation of cannabis for medical
use (or even recreational use) in various countries
around the globe (e.g. USA, Canada and The
Netherlands), the manufacture of high-quality canna­
bis products, as well as by-products, in the pharma­
ceutical domain of controllable greenhouse facilities
is considered an additional challenge to the domain
of horticultural production. Cannabis is an annual

Table 2. DT categories and typologies.

DT Typology
Imaginary Digital May be considered as a proof-of-concept (predefined requirements, 3D production models, disposal specs, etc.), with the purposes of
Twin visualizing an object not yet existent. Yet, all the needed information that will later be used as an input in the materialization
process of its physical twin (Kahlen, Flumerfelt, and Alves 2016; Verdouw et al. 2015) is provided, with the ability to simulate the
behaviour between predefined thresholds (Flumerfelt 2017; Kahlen, Flumerfelt, and Alves 2016).
Monitoring Digital Is a digital illustration of the actual form of a real-life physical entity monitoring in real-time the aspects that are needed to be tracked.
Twin It may obtain forecasting characteristics, providing information about in present or past states of the connected real-life object
(growth predictive model tuned with weather forecast model).
Predictive Digital A digital representation of the future behaviour and states of the corresponding physical system of entities using predictive
Twin algorithms, simulation, artificial intelligence, machine learning methods, mathematical models for statistical forecasting etc.
Prescriptive Digital Is considered as a sophisticated digital object that recommends preventive or corrective activities on the physical object based on
Twin optimization models. The output of monitoring and predictive twins is used as an input to consult the end user which actions need
to be taken to reach the predefined requirements for the ultimate outcome. The decisions on the recommendations from the
prescriptive DT are still taken by the end users or experts, remotely or on-site.
Autonomous Digital Can operate independently while controlling fully the behaviour of real-life objects without human intervention. (Porter and
Twin Heppelmann 2015; Verdouw et al. 2016). Autonomous twins also can become self-adaptive systems that are self-configurable
based on explicitly modeled domain expertise (Bolender et al. 2021).
Recollective Digital Stores all the historical data of the physical object of no existence in real-life while forming a digital copy of the object. This twin is of
Twin high importance for environmental impact reduction of disposals as well as for optimization of the next smart digital
representation of object production (Kahlen, Flumerfelt, and Alves 2016; Tao et al. 2019).
4 W. HURST ET AL.
herb of Central Asian origin, used many years as
a herbal medicine in the eastern medicine (Chandra,
Lata, and ElSohly 2017; Famiglietti, Memoli, and
Khaitan 2021). It is characterized by a large production
uncertainty because living, natural products are
involved and production depends on natural condi­
tions such as weather, diseases, seasons and climate.
As a result, cannabis production differs a lot from
other from the factory-wise production of other med­
ical products that can be fully standardized.
For commercial cannabis production in modern-
day greenhouses, a significant emphasis is placed on
creating a uniform product. Some of the specifica­
tions that must be kept tightly controlled are the
temperature, irradiance levels, day lengths, planting
densities, Ph levels, EC (electric conductivity) levels,
Co2 levels, water uptake, etc. (Backer et al. 2019;
Chandra, Lata, and ElSohly 2017; Eaves et al. 2020;
Kovalchuk et al. 2020; Vanhove, Van Damme, and
Meert 2011). Figure 1 presents schematically these
cultivation phases of pharmaceutical cannabis pro­
duction based on (Chandra, Lata, and ElSohly 2017;
Hazekamp, Tejkalová, and Papadimitriou 2016; Potter
2014).
From the perspective of a producer, the life cycle
of a cannabis plant starts with defining the
Figure 1. Main steps of the life cycle of pharmaceutical cannabis plants from the perspective of a producer (adapted from Chandra,
Lata, and ElSohly 2017).
requirements of the cannabis products to be pro­
duced. The producer then selects an existing variety
that fits best or develops a new variety in collabora­
tion with a breeder. The next step is raising mother
plants either from seed or tissue culture plantlets. If
the mother plants are ready for production, cuttings
are harvested and rooted. After the vegetative grow­
ing stages, the next phase is flower formation. At this
stage, the root system has developed fully gathering
nutrients and resources throughout the growing
process. The stem is fully developed and extended
from the room system formatting branches with
leaves. The fan leaves are responsible for biomass
production, and the sugar leaves (buds, trims) can be
converted into extracted or not cannabis end pro­
ducts or by products used in the pharmaceutical
domain. At the top of the cannabis branches, the
cola (which refers to the flowering state of the
female plant) is formatted providing room for flower
growth. In the cola, the trichomes are formatted with
an orb structure at the top of them. The trichomes
are emerging, while formulating the cannabinoid
and terpene profile of the plant, describing the
aroma and euphoric effects. In Figure 2, the plant
anatomy of cannabis is presented, thus detailing the
plant physiology.
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING
Figure 2. Anatomy of a cannabis plant.
As soon as the flowers are in the good stage, they
can be harvested, along with other useful parts of the
plants. Industrial harvesting of cannabis plants is
usually done at once, but multiple harvesting cycles
are also possible. The harvested flowers, leaves and
stems are dried and further processed into pharma­
ceutical cannabis products. Finally, the deteriorated
plants are disposed of. All aforementioned activities
are performed under strict governmental rules
regarding cannabinoid content, optimal manufacture
practices and traceability (Aguilar et al. 2018).
2.4. Related digital twin applications
In the agriculture and horticulture domain, DTs are (at
the time of writing this article) still in their infancy
(Ariesen-Verschuur, Verdouw, and Tekinerdogan
2022). In the pharmaceutical cannabis domain, only
one paper about digital twins in the cannabis domain
was found (Wang et al. 2020). This study introduced
a simulation-based cyber-physical system DT for the
blockchain-enabled industrial hemp supply chain. The
research covered information of end-to-end pro­
cesses, quality control verification, etc. in automated
5
cultivation and supply chain system of cannabidiol
CBD (cannabidiol) dominant crops, which is ideal for
future cannabis-related DT implementations.
However, this supply chain DT is not used for produc­
tion management. To the best of our knowledge, such
a DT is not yet researched. This reveals a significant
gap in knowledge, indicating that the digitalization of
pharmaceutical cannabis production by means of DTs
under the umbrella of Industry 4.0 technologies is
within its infancy.
Yet, in the broader context of agricultural produc­
tion, DTs are considered to be the next generation of
digital innovative technologies (Basso and Antle 2020;
Gangwar, Tyagi, and Soni 2022; Nasirahmadi and
Hensel 2022). For example, by combining DTs models
and IoT technology, farmers can have an optimal yield
production and resource utilization via sustainable
agricultural practices (Alves et al. 2019; Gangwar,
Tyagi, and Soni 2022; Moghadam, Lowe, and
Edwards 2020).
3. Methodology
3.1. Research approach
For the research approach, a design-oriented metho­
dology was adopted, which is an ideal approach to
get a more optimal understanding of relatively new
and complex concepts, such as DTs (Verschuren and
Hartog 2005). A design-oriented methodology
focuses on building purposeful artefacts that address
heretofore unsolved problems and which are evalu­
ated with respect to the utility provided in solving
those problems (Hevner et al. 2004; March and Smith
1995). The design artefact developed in this paper is
a reference architecture for the development and
implementation of DT systems in pharmaceutical can­
nabis production.
Based on Verschuren & Hartog there are six stages
of constructing a research approach: 1) first hunch, 2)
requirements and assumptions, 3) structural specifica­
tion, 4) prototype development and 5) implementa­
tion, 6) evaluation. These stages were also used to
construct the basis for the adopted research metho­
dology for the development of the reference architec­
ture presented in Section 4. In Figure 3, the
intermediate stages of the adopted research
approach are detailed.
6 W. HURST ET AL.

Figure 3. Adopted research methodology.

Figure 4. Guideline for the application of reference architecture.

3.2. Reference architecture design
The reference architecture is based on design
requirements and a set of architectural viewpoints
as presented schematically in Figure 4, which is
adapted from the article by Verdouw et al. (2019).
The starting point of the reference architecture
design is the definition of basic design requirements.
The purpose of identifying all the elements of the
reference architecture is the representation of the con­
nection between the physical objects and the DTs
offering a basis for the design and the implementation
of a DT system for cannabis industry interconnecting all
the production departments. The following basic
design requirements in Table 3 are defined.

Table 3. Design requirements.

Design
Requirement Description
R1 The reference architecture must include the interaction of all the counterparts between the Physical Twin and the DT;
R2 The reference architecture must support the business design and technical implementation of DT-based production management
systems applied in pharmaceutical cannabis production;
R3 The reference architecture must support the processes for the production pharmaceutical cannabis production in controllable facilities
across its life cycle (design, implement, use, retire);
R4 The reference architecture must provide information about the systems used to sense, predict and control the cultivation of
pharmaceutical cannabis;
R5 The reference architecture must represent all the greenhouse management activities plan, control and monitor of production enabled
by the designed DT;
R6 The reference architecture must provide all the corresponding information about of the data integration and data management
processes from all sources and aspects of the Physical Twin in concise format ensuring convergence;
R7 The reference architecture should provide information about systems and algorithms that describe, analyze, predict, prescribe and
control the Physical Twin’s state and behavior.
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING 7

3.2.1. Definition of architectural views
A reference architecture is usually not drawn in one
diagram but rather separated in multiple architec­
ture views where each describes an architectural
model type to address a specific stakeholders’ con­
cern (Clements et al. 2003). These views are based
on viewpoints that define the concepts and conven­
tions for constructing and using a particular view
(way of modelling). Based on our literature review
and the predefined design requirements, some well-
defined and widely adopted viewpoints and gen­
eric, cross-industry reference architectures were
selected as a basis of our design, as presented in
Table 4.
The Context Diagram presents all functions and
entities involved in the development and later usage
of the system. It provides information about the sta­
keholders and their position within the boundaries of
the system. The view uses the IDEF0 modelling view­
point (Dorador and Young 2000), and the stake­
holders are defined based on the stakeholder
management architecture of TOGAF (The Open
Group 2018).
The Information Model presents in a structured
form all the corresponding (e.g. relations, attributes,
services) of all the information for the DT information
system. The view uses the class diagram of UML
(Object Management Group 2017). It is based on the
information model of the Internet of Things
Architecture, which is developed by the European
project IoT-A (Gubbi et al. 2013).
The Functional Decomposition view decomposes
the system into categories according to the function­
ality of the elements into the system while illustrating
their relationship with the different functionalities. It
uses the layered view of the Open Systems
Interconnection (OSI) model and the IoT functional
model of IoT-A (Gubbi et al. 2013).
Finally, the Deployment View defines a detailed
technical architecture in UML notation of system con­
cerns and elements and overall functionalities (Köksal
and Tekinerdogan 2019; Kramp, van Kranenburg, and
Lange 2013; Tekinerdogan and Sözer 2012; Verdouw
et al. 2019). The view uses the deployment diagram of
UML (Object Management Group 2017) and is based
on especially the communications model of IoT-A
(Gubbi et al. 2013).
4. DT reference architecture for pharmaceutical
cannabis production
In this section, the architectural design views are
applied to the domain of pharmaceutical cannabis
production.
4.1. Context diagram
The context diagram represents the elements of the
system and its interfaces with an external environ­
ment. The graphic shows the system boundaries and
the entities involved, this providing information
about the context of the interior and exterior bound­
aries of the system and is often the first viewpoint of
architectural information for a reader (Kossiakoff et al.
2011; Tummers, Kassahun, and Tekinerdogan 2021).
In Figure 5, the context diagram applied in the phar­
maceutical cannabis production is presented, providing
insight into the stakeholders involved in the domain of
controllable pharmaceutical cannabis production.
Research institutes are included due to their con­
tribution in the domain of digital transition and can­
nabis research. Furthermore, the governmental office
of medical cannabis is responsible for informing the
public about pharmaceutical cannabis and control­
ling the pharmaceutical cannabis production accord­
ing to the predefined law requirements.

Table 4. Views point & Definition applied in the case study.

Reference
View Definition Viewpoint Architecture
Context Presents all the entities and their interactions involved in the System (Kossiakoff et al. 2011) IDEF0 TOGAF
Diagram
Information Model Defines the structure (e.g. relations, attributes, services) of all the information for Virtual Entities on UML IoT-A
a conceptual level) (Kramp, van Kranenburg, and Lange 2013)
Functional Analyses the complexity of an IoT system by categorizing it into smaller and more manageable OSI IoT-A
Decomposition functional parts, while understanding and demonstrating their relationship. (Kramp, van
View Kranenburg, and Lange 2013)
Deployment View Defines a detailed technical architecture in UML notation of system concerns and elements (Köksal UML IoT-A
and Tekinerdogan 2019; Kramp, van Kranenburg, and Lange 2013; Tekinerdogan and Sözer 2012;
Verdouw et al. 2019)
8 W. HURST ET AL.
Figure 5. Context diagram.
The context diagram can be modified according
to the predefined requirements for the DT of
a pharmaceutical cannabis company. For instance,
input suppliers (e.g. seeds, nutrients, growing
trays for germination, etc.) and machinery suppli­
ers (e.g. extraction, LED lights, irrigation pumps,
smart pots, etc.) can also be included in the
diagram.
Nonprofit organizations can also be included in the
graph as valuable entities bringing awareness for the
usage of this alternative medicine and stigmatized
therapeutic multipurpose crop (Famiglietti, Memoli,
and Khaitan 2021).
Enterprises that are pioneers in the domain of
pharmaceutical cannabis production can also con­
tribute towards the road of augmentation of the
various production steps. Further, software provi­
ders can also be included as external parties
providing various innovative traceability services
and gadgets for the entities involved in the domain
of smart production.
4.2. Information model
The information model defines and schematically
presents the structure (e.g. relations, attributes, ser­
vices) of the transferred information between DTs
(Kramp, van Kranenburg, and Lange 2013). With this
model, questions, such as like ‘who, what, when and
where’, are answered providing a detailed version of
the information transfer between the entities of the
DT. In Figure 6, which is a modification of the work
by Kramp et al. (2013), the elements of the informa­
tion model (as well as their information flows) are
presented. The DT has attributes with specific
names and values to which information can be
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING
Figure 6. Information model.
associated via means of metadata. The association
between a DT and a digital service is listed in
a sense to correlate with a certain attribute. The
service type can relates either to information or to
actuation.
Every named Attribute has one-to-many values
and a predefined type. The type of attribute is speci­
fied by the type. For example, in Figure 6, the value
represents PAR (Photosynthetic Active Radiation) with
every ValueContainer categorizing one value and
zero-to-many information to the related Value
(Kramp, van Kranenburg, and Lange 2013) via means
of metadata. Quality parameters, the timestamp of
the value, are also stored also in a metadata form.
The ServiceDescription-DT association acts as
a connection hub for ServiceDescription. The impor­
tant aspects (interface, etc.) of a Service are described
from the ServiceDescription (Kramp, van Kranenburg,
and Lange 2013).
In Figure 6, a sensor sends a PAR value measured
from a Physical entity to the DT Attribute associated
9
with the measurement. So, the PAR measurement
would replace the value belonging to the attribute
PAR of the DT (Kramp, van Kranenburg, and Lange
2013).
4.3. Functional decomposition view
The Functional Decomposition viewpoint categorizes
the system into manageable parts illustrating their
functional relationship. Additionally, it describes the
system’s runtime, the responsibilities, default actions,
interfaces and the primary interactions of all the func­
tional components (Kramp, van Kranenburg, and
Lange 2013). The functional decomposition consists
of seven longitudinal functionality groups accompa­
nied by two transversal functionality groups deliver­
ing each moment the pre-defined functionalities of
the longitudinal (Kramp, van Kranenburg, and Lange
2013).
In Figure 7, the functional decomposition diagram
is presented substituting the virtual entity with the DT
10 W. HURST ET AL.
Figure 7. Functional Decomposition view.
entity applied in the smart domain of pharmaceutical
cannabis production under controlled conditions in
modern production facilities. The layers are subse­
quently outlined.
● Device Layer - The device layer includes all the
● Application Layer - The functional layer contains
all the software applications used to control and
monitor each level of production. It includes an
eXtended Realities (XR) user interface to the DT
projection and various applications across the
life cycle of cannabis production from design to
retire. The applications provide end user features
to dynamically manage and control pharmaceu­
tical cannabis production in (near) real-time. For
example, growth parameters can be monitored,
cultivation managers can be alerted in case of an
issue, they can simulate various interventions to
solve the issue, etc.
sensors and actuators used in a sophisticated
cannabis greenhouse compartment. The sensors
obtain data about the conditions of the internal
(temperature, humidity, Ph, etc.) and external
(Weather Data etc.) boundaries of the green­
house compartment. Any alternation in the cli­
mate of the greenhouse compartment is
monitored by the sensors. If any deviation is
tracked from them for the predefined thresholds
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING
of all growing requirements (humidity, soil
moisture, nutrients etc.), the corresponding
actuator is used (dehumidifier, irrigation pump,
nutrient pump, etc.) and adjusted accordingly to
alternate any existing conditions that may cause
problems in sustainable production of high-end
pharmaceutical products.
● Communication Layer - The Communication
layer allows for a real-time bi-directional commu­
nication between the devices of the physical
objects and their Digital Twin. This layer includes
the communication networks responsible for the
interaction and communication of sensors and
actuators used in the individual greenhouse
compartments. It can be tailored according to
the different requirements (wireless, wired, etc.)
of the system under development. It provides
a simple interface for instantiating and for mana­
ging high-level information flow (Kramp, van
Kranenburg, and Lange 2013). The communica­
tion layer
● IOT Service Layer - The service organization
layer is acts as a communication hub between
the other functionality layers. It consists of two
elements the IoT services and IoT Resolution. The
first one is responsible for transferring data from
sensors to actuators while the second one acts as
a connectivity hub between the end user and the
IoT services.
● IOT Process Management - This layer repre­
sents the levels of business process modeling
and execution in controllable cannabis pro­
duction. The service’s organization layer com­
ponents are used by the process execution for
the alignment of the predefined application
requirements with the service functionalities.
● Service Organization Layer - The Service
Organization layer enables the association of
entities withing these services by utilizing the
DT Entity. It allows a constant translation of
high-level requests with the predefined prop­
erties of the layer. Additionally, is responsible
for resolving and orchestrating IoT Services,
while at the same time dealing with the com­
position and choreography of Services. Service
Composition is responsible for combining mul­
tiple such services while transferring requests
11
at a higher level of service abstraction (e.g. the
combination of a relative humidity sensing
service, a temperature service and a Co2 sen­
sing service could be a valuable input for an
air-conditioning service or Co2 injection ser­
vice). Service Choreography is responsible for
the support brokerage of services so that
other services can subscribe or provide public
communication between such services (Kramp,
van Kranenburg, and Lange 2013).
● Digital Twin Management Layer - The DT con­
tains functions that interact with the IoT System
of the DT as well as provides functionalities for
discovering and looking up Services that can
provide information about DTs, or which allow
the interaction with DTs (Bauer et al. 2013, 2013;
Kramp, van Kranenburg, and Lange 2013).
● Security Layer - The Security layer is responsible
for ensuring the privacy of Information systems
(Kramp, van Kranenburg, and Lange 2013).
● Management Layer - The management layer
combines all the functionalities responsible for
the overall management and communication of
the IoT system (Kramp, van Kranenburg, and
Lange 2013).
4.4. Deployment view
This view focuses on the general functionality of all
features of the designed system. It depicts hier­
archically the location behaviour and deployment
of either hardware or software components.
Furthermore, the view defines a detailed technical
architecture in UML notation of system concerns
and elements (Köksal and Tekinerdogan 2019;
Kramp, van Kranenburg, and Lange 2013;
Tekinerdogan and Sözer 2012; Verdouw et al.
2019).
In Figure 8, the deployment view applied for the
pharmaceutical cannabis production is presented.
The main blocks are the local farm PC, cloud plat­
form of the greenhouse data, data authorization,
cloud platform, weather data services, etc. As mod­
ules may consider decision support modules (e.g
actuators, data logging, data mining processes etc.)
the packages contain the modules. Further, the
12 W. HURST ET AL.

Figure 8. Deployment view.

package that contains the sensor modules is actuator modules is named actuators. This view
named sensor, while the one that contains the may provide a plug-in developer with valuable
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING
information for the various modules and packages
for a future version of the developed system.
5. Proof of Concept
In order to test the application of the reference archi­
tecture, in this section a DT proof-of-concept case
study is provided. The DT depicts in 3D visualization
pharmaceutical cannabis production under con­
trolled conditions. The facility1 consists of multiple
modified units that visualize cannabis growth in var­
ious controllable cultivation stages and processes, as
well as, the machinery and equipment used in the
production of high end pharmaceutical products. The
unique features of the environment are the connec­
tivity throughout the designed API with live sensor
data. Additionally, the end user can navigate in all
directions and even fly with character in a form of
a bee2 both throughout the environment and the
pharmaceutical production individual units.
The intention for this design is to showcase future
DT concepts (micro bee drone, plants, machinery,
etc.) by adding realism through flying, realistic
Figure 9. Functional Decomposition view of the Proof of Concept.
13
movement speed, gravity forces, collision detection,
etc., and to test the reference architecture presented
in Section 3. The character can move using the key­
board to the corresponding directions A:Left, S:Back,
D:Right, W:Front. With the movement of the mouse,
a view in every possible direction is possible, provid­
ing the user with multiple views of the DTs. The user
can obtain and visualize the data by right clicking the
corresponding data acquisition button from the
designed User Interference in the top right corner of
the DT view.
5.1. Applied reference architecture
The prototype is designed by applying the reference
architecture as presented before. Figure 9 presents
the applied Functional Decomposition View as an
example.
This Functional Decomposition View shows that
the core of the DT prototype is developed in the
cross-platform game engine Unity. This engine is
commonly used to create three-dimensional (3D)
14 W. HURST ET AL.
and two-dimensional (2D) model games or environ­
ments combined with interactive simulations. The
engine has been adopted by various industries auto­
motive, architecture, engineering, etc., besides the
video gaming. The PoC includes plant, greenhouse,
machinery and extraction facility virtualizations that
are integrated in one 3D DT environment in Unity.
The DT in Unity is connected via a standardized API
with a greenhouse sensing platform. This platform
stores the information obtained from sensors con­
nected with crops or growing compartments with an
update frequency of every 30 s (i.e. twice a minute).
The sensing data can also be accessed via
a dashboard that is available in the greenhouse plat­
form. To connect the DT with the existing API, an
authorization key and the access to the platform had
to be retrieved. Sensor data are parsed from JSON
format into readable output in Unity.
5.2. Testing & virtual view mode
In Figure 10, the view of cannabis plants in flower
formation stage is depicted. The plants are potted
and placed on cultivation racks with LED lights. The
greenhouse structure was chosen to have a dome
form providing a different version for plant orienta­
tion and placement. Different views were obtained
from the virtual environment.
Figure 10. Internal view from bee avatar of the cannabis facility with plants in the flower formation stage.
The static pots that the plants are placed in a future
version of the designed DT can be designed to depict
smart IoT pots. These pots connected with sensors
may provide data for each individual plant to the
end user about soil moisture, soil mass, root health,
weight, irrigation strategies etc.
In Figure 10, the user can navigate close to the
canopy of the DT of the plant and have an overview
of the potential growth and yield or even obtain
information and diagnostics for nutrient defiance in
a future version of the model with predictive models
and algorithms.
The data visualization of the connected sensors
after the user request is displayed on the right-
hand side of Figure 11a (for clarity, the sensor
readings from Figure 11a are also provided in
Appendix Table A1). In Figure 11b a further depic­
tion of the 3D version of a cannabis plant into
flower formation stage is demonstrated. The plant
physiology (flowers, cola, trichomes etc.) can be
viewed by the end user.
The developed DT Proof of Concept was exported in
an executable format and shared with the domain
experts who were involved in the research for an initial
validation (two cannabis producers, two software com­
panies, one consultant). Table 5 shows that the experts
were especially positive about its inspiration for future
innovations. They considered it to be an effective and
innovative first step for remote management of
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING 15

Figure 11A. Plant canopy & data visualization of connected sensors.

Figure 11B. 3D version of cannabis plants in flower formation.

production facilities with a lot of potential value. The
main suggestions for further development are as
follows:
● adding more types of sensor data including plant
physiology data, crop state (leave area index,
stem thickness), camera vision data, product job
and inspection data;
● tailoring the 3D model to the company-specific
production facility and cultivation system;
● extending the system with predictive capabil­
ities, including simulation of the effects of
different production control strategies on
expected yield, quality, production costs, etc.;
● connecting the DT to actuators in order to remo­
tely control, e.g., the climate conditions.
6. Discussion and conclusion
6.1. Discussion
The objective of this research was to design
a reference architecture for the development and
16 W. HURST ET AL.
Table 5. Results of the expert validation.
Evaluation Criteria Question
User-friendly Could you validate the DT in terms of user experience in scale from 1 to 5?
Complete To what extent addresses the DT the production phases for pharmaceutical cannabis?
Practical How recognizable is the DT?
Technical Could you validate the DT’s system response time?
performance
Inspiring To what extent provides the DT inspiration for future innovation?
implementation of DTs in the domain of pharma­
ceutical cannabis. At the time of writing this article,
we found a lack of availability in the literature and
methods describing the use of DT-based systems
in pharmaceutical cannabis production. DTs for the
pharmaceutical production of cannabis are still
under exploration. To the best of our knowledge,
this article is the first to document the use of
a digital twin specifically for this domain.
Pharmaceutical production of cannabis is a highly
instructive sector for the study of digital twins in
manufacturing in particular because it is character­
ized by a large production uncertainty. It deals
with living, natural products and production
depending on natural conditions such as weather,
diseases, seasons and climate. As a result, cannabis
production differs a lot from other from the fac­
tory-wise production of other medical products
that can be fully standardized.
A second objective of this paper was to develop
a Proof of Concept of a DT in 3D visualization in
order to test the applicability of the reference
architecture. This immersive DT is connected with
real-world data through an API integration display­
ing real-time IoT sensor data from a live green­
house. The 3D environment is fully explorable,
where the user takes control of an avatar character
to walk around the facility and view real-time sen­
sor readings. The main scientific contribution of
this Proof of Concept is the integration of immer­
sive technologies and DTs. To the best of our
knowledge, this is also the first work on this spe­
cific application for pharmaceutical cannabis DTs.
The main practical value of the designed archi­
tecture allows us to model DT-based systems in
a timely, punctual and coherent way and ss such
contributes to the development of innovative tools
for the manufacture of traceable high-quality end
products. The reference architecture, the 3D visua­
lization in a gaming engine, as well as the connec­
tivity with live sensor data of the developed model
Average score (1=poor, 5= excellent; n = 5)
3,8
3,6
3,6
4,4
4,8
contribute to bridging the knowledge gap of
implementing DTs for pharmaceutical cannabis
production. The research provides background
information about the concept of DTs developed
for the greenhouse horticulture production, the
architectural reference models applied in smart
farming IoT systems as well as the pharmaceutical
cannabis production cultivation and extraction
processes.
The criteria used to narrow down all the available
information for the development of the reference
architecture applied to the research were strict. An
overview was obtained to design and implement the
reference architecture, as well as the futuristic 3D DT
proof-of-concept for the cannabis production
domain. The significance of this research is that it
provides information regarding the steps followed in
most of the implementation processes applied
towards the creation of a newly introduced innovative
proof of concept for the pharmaceutical cannabis
production domain.
The DT was designed by means of a methodology
that can be modified towards the needs for the
domain of pharmaceutical cannabis. By virtualizing
cannabis in different stages of their growth according
to various sensor data combined with predictive algo­
rithms and agricultural practices for sustainable
indoor production, a more sophisticated version of
the model can be obtained from plug-in developers.
6.2. Future work
Opportunities for further research are related to
further validation and development of the reference
architecture as well as the DT implementation.
The present reference architecture is validated in
a Proof of Concept implementation for an experimen­
tal greenhouse facility. The data provided were
derived from various sensors located in greenhouse
production facilities of different crops and not
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING
pharmaceutical cannabis. The lack of data from sen­
sors placed in cannabis cultivation facilities was the
main limitation of this research. The connection with
sensors placed in facilities can be feasible only if
a cultivation company is highly equipped with accu­
rate calibrated sensors and willing to shift to digita­
lized production. In future research, it should be
validated in real-life production facilities of cannabis
with different cultivation methods and in different
locations in the world. Important research opportu­
nities for further development are related to the sug­
gestions of the experts: i) adding more sensing data,
ii) customizing the 3D model, iii) adding predictive
and prescriptive analytics and iv) connecting the DT
to actuators.
First, in the current Proof of Concept, climate-
related sensor data are included. In the future,
a wealth of other sensor data could be added, includ­
ing crop and production management data. An
further option for continued development would be
the introduction of sensors for individual plants in the
actual greenhouse depicting each time the actual
daily growth of plants into 3D visualization according
to the acquired data. Image data can be obtained by
various new types of infrared cameras that later can
be processed and modeled using the corresponding
digital software.
Second, an important challenge is the develop­
ment of implementation-specific 3D-models. In the
ideal situation, 3D-models should be dynamically
generated from live data.
Third, a crucial next step is making the DT more
intelligent, by adding predictive and prescriptive
analytics. For example, crop growth models in
combination with deep learning could be used to
simulate the effects of different production control
strategies on expected yield, quality, production
costs, etc. The farmer may have 3D projection of
past and future states of each track and traced
cannabis plant. Next, integrated advice systems
could prescribe predictive actions such as adjust­
ing the climate and lighting regimes in order to
optimize the production performance. In that way,
cultivation practices can be adjusted by the farmer
or the same DT in case, it is fully autonomous.
Finally, the connectivity of actuators from the cor­
responding sensors may be considered a future
development for the model. If actuators are con­
nected controlling the greenhouse production
17
accordingly, the developed model shifts to
a more sophisticated version with many capabil­
ities. For instance, an actuator of a greenhouse
window can be depicted in a digital version in
a future version of the DT. The model can be
autonomous, the sensors, when receiving at
a specific time the predefined value for activation
of the corresponding actuator, a command would
be correctly inclined to the window according to
weather data or greenhouse data adjusting in that
way autonomously the window incline. The con­
nection of the model with multiple physical twins
and their consumption in resources may also be
considered a future expansion of the model.
A smart pot that a plant can be transferred may
provide information about the weight, soil moist­
ure, scan the internal root structure, biomass pro­
duction, stem length and quality providing
information for management and resource
utilization.
7 Conclusions
This paper has analyzed how DTs can advance
pharmaceutical cannabis production. More specifi­
cally, it has introduced a reference architecture for
the development and implementation of DTs in
the domain of pharmaceutical cannabis. It uses
a design-oriented methodology to get a better
understanding of relatively new and complex con­
cepts such as Digital Twins. The reference architec­
ture defines a coherent set of architecture views
for modelling DT-based systems and applies these
views to the domain of pharmaceutical cannabis
production. Furthermore, a Proof of Concept of
a 3D immersive DT has been developed in order
to test the applicability of reference architecture.
This DT is developed in the open, cross-industry
platform Unity and includes an extensive 3D model
of a cannabis production facility and a real-time
integration with an IoT platform.
Notes
1. https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/cannabis-
production-facility-3d-1366533
2. https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/
creatures/queen-bee-medieval-fantasy-174500
18 W. HURST ET AL.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
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Appendix

Table A1. Sensor readings visualised in Figure 11a.

Sensor Name Reading
CO2 Sensor Live Reading 547.2
PAR Sensor Live Reading 127.5
Humidity deficit 8.14
Dewpoint 16.63
Temperature (indoors) 24.15
Absolute Humidity 13.79
Vent Position 99.0
PH Sensor 6.1
Air Pressure 1020
Global Radiation 503.54
Rain 0.0
Rain Probability 1.0
Relative Humidity 72.3
Temperature (outdoors) 19.4
Wind Direction 239.7
Wind Speed 5.4