Digital Twin Monitoring for Cyber-Physical Access Control

Cyber-physical systems are defined by the integration of physical space entities and cyberspace information processing systems. Physical access control is generally perimeter-based, where assets can be vulnerable to a malicious entity once they have entered the perimeter of the space. Therefore, the relative distances between subjects and objects are needed to enforce cyber-physical access control within the perimeter of the physical space. The interplay between a physical entity and its virtual representation can be modelled using the concept of a digital twin. A digital twin enables the virtual monitoring of a physical entity to ensure better access control decision-making. This research presents a prototype indoor positioning and tracking system that can uniquely identify and track people and equipment in physical 3D space to create and maintain digital twins in real-time. The integration of 2D image processing and 3D depth-sensing technologies results in a system that can monitor a physical space where entities come into proximity to one another. Furthermore, the system can be used to prevent transgressions between physical entities within a relative distance of a few centimetres by tracking entities using human digital twin technology and reporting their relative proximity to an access control system for real-time enforcement.