Underwater digital twin applications: a systematic literature review

Digital twins offer solutions for the challenges of underwater exploration, infrastructure maintenance, and ecosystem monitoring. This systematic review identifies digital twin applications in robotics, infrastructure, natural environments, and aquatic life, with a focus on control optimisation, operator training, structural health monitoring, and ecological assessment. The integration of artificial intelligence adds limited cognitive capabilities to the applications. Despite increasing research interest, challenges remain in underwater communication, sensing, and interoperability. Current trends and future directions are discussed, highlighting how underwater digital twins can enhance automation, decision-making, and system efficiency across diverse underwater domains.