AECCafe Digital Twin Questionnaire

Digital twin technology has been talked about a great deal over the past few years, and is being worked on in various technology segments. At one time it was the province of manufacturing and now it is part of the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and data analytics. It is also being explored by numerous industries. The IDC recently noted that by the year 2020, 30% of global 2000 companies will be implementing data from digital twins to gain greater productivity.

Sir John Armitt, National Infrastructure Commission, UK

In the Internet of Things, more complex things become connected and have the ability to produce data. So having a digital representation of that data then becomes valuable to IT professionals to create what-if scenarios and have a representation of their systems.

A good description of a digital twin is as follows: “A digital twin is a digital representation of a physical object or system. The technology behind digital twins has expanded to include large items such as buildings, factories and even cities, and some have said people and processes can have digital twins, expanding the concept even further. The idea first arose at NASA: full-scale mockups of early space capsules, used on the ground to mirror and diagnose problems in orbit, eventually gave way to fully digital simulations.” – Network World

In our AECCafe Voice Industry Predictions, digital twins were cited as one of the trends to watch in 2019. The digital twin is generally constructed by specialists who research the physics underlying the physical object or system being copied and use resulting data to develop a mathematical model that simulates the real world original model. So the tools involve simulation, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and other technologies that are currently being explored.The professional requirements for those interested in developing digital twins are steep – you will need to have very specialized expertise in artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, machine learning, and other data analytical skills.

In spite of those requirements, efforts are being made to provide digital twin “lite” versions that will appeal  to building owners looking to create their own digital twins.

In the UK, the National Infrastructure Commission is exploring creating a digital copy of the country’s entire infrastructure. This would involve linking smaller digital twins of the country’s cities and towns and infrastructure networks. It is hoped that the UK digital twin would help in the preparation for and response to extreme weather events. This would be a collaborative effort involving both private and public sectors in all corners of the country.

Amazon Smart Plug – Internet of Things

Below is a questionnaire on digital twins – please feel free to answer the questions that apply to your organization’s use of, development of, or interest in, digital twins. Deadline for submittions is February 22^nd. Please include photos (no headshots or logos please), screenshots, videos appropriate to the subject matter. You can send your responses to me, Susan Smith, susan.smith@ibsystems.com

1. What part of the digital twin process is your organization involved in developing or interested in for the future?
2. What role do sensors play in the gathering of data for the digital twin?
3. How do you see digital twins assisting in the design to construction process?
4. How are digital twins being used in the conceptual part of design for digital cities and countries around the world?
5. Is there a way to enter the data from a real-world counterpart into a digital twin that is standard, or would that vary with the type of technology used?
6. What are the rules, if any, for developing digital twins?
7. How does the digital twin help take the guesswork out of design and construction by being a prototype before any actual construction takes place?
8. Another aspect of digital twin experience is the predictive twin, which could model the future of a device or infrastructure, based upon the behavior of past devices of a similar nature. How do you feel the predictive twin would play into the digital twin experience?
9. Are there situations where digital twins would not be the best approach?
10. Does your organization develop, use or know of any “lite” versions of digital twin technology, and what do you feel about such an approach?

Tags: 3D, 3D cities, AEC, architects, architecture, BIM, building, Cloud, collaboration, construction, design, digital twin, engineering, generative design, laser scanning, visualization

Categories: AEC, architecture, BIM, collaboration, construction, Dassault Systemes, field solutions, file sharing, geospatial, GIS, IoT, project management, reality capture, rendering, simulation, site planning, sustainable design, visualization

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