AECCafe Special Report: Digital Twin Technology Mirrors AEC Reality, Materializes the Intangible

Digital Twins – are they taking the AEC technology world by storm? IDC recently noted that by 2020, 30% of global 2000 companies will be using data from Digital Twins to improve organizational productivity by as much as 25%.

According to the 2018 Gartner Hype Cycle, Digital Twin is a trend that is now approaching the “Peak of Inflated Expectations” and is estimated to hit the “Plateau of Productivity” within 5 to 10 years. Image courtesy of Gartner, Inc.

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 2019, digital twins were cited as one of the trends to watch in 2019.

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.

Hear what our industry experts have to say about Digital Twins:

What part of the digital twin process is your organization involved in developing or interested in for the future?

A combination of a Stock image of Philly with a Local government 3D Basemap solution to create 3D floor plates and volumes, from an Esri user 3DGert (Gert Van Maren). Cityworks

Marcel Broekmaat, Director Product Management, Connect Applications at Trimble Inc. responds:

“Insights gained from mixed reality and digital twin data have countless applications and most construction project assets can benefit from a dynamic, digital counterpart. An adaptable, digital model, which directly represents its real-world counterpart, helps increase analytical capabilities throughout all phases of a construction project.  This data-centric process also provides construction stakeholders with analytics and business intelligence that can be used to build with confidence.

It is also a key component of a constructible process that integrates the complete building lifecycle to manage construction activities and team collaboration and improve overall productivity. By combining design, project management and engineering models into a collaboration platform, data from different sources can be combined and used to make more informed decisions before build and beyond. This helps all stakeholders to have complete visibility with the project so that they can coordinate before they get onsite. In addition, the data that is collected during the planning and execution phase of current projects will enable a learning cycle in which project data is used to better plan and executive for future projects.”

Bentley Systems, Inc. develops technology and services to create, visualize, and analyze infrastructure digital twins.

“IMAGINiT provides the AEC community with software, education, services and support of other BIM capable design technology. Focusing on products from Leica and Autodesk, IMAGINiT helps clients leverage BIM to create digital prototypes for documentation of new construction, remodels, or as-built conditions (digital twins},” says Joe Eichenseer,  Director – Building Lifecycle Solutions, North America for IMAGINiT Technologies.

Vectorworks

“Vectorworks is active in the digital twin space,” says Vectorworks Senior Strategy and Technology Advisor Robert Anderson. “For example, our Research & Development team has developed Reality Capture tools to develop the spatial basis for a Digital Twin. Released last year, our Photos to 3D Model feature is an innovation that allows designers to create 3D models without having to measure or re-create existing 3D geometry or pay for expensive laser scanners to create an existing conditions model. This capability is offered through our Vectorworks Cloud Services web portal and Vectorworks Nomad app.

Additionally, Vectorworks’ customization APIs (particularly our Python-based Marionette graphical scripting tool) allow us to incorporate sensor data that can inform the process of interacting with these spaces.

Lastly, you can simulate the energy performance of a building and visualize it by using data visualization. Our energy analysis tool based on the Passivhaus calculation method, Energos, can act as a digital twin of a real building that can predict performance.”

Cityworks currently takes the historical workflows within municipal (state and local government) organizations based in work management, permitting and asset management and brings those from their legacy paper process to digital applications using HTML5 apps, hosted solutions and mobile technology, according to Becky Tamashasky, vice president of Vision & Product Engineering for Cityworks.

What is the role of sensors in digital twin technology?

“Sensors play a significant role in the data gathering process in the manner that they simplify the process and time necessary,” Tamashasky says. “With the use of automated sensors to collect the data, perform quality assurance and deliver to the connected business systems it’s possible for organizations to reduce the time required for the same process in a non-digital format. This enables organizations to allocate their constrained resources to other initiatives.”

Broekmaat of Trimble says that sensors are embedded in devices to allow for communication and interaction over the internet to provide production, as-built and operational data. This allows assets to be remotely monitored and controlled, and, for the purposes of digital twins, enables real-time updates to corresponding digital models. For example, sensors are often used for job site access control systems to automatically determine if a person is authorized to enter a specific area of a job site based on certain criteria. Other applications include scanners that can be seen as sensors used to capture as-built situations and equipment tracking which allows for analysis of the use of tools and accomplished productivity.

“Digital twins can merge information from a variety of sources for immersive visualization and analytics visibility.” Bentley Systems, Inc.

Bentley Systems’ Adam Klatzkin, senior director, Infrastructure Digital Twins, points out that digital twins can leverage external information coming from sensors and cameras to reflect the current state of the physical asset. “By combining data from continuous surveys, photogrammetry, LiDAR and sensors, and assigning detected changes to a timeline, digital twins can allow you to roll the history of the infrastructure asset—and related real-world conditions—forward or backward in time.”

Eichenseer says that IMAGINiT takes a slightly different on the intended meaning of “sensors”, LiDAR (laser) Scanning uses a laser and a sensor to receive information to collect point cloud data of existing physical structures. These point clouds are then used to develop accurate models of existing conditions which in turn can be analyzed for building performance (heating, cooling, light infiltration, etc.) or linked to other data sources to aid in developing a more detailed analysis model/digital twin. Other sensors that exist within a building can be used to capture a wide range of building usage and performance data, including sensors that monitor equipment, locations of building components, room occupancy, temperature, etc. Taking the raw data from these sensors and combining it with the information and geometry of a BIM model allows for the data to be interpreted and analyzed in context.

Anderson says that fixed sensors provide an effective but expensive and somewhat inflexible approach to data gathering. Alternatively, it’s possible that location-referenced sensing using personal mobile devices such as that incorporated in Kieran-Timberlake’s “Roast” technology could provide a much more flexible approach to data gathering.

How are digital twins assisting in the design to construction process?

According to Bentley’s Klatzkin, digital twins can enable a vast number of new workflows for design coordination, design insights, construction planning, risk management, site management, and so on. They can be used to visualize the real-time status of the project or asset to improve project management and conserve resources by identifying potential problems at every stage of the project lifecycle — from concept through decommissioning. Digital twins can provide a risk-free way of simulating workforce, logistics, and fabrication sequences with the supply chain.

“Analytics collected from the source of digital twins can be used to create predictive models representing energy and materials performance, allowing buildings to become more efficient and effective over their life,” says Eichenseer. “Additionally, these digital twins can be dissected into their component parts, thereby allowing construction professionals to thoroughly plan and sequence the construction process. This sequencing can be used to increase job site safety by reducing chaos on the job site, which also leads to more predictable outcomes and reduced risk.”

The problem with Digital Twins for building construction — as they are currently conceived — is that they occur too late in the life-cycle of the project to be fundamentally useful for design, according to Anderson.

Broekmaat says: “Digital twins help materialize the intangible, like realizing return on investment for the Internet of Things (IoT) and are an important facet of connected job sites. The acute information they provide help all project phases work more efficiently. They streamline detail delivery and democratize project information through improved collaboration, centralized information delivery, physical asset optimization, and more.”

How are digital twins being used in the conceptual part of design for digital cities and countries around the world?

“Using a digital twin of a construction site designers can visualize and predict the impact of their proposed structure on the surrounding environment or that environments impact on the project, including measuring the impact on solar rights of nearby buildings, the impact of any existing green roofs, and the impact on pedestrian and vehicular traffic flow,” says Eichenseer. “Building and analyzing a digital twin provides planners, designers, and engineers with better information that can be used to improve the quality of life of their communities.”

Tamashasky of Cityworks notes that cities and countries are able to remove the manual submittal of design plans and applications, the review workflows, fee capture and notifications through hosted portals. This deployment of a digital twin allows business to occur and continue throughout the day at the convenience of contractors and residents.

“Digital twin methodology is one way to help elevate BIM beyond mere CAD display.” Broekmaat says. “IoT empowers BIM to track, store, and display complex data, and effectively turns models into “living” documents that update automatically.  Construction projects can reap the benefits of an intuitive, interconnected network of physical assets —for example: actual use (space utilization) and performance (energy usage) of assets and more stem from digital twin integration.”

Design Coordination Transit Station. “Digital twins can enhance design coordination by visualizing changes associated with different versions linked to a timeline.” Bentley Systems, Inc.

According to Klatzkin, cities want to improve urban planning with greater levels of detail and optimize the performance of existing assets. “The combination of reality modeling with geospatial-to-BIM integration makes city-scale digital twins possible. With a city-scale digital twin, you can see a visual representation of how your city is performing for operational review. Many aspects of the design process can be enhanced, such as optimizing designs for passenger flows, visualizing emergency evacuations, and demonstrating resilience against flooding, sea level changes, and/or extreme weather conditions.”

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?

Bentley Systems has developed a technology called iModelHub to make it easy to incorporate information generated across the lifecycle of an infrastructure asset. iModelHub aligns disparate data and synchronizes changes with an extensive change ledger. Bentley has created and shared an open-source library of tools (iModel.js) that can be used to integrate infrastructure digital twins—based on iModelHub—into digital workflows.

“Rapid changes in technology and the wide variety of available systems leads to the requirement of unique methods of integrating information,” says Eichenseer of IMAGINiT. “However, this same rapid change in technology is leading to a more common standardization of the means and methods used to generate these integrations as industry best practices rise to the top. While custom integrations are often required today, the industry is moving to a point where standard integrations will be much more common.”

“It would vary; however, the data is ultimately related by place and location,” Anderson says. “For instance, point clouds, GPS and various GIS standards can help. As can integrating BIM models so they are registered to the real world. When these data sources are standardized, algorithms and machine learning can be unleashed to solve the many challenges that lie ahead.”

“Yes, sensors in the field collect data on the status of physical assets and update the digital simulation automatically,” says Broekmaat. “This allows digital twins to update on the fly as real-world conditions change. The goals defined for the digital twin should determine how data needs to be contributed to it, not the technology used. This will require definition of data schemas for the digital twin, that can then be used to check if contributed content matches the expected input.

“That really varies on the type of technology in place – as well as the business rules for the organization,” Tamashasky of Trimble says. “There are numerous options ranging from sensors to web services, but the comfort and ability to support the types of technology will vary within organizations as well as within individual business processes.”

What are the rules, if any, for developing digital twins?

 Currently, there are none, according to Anderson. Rules will likely follow after the requirement that data needs to be capable of being easily consumed by algorithms leveraging open standards.

“Digital twins should be built upon a technology framework that is both open and flexible, so that they can be easily used and integrated with other systems,” Klatzkin says. “The technology should reduce input impedance with a developer’s codebase and help preserve flexibility over time. An open-source approach will likely be the best form factor to address the vast possibilities of digital twins and to foster innovation and novel uses of the technology.”

“Digital twins have to include both physical and non-physical data associated with the building, and because the volume of potential data for any given structure can be immense, the rules for developing a digital twin will vary based off the needs and goals of the digital twin are,” Eisenseer notes. “Once the intended purpose of the digital twin has been established, the rules (or standards) for generating that twin can be set in place to assure consistency and quality.”

“At a minimum, I would say the rule would be to understand the workflow or the business case and needed outcome and not necessarily to design the digital twin to be identical to the non-digital process, but rather identify how digital technology can be used to improve the existing process,” says Tamashasky. “It’s also important to not worsen a process for the sake of developing a digital alternative.”

“Rules should be derived from the set of use cases that need to be supported by the digital twin,” Broekmaat says. “Given the set of use cases, BIM content, IoT data and other inputs can then be checked against the set of data schemas that represent the information that is needed for successful use of the digital twin.”

How does the digital twin help take the guesswork out of design and construction by being a prototype before any actual construction takes place?

Digital twins can help align and track changes during design and construction—which will reduce wasted effort and the need for redesign and rework, according to Bentley’s Klatzkin. 4D construction modeling (3D + time) can visualize the schedule in relation to the asset’s attributes to enhance decision making during planning and construction and maximize the use of resources.

Anderson of Vectorworks says that digital twins can be dissected into their component parts, thereby allowing construction professionals to thoroughly plan and sequence the construction process. This sequencing can be used to increase job site safety by reducing chaos on the job site, which also leads to more predictable outcomes and reduced risk.

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?

This is the heart of digital twin technology, says Anderson. “These predictive twins can be very useful for the building owner to better understand the long-term financial requirements of owning and maintaining their building, and provide a much more positive design, construction, and maintenance experience. However, while this predictive digital twin can be useful for providing estimations of future building performance, it must be understood that it is an estimate and projection of likely future performance. Actual construction material quality, quality of workmanship and a wide variety of external factors can have a significant impact on the actual performance of a building that might not be calculated in the digital twin.

Current life-cycle analysis provides an adequate predictor of the building’s structural and energy performance. Additional usage data provided by a digital twin can help refine the predictive algorithms.

The challenge arises when one takes the definition of “building performance” beyond the merely physical into the realm of organizational or social performance: How well does the building actually do its job in terms of supporting the activity for which is was designed? This challenge ultimately will be resolved by experimental science, aided by the application of Big Data: Create an algorithm based on a combination of physical and behavioral science, make a prediction as to building performance, then monitor the resulting building to evaluate the predictions.”

Broekmaat talks about how data collected on previous, similar projects will provide information about cost to build, productivity accomplished and performance of used materials and methods. This is valuable input for prediction of cost and performance of future projects.

In addition, Klatzkin says that with the increasing maturation of digital twins, the industry will be able to leverage real-time feedback and predictive insights—such as cost, safety, and performance—which will influence the design, execution, and operation of future projects.

“This is an area where we’ve already been experimenting given the depth of historical data captured by our clients,” says Tamashasky. “One example of where a predictive twin can be leveraged is with water main breaks though there are numerous applications. Using the main break example, organizations could identify the frequency of main breaks based on time of year, soil type, pipe type, pressure zone and reactive and preventive maintenance records. This would be another example of the geospatial element within the digital twin experience, but using the wealth of this data organizations would be able to identify patters of breaks and identify those mains where similarities indicate a likelihood of short term failure. This knowledge would allow organizations to potentially modify both operational maintenance and capital replacements to minimize impacts to the distribution system and service area as well as costs for the organization. “

Are there situations where digital twins would not be the best approach?

“Due to the current cost and time required for a digital twin, digital twins are not currently financially the best approach when it comes to smaller jobs,” says Eichenseer of IMAGINiT. “This is not to say that a digital twin wouldn’t or couldn’t be valuable, but the value might not provide enough of a return on investment until the costs of developing and analyzing a digital twin come further down.”

“There should always be a consideration of cost versus benefits,” Broekmaat says. “Smaller projects, assets with a limited lifespan or well-known, standard components may not be the best targets for extensive data collection and/or monitoring.”

Does your organization develop, use or know of any “lite” versions of digital twin technology, and what do you feel about such an approach?

“In essence, this is what any BIM model is, so long as it is data-rich and not just geometry,” notes Anderson. “To really gain the advantage of a digital twin, however, you need to combine a data-rich BIM model with a flexible computational environment, such as Vectorworks’ Marionette that can read the object-structure of the model and provide deep analysis.”

Trimble’s connected continuum of Constructible solutions aims to provide this. “You could argue that – in order for digital twin technology to go mainstream, it has to be ‘light’,” says Broekmaat. “Contributions from sensors, models and other sources should be easy to make for devices and people involved in the design, build and operate phases of assets. This is why Trimble’s solutions for constructible processes are ‘connected.’”

From CityZenith comes the Digital Twin Starter Kit for Building Owners that provides users a personalized digital portfolio information map of all of their properties, portfolio-wide — embedded directly in their own website.

A next-generation property information web interface, the Starter Kit will replace the 2D maps with static photos commonly found on property websites with an entirely new experience far more data rich and interactive. In today’s data-driven world, buyers and tenants demand access to more data than ever before to make a buying decision, and the Starter Kit aims to provide it.

A digital twin would take many years to complete, depending upon its proportions. In the meantime, how do you perceive being able to use the digital twin and its data to the best advantage?

“Part of the beauty of the digital twin process is the ability to incorporate digital transformations incrementally,” Tamashasky of Cityworks points out. “Identify where the digital process improves and enhances the current operations and brings benefit, and where this can be done independently without causing repercussions to other areas. This allows organizations to gradually adopt new digital processes in a manner that also allows their employees to develop the comfort and knowledge as the digital transformation expands within their organization.”

“It comes down to the idea of, do the best you can with what you know today,” concludes Eichenseer of IMAGINiT. “When you know more, do more. When you know better, do better. As the twin is being developed, identify and prioritize what should be included in the twin first so that you can start taking advantage of those components of the twin – likely design analysis and construction coordination. Then analyze and predict more as you incorporate more data into the twin for analysis and maintenance of the building.”

Bentley Systems, Inc.

Cityworks

CityZenith

IMAGINiT

Trimble

Vectorworks

Article Links:

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Going Open and Digital Twin Cloud Services Shape Bentley Year In Infrastructure 2018

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