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Susan Smith
Susan Smith has worked as an editor and writer in the technology industry for over 16 years. As an editor she has been responsible for the launch of a number of technology trade publications, both in print and online. Currently, Susan is the Editor of GISCafe and AECCafe, as well as those sites’ … More » Bentley Year In Infrastructure 2019 Kicks Off in SingaporeOctober 25th, 2019 by Susan Smith
2019 was a banner year for Bentley’s Year In Infrastructure thought leadership conference, in its focused attention to what organizations need to manage increasing quantities and densities of data. Digital Twins were definitely the order of the day this year, with other technologies taking front and center stage in the form of acquisitions.  Bentley Systems CEO Greg Bentley
In opening remarks at Monday’s Press Day this week held at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore, CEO Greg Bentley said that we will probably always be talking about “going digital” and…we are advancing BIM and GIS to 4D. He goes on to add that we have Reality Modeling (digital context), a Connected Data Environment (digital components), iModels (digital chronology), Digital Twins and Digital Workflows. He credited YII finalists with the digital advancements made so far, as their continued search for better ways to solve real-world problems lead to product design. What stands out about this year’s announcements was the breadth and perspective of the technologies, some of which have really come into their own. Digital context includes engineering data, IT and operational data, to create an “evergreen” digital twin.
“Our endeavors until now have been software to offer useful deliverables,” Bentley says, “but they have been for a static and dated purpose. The objective of digital twins is to make the value of those deliverables endure over the longevity of the project and the asset, and to have “evergreen” visibility into what has been dark engineering data, to synchronize its changes over time and open up this dark data for immersive visualization and the visibility of analytics.” Some technologies discussed this year included 4D, HoloLens 2, artificial intelligence, mobile mapping, multimodal traffic simulation, road mobility, and of course digital twins and digital cities. Helsinki, a digital cities model that is often referred to, makes use of mobile mapping and data management from Belgian company Orbit Geospatial Technologies (Orbit GT), specialists in 3D and mobile mapping. It comes as no surprise that Orbit GT has been acquired by Bentley Systems. Orbit GT brings in survey over time, 3D to 4D mapping, with strong data management capabilities.
Already used in Singapore, as is Orbit GT, this ability to use this data for roadway assets in the digital twin framework will be valuable for predictive transportation scenarios. Another formative Bentley acquisition: analytics (Streetlytics) software provider Citilabs, provider of 4D GIS and traffic modeling. The newly acquired technologies in conjunction with Bentley’s existing design integration and digital cities offerings, enable engineering-based mobility digital twins, according to company materials. Road mobility digital twins converge cities’ digital context (including 4D surveying facilitated by Orbit GT for drone-and vehicle-mounted mapping), and digital components (included from Bentley’s OpenRoads engineering applications) with CUBE simulations – to model and assure real-world throughput capacity for proposed and existing roadway assets.  Bhupinder Singh, Bentley chief product officer Digital Twin What’s a digital twin? Bhupinder Singh, chief product officer for Bentley, described it as context, chronology, and components. Digital twins for infrastructure are a digital representation of a physical asset, process or system that is continuously updated and synchronized from various sources. They generate insights, provide predictability and performance optimization. They have characteristics; digital components give digital twins their explanatory power, through design application, machine learning or reality modeling. A Cloud services hub, iTwin Cloud Services, is now available for tracking and synchronizing through infrastructure assets. Digital twins allow us to bring 4D across the whole lifecycle. iTwin Cloud Services New iTwin Cloud Services for infrastructure engineering digital twins will allow users to understand their performance in the real world over the course of a lifecycle, taking BIM and GIS through 4D. The digital context can be continually refreshed with drone surveys and reality modeling as well as information on the fitness of assets over the entire lifecycle. Some features of the iTwin Cloud Services include:
ProjectWise 365 Cloud Services and SYNCRHO 4D Construction New ProjectWise 365 cloud services, leveraging Microsoft 365 technology and office productivity tools, extend the affordability and accessibility of BIM and infrastructure design data for organizations of all sizes.
Open Modeling Applications Open Modeling Applications and Open Simulation Applications advanced collaboration, enable clash resolution and production of multi-discipline deliverable from any application. These tools include MicroStation based and BIM applications in specific solution areas and for asset types. New OpenWindPower offers interoperability between geotechnical, structural and piping analysis and design applications. New OpenTower is purpose-built for the design, documentation and fabrication of new communication towers and for rapid re-analysis of existing telecom towers for tower owners, consultants and carriers who must continually update equipment. Other applications include OpenBuildings Station Designer, OpenSite Designer, OpenBridge Designer, OpenRoads SignCAD which is an enhancement to OpenRoads. Open Simulation Application updates include the Bentley acquisition of Citilabs brings CUBE traffic simulations to be available in OpenRoads. New interoperability is now available between PLAXIS and SoilVision geotechnical applications with RAM, STAAD, and OpenGround. Some new Bentley offerings will provide geospatial support, such as OpenCities Planner, now available on Microsoft Azure. OpenCities Map will be part of geospatial. OpenGround cloud service is for managing geotechnical information. OpenFlows – WaterOPS and OpenFlows FLOOD are new products for water and wastewater management. H2PORTO meteorological models are used to optimize operations and impacts on water quality, and how that impacts beaches and water bodies.  Vice president Digital Cities, Bob Mankowski Going Urban Vice president Digital Cities Bob Mankowski, talked about how our future is urban. The population of the world’s cities has rocketed to 4.2 billion in 2018 from only 751 million in 1950 (World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision). China is planning to build smart cities in the next five to 10 years. Digital cities address the complexity of cities in every category: road and rail, electric and gas, water and sewer, ideally with all systems within a city connected and requiring planning and operations and maintenance. Mankowski spoke of the value of the digital twin for continuous survey for intelligence derived on the project side and bringing value of intelligence to the operational side. “75% of Europe is urbanized, and very few cities are seeing reduction in population. That presents a lot of challenges for cities,” says Mankowski. The UN reports that China is 55% urbanized now, and aims to be 80% in 30 years. “Aging infrastructure, environment, social, and workforce problems are exacerbated by urbanization. We believe technology 4D digital twin technology can be a key component to helping solve these challenges.” In many parts of a municipality, assets are owned by others. People work in silos, so digital twins are a way of federating assets together. “We’re not proposing that an organization build one database for all systems. Typically they have been doing this for awhile, have mature workflows, so asking them to change to another system isn’t going to work. We can federate data from different systems together, and help stakeholders gain insights from a combination of data.” Some of the emerging tools for digital twins will include machine learning, that relies on large quantities of data and forming source learning for technology. The Hololens 2 is a selective piece of equipment to assist in this process. Mankowski talked about the differences between the different reality approaches.
“Singapore is like an iceberg,” says Mankowski. “Much of the city exists below ground, and creating a digital twin of subsurface is difficult, so we combine data with sensor data from OpenGround, a new service.” Artificial Intelligence  Dr. Ayesha Khanna, Co-founder and CEO, ADDO AI Dr. Ayesha Khanna, Co-Founder and CEO of ADDO AI, an Enterprise Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions firm, headquartered in Singapore, presented a keynote on AI, speaking primarily about smart cities, of which Singapore is one prime example. She spoke about the blurring of boundaries between all industries as a result of the cloud, AI and data, and the importance of bringing companies along as you introduce new technologies, to help the ease the transition. One of the unexpected consequences of AI is the great power it provides and consequently, it must be governed with great responsibility through regulations, standards, frameworks, data privacy, cybersecurity, accounting, ethics of algorithms, and transparency, Khanna concluded. Summary As can be noted by these talks and discussions, the Digital Twin is now inexorably woven throughout all the presentations, and its value and importance can now be realized more fully as a viable tool from concept through to operations and maintenance of infrastructure. Summing up, Mankowski remarks: “It’s not about replacing technology, it’s about taking what they have already and using bridges to connect it all so that it can be useful.”
Check out the finalists, awards presentations and more at Bentley Year In Infrastructure 2019 Transportation, lodging and some meals for this trip were covered by Bentley Systems. Tags: AEC, architects, Bentley Systems, BIM, building, building design, building information modeling, CAD, Cloud, collaboration, construction, design, engineering, engineers, generative design, infrastructure, laser scanning, mobile, Open BIM, point clouds, printers, reality capture, visualization Categories: 2D, 3D, AEC, AEC training, architecture, Bentley Systems, BIM, building information modeling, buildingSMART, civil information modeling, Cloud, collaboration, convergence, drones, engineering, field, field solutions, geospatial, GIS, greenhouse gas emissions, IES, IFC, infrastructure, integrated project delivery, lidar, managed services, mobile, plant design, point clouds, project management, simulation, site planning, sustainable design, UAV, video, video surveillance, virtual reality, visualization, wearable devices, YII 2019 |
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Bentley also announced the acquisition of global mobility simulation (CUBE). The CUBE currently is used by the out of home advertising industry audience for a measuring system. Bentley is interested in using this data in the context of infrastructure planning and design for transportation and roadways. This CUBE multimodal traffic simulation starts from cell phone ping data that connects and models trips and segment of traffic in a population.
The SYNCRHO 4D construction environment offers new cloud services, that allows contractors to 4D-visualize design data and construction models for project and field management, advanced work packaging and Microsoft HoloLens 2 augmented reality solutions.
