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Unlock the Power of Digital Twins: Revolutionizing Data Utilization, Monitoring, and Simulation

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The BIM Engineers
08 June 2023

In today's rapidly evolving technological landscape, digital twins are emerging as a major player in the field of data utilization, monitoring, and simulation. Digital twins are exact digital replicas of physical objects or environments that are created using advanced 3D mapping software. These virtual representations can range in size from millimeters to miles and can be used across a wide range of industries, including medicine, aerospace, construction, and real estate.

Digital twins have been around for approximately 15 years but have gained a surge of interest in the last years due to the expansion of digital transformation in various areas. Digital Twins are evolving at an accelerated pace due to several forces. Firstly, the digital transformation is driving the expansion of digital twins. Secondly, communication infrastructure is evolving, and digital twins are becoming hubs of local intelligence and awareness, with autonomous digital twins becoming increasingly popular. Thirdly, artificial intelligence embedded in the digital twin is enabling autonomous behavior, leading to digital twins becoming much smarter than their physical counterparts. Finally, as digital twins become smarter and interact with each other, swarm intelligence emerges, leading to difficulties in determining responsibility. So time to do a deep dive into the main drivers of the Digital Twins.

 

The main drivers of the development of Digital Twins:

Digital Twins are rapidly evolving due to various trends that are shaping their growth.

Digital transformation

 The first trend is the ongoing digital transformation that is driving the expansion of digital twins. As businesses continue to digitize their operations, digital twins are becoming an essential tool for managing and monitoring monitoring physical assets. This trend is likely to continue as more organizations look to optimize their operations and leverage the power of digital twins to achieve their goals.

Communication infrastructure

The second trend that is driving the growth of digital twins is the evolution of communication infrastructure. With the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and other connected devices, digital twins are becoming hubs of local intelligence and awareness. These connected digital twins are increasingly being used to monitor and manage physical assets in real-time, allowing businesses to quickly identify and address issues. Autonomous digital twins, which can operate without human intervention, are also becoming increasingly popular, further driving the growth of digital twins.

Data and faster and better

The third trend that is impacting digital twins is the embedding of artificial intelligence (AI) into the digital twin. AI enables digital twins to learn from data and make predictions about future performance. As a result, digital twins are becoming much smarter than their physical counterparts, allowing businesses to optimize their operations and improve overall performance. This trend is likely to continue as AI technology advances and becomes more accessible to businesses of all sizes.

Swarm intelligence

Finally, as digital twins become smarter and interact with each other, swarm intelligence emerges. This phenomenon occurs when multiple digital twins interact and collaborate, leading to the emergence of new behaviors and capabilities. However, this also creates challenges in determining responsibility, as multiple digital twins may contribute to a single outcome. As a result, businesses will need to develop new governance models to manage this emerging trend.

The ongoing digital transformation, the evolution of communication infrastructure, the embedding of AI, and the emergence of swarm intelligence are all driving the growth of digital twins. As a result, digital twins are becoming an essential component of data utilization, monitoring, and simulation. Businesses that leverage digital twins will be better equipped to optimize their operations and achieve their goals.

Stages of Digital Twins

In the realm of real estate, digital twin technology can be used to enhance how people invest, construct, oversee, and develop structures and property. Facility managers and developers can use digital twins to simulate and predict how a building will perform in the future. This technology can also be used to optimize the energy efficiency of a building and reduce maintenance costs by detecting issues before they become costly problems.

Digital twin technology is a three-part system, consisting of a digital model, a digital thread, and a digital shadow. The digital model is the virtual representation of the physical object, the digital thread connects the virtual and physical world, and the digital shadow is the data that is collected from the physical object and fed back into the digital model. The digital twin Stage III is when a digital twin is "more than a digital twin" and has the capability to represent future/possible versions of its physical twin, taking action to move its physical twin to a new, desired state.

The market for digital twins generated sales of more than $3 billion in 2020, and tech executives leading digital twin efforts believe that we are still at the dawn of this technology. The potential applications of digital twins are vast, and their adoption is only expected to accelerate in the coming years. For developers and facility managers looking to take advantage of this technology, outsourcing BIM servicesto a specialized company like The BIM Engineers could be the best solution.