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Digital Twin : The new Future of the Construction Industry

A virtual model representation of the process, product or service is nothing but a digital twin. This collaboration allows data analysis and system monitoring to wave off problems before their occurrence thereby preventing downtime, discovering new opportunities as well as planning for the future.

The technology of digital twin is really helpful in improving the customer experience by having a deep insights of the needs of the customers, developing enhancements to the already existing products, services, operation or process, driving the innovation of new businesses.

Digital twin is all about bridging a gap between the physical and the digital world. The working of digital twin is quite easy. First, we have smart components that uses sensors to gather real time status data, working conditions or positions being integrated with a physical item.
These components are then linked and connected with a cloud based system that processes all data measured by the sensors. This input is later analyzed against the available standard set of data. Deductions from this data is applied to the real (physical) world leading to the transformation of the business altogether.

Why is digital twin technology gaining so much importance these days?

Digital twin is a really powerful tool when it comes to driving performance along with innovation.Millions and billions of things can be represented with the help of digital twin in the coming years or the nearer future.                                                                                                       
The concoction between the physical world and the virtual object will lead to new development among the product experts and the scientists working towards data analysis and tells us about operational aspects of the models and its functioning. This leads to the innovative aspect of business and its working.                                                                  
More and more companies are learning the real world applications of digital twin and are running pilot programs to successfully deploy their own technology so as to gain a competitive advantage.
BIM enabled asset management system is attracting more attention in the field of research and practice.                                                                    
Importance of Good BIM for Asset Management
• Currently most of BIMs are created only for 3D visualization and design coordination, and not for data management
• Optimized ways of collecting data and quality control are not enforced by owners
• Without standards‐based, quality control enabled process, all the BIM efforts will go to waste – the resulting BIM is not much better than old CAD models                                                                                                           
These days the assets and facility management of the system being facilitated with digital twin is not only comprehensive but also alluring and helps tackle the right project with the right approach.
Digital twin is the future of the smart asset management in the operation and maintenance phase. It is simply IOT (Internet of Things) installed with the construction industry that is technologically driving the industry. Technology is on boom these days so why not to make the most out of it even for other businesses?
Focus on “Things” in Internet of Things (IoT)
Each “thing” in Internet of Things need to be defined and managed. Otherwise, what exactly all those millions of sensors will be measuring?     

                                                                                                        

Most of non-experts think the owners receive some magical “BIM” at the end of construction but what they actually get is a “dumb” 3D model, useless for O&M and facility management.                                       
Without a life cycle approach to managing data, and sophisticated tools for collecting & validating information the Digital Twin and IoT are just nice images good enough for a conference presentation, but not for a real life usage.                                                                                             
DT integrates AI (Artificial Intelligence), ML (Machine Learning) and Data Analytics to develop dynamic models that can upgrade or update themselves in accordance to the signal received from the physical counterparts.                                                                                                           
These signals contribute to the research and the development aspect and promote adoption of smart DT enabled asset management.
The future or the long term benefits of Digital Twin is so cost effective that it can be termed as a revolution or the “Future of the construction Industry”. The long term benefits in terms of cost saving and other modular aspects are numerous.                                                                        
With sensors, and electronics data transmission and signals, the overall structure can be simplified even from the safety and sustainability prospects.                                                                                     
The construction industry is growing and these upcoming technologies will shape the structure of the same in the upcoming years.