Digital twin technology “the next frontier of construction”

The construction industry is notorious for being one of the most dangerous sectors to work in, recording a significant number of workplace casualties across Australia every year.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of them are linked to the operation of heavy plant or machinery on job sites, hence sending industry experts and researchers scrambling for ways to improve safety on site.

UNSW Built Environment Construction Management expert, Dr Samad Sepasgozar, said the answer to this issue lies within an innovative concept dubbed ‘digital twin technology’.

“A digital twin is a digital replica of a physical entity utilising internet of things enabling two-way communications between them,” explained Dr Sepasgozar.

“At the strategic level, the digital twin is a new game-changing approach to construction automation…that will transform the industry quicker than ever before.”

The idea is that for every physical item in the world, there could be a virtual replica with which it connects, housed in the cloud, collecting vital data on the physical item’s performance in real time, Dr Sepasgozar said.

“Industry players might confuse this with Building Information Modelling, but unlike this previous technology, the digital twin also enables users to control equipment,” he said.

“So, it enables job-site tasks to be performed remotely, which is useful for working through disruptions like COVID-19.”

Dr Sepasgozar is currently developing a digital twin of an excavator, enabling improved diagnostics and analytics of the digging equipment’s performance.

“The digital twin and the physical excavator can communicate with each other, in real time. All the changes applied to one are applied to the other. For example, you can command the physical equipment and communicate with it remotely.

“On the other hand, the physical object will communicate with you so you can examine its performance, condition and productivity.

“So you can learn through data how to increase analyse the productivity by changing the operation scenarios, like the attachments of the equipment, the distance between equipment and the specific floor of the building, you can do all this in real time.”

Dr Sepasgozar said digital twin technology will help improve worksite safety and productivity significantly by allowing site managers or employees to evaluate hazards from a distance and may even remove the need for staff members to be present on-site altogether.

“It’s an online app on smartphones, so it’s much easier to use than you think … in terms of visualisation, in terms of controlling or using it – it is much easier than any previous digital automation technologies,” he said.

In addition, a digital twin could also be scalable to an entire construction site and be used for training purposes to prepare construction workers for potentially life-threatening situations they may encounter on site, Dr Sepasgozar said.

“It will cover all kinds of activities within a construction project – all of them, one day, will be connected to digital twins. We already have a lot of different types of sensors, drones, and other tools which will contribute to developing an entire construction digital twin,” he added.

Another benefit of a digital twin in construction, according to Dr Sepasgozar, is data visualisation and communication that gives stakeholders a clear picture of a certain project with accurate, up-to-date datasets.

Construction activities – whether it be a tunnelling or light rail project – can have significant impacts on residents in the surrounding areas in terms of emissions, safety concerns and noise disruptions and a digital twin can be used to communicate the project’s progress to all parties concerned in real time.

Dr Sepasgozar said the appetite for digital twins in the built environment will carry over into other relevant sectors.

“If you adopt this, the entire process of management and the automation process will be changed.”

There is no limit to the number of real-life assets that will have digital twin counterparts within the next few decades, as broader innovations in machine learning and connectivity advance, Dr Sepasgozar said.

“From the user perspective at the construction projects level, it’s not only about who is going to dominate the market,” he said.

“We need to think about the user benefit if we’re going to make the technology a success.”