Imagine if you had a 100%-accurate duplicate model of the stock market. You could enter a company name and any variable and the model would output exactly how the market would react along with price movements and other data for each stock.
Such a system could help you make an enormous amount of money, not to mention save you time when it comes to researching investments.
Unfortunately, such a perfect model doesn’t exist, but it illustrates the power of having a virtual clone you can use for planning or forecasting.
Digital twins won't help you defeat the stock market, but they can offer deeper insight into an ongoing project without having to shut down for extended surveying operations.
As digital twin technology quickly evolves and expands, there are a few misconceptions about how this technology works, what's capable with post-processed files and whether it can benefit your surveying workflows.
Below, we’ll outline the top 6 misconceptions about digital twins to help explain how accessible and flexible the technology has become.
The most common misconception about digital twins is that it’s just another name for a static 3D model. If you’ve ever seen a proposal for a new football or sports stadium, that’s a simple 3D model or rendering.
A digital twin can be much more than just a visual 3D model. Point clouds can contain millions of individual points, each one containing RGB data and physics-based attributes about the environment. Once post-processed, point cloud 3D models can achieve millimeter-accurate alignment with global coordinate frames even during longer SLAM captures, and come exported with 360 photospheres for accurate inspection in specific areas of interest.
Using the example of a football stadium, a digital twin could be used to simulate heating and cooling needs accurately based on the physics of the structure and the HVAC system installed. This type of advanced modeling goes far beyond just a visual 3D recreation.
As people learn more about how powerful digital twins are, they may start to think this technology is only available for advanced aerospace or mega-projects sponsored by states or governments.
The truth is that digital twin technology is available to firms and projects of almost any size.
For example, our Nexys 3D mapping system is being utilized by engineers, architects, and mining companies worldwide. For projects of any size, digital twins can save money by reducing delays, rework, and other problems that can occur without an accurate digital twin to help make data-driven decisions.
Nexys, mapping & autonomy payload, mounted to a backpack
When industry journals talk about digital twins, examples often involve digital twins that span from ideation and conception all the way to the completion of the project.
While that is common, it’s not necessary. A digital twin can be created and used during any point in the lifecycle of a project to start offering insights and data to make better decisions.
Suppose a new wing is being added to a building. In that case, a digital twin can be created through mapping payload like Nexys to give engineers, architects, and city planners the accurate data they need to carry out the construction. The original building may have been completed years ago, but introducing a digital twin of the structure allows for additions and other work to commence more efficiently.
The digital twin can also be updated regularly as construction continues to provide updates and ensure specifications are met at each milestone.
Engineers are often using digital twins during the development and testing phases of a project. However, digital twins can also be created for a variety of non-engineering projects for asset inspection and tracking.
Digital twins can be created to capture virtually any physical system or environment. For example, operators can capture a 3D model of an industrial compressor for inspection, a dense old growth forest for research, or even an industrial stockpile for asset management.
GIF of 3D point cloud overlayed on satellite data
Surveying teams worldwide are using our Nexys 3D mapping system to create highly accurate digital twins for mining, natural gas exploration, asset tracking, and construction project management.
When hearing someone talk about digital twins, it’s common to envision a computer simulation of a jet engine or a complex architectural design like you might see in Tony Stark's office during a Marvel movie.
But these are just a few of the ways digital twins can be used. A digital twin could be created for complex physical systems such as industrial inventory, supply chains or transportation fleets.
This allows business leaders and others to more accurately predict trends and project out future goals based on real-world information.
The final most common misconception is that a digital twin is a very specific type of virtual recreation and that each one is created by a singular type of software application.
This isn’t true and the reality is that there are countless different ways to create digital twins. When captured with a SLAM-based LiDAR scanner, like Nexys, a digital twin can be exported into a variety of file types that are universal across the surveying and mapping industry.
If you need a feature-rich 3D model with colorized point clouds and embedded 360 photospheres, ExynAI can process and export that log into an E57 file. But if you need a simple digital twin for volumetric analysis you can save as a LAS or PLY and export to a large variety of downstream software.
At Exyn, we've been pioneering an autonomy and mapping ecosystem, the Nexys, to make the lives of survey professionals easier, safer, and more efficient than ever before.
The Nexys system also allows for maximum flexibility when creating a digital twin, being able to capture an accurate 3D model by hand, mounted to a backpack or vehicle, or even mounted to an aerial drone for fully autonomous exploration and mapping missions. This data can then be processed directly on site and exported into a variety of industry wide file formats.
Contact Exyn today for a personalized demo of our modular Nexys digital mapping system and learn how digital twin technology is changing the way teams are surveying assets and physical spaces around the world.
