OUTLIERS | DIGITAL-TWIN

DIGITAL TWIN

A digital twin is a digital replica of a physical entity and involves creation of a virtual model of a process, product or a service. Digital twins integrate 3d-modelling, IoT, AI, and Analytics and therefore enables a connection between the physical entity and the digital replica. This pairing of physical and virtual worlds allows to collect real-time data, perform analytics, edge computing therefore to provide predictive maintenance, prevent downtime, identification of problems before they even occur, remote-monitoring, future planning using simulations, and automation to take corrective actions.

Our Project

Enabling automation and intelligence in physical boiler plant for predictive maintenance, and remote monitoring.
Detailed steps are:

To create a digital twin for a boiler plant
Capture critical data in realtime
Take automated corrective actions based on the collected data
Realtime visualization of the data on web and mobile dashboards
Deploying the digital twin in VR for traning & simulation purposes

Outliers team developed a Digital twin of a physical boiler plant integrated with IOT sensors to capture critical operational data in real time. We deployed edge computing capabilities using a microprocessor to analyse the captured data and take corrective actions in real time. The data is continuously streamed to cloud and is shown on a dashboard as well as on the Digital twin. Along with corrective measures, alerts are pushed to the authorized personnel for records and monitoring.

All activity, data, corrective actions are animated to the Digital twin, which replicates the actual working of the physical equipment.

The Digital twin is deployed on Oculus for the personnel to view the plant without having to go to the actual site, and monitor remotely. The interactive visualization experience can be leveraged to train personnel remotely, thus saving costs and efforts.

Machine learning - Python
3d Modelling - Design 3D models as per the design given or required.
IOT - Add details of sensors, motor and the chip.
AR-VR - Oculus
Web/Mobile dashboards - To show the inputs digitally which are fetched from sensors that are stored in the cloud.
Cloud - deployed on Google Cloud platform.

Created an extensive 3d modeled digital twin for a boiler plant, which is a culmination of Art and Tech.
Real time data from sonsors was captured, pushed to the cloud, analysed and shown on dashboards.
Real time alerts were genrated and corrective actions are triggered without any manual intervention.
The solution was deployed on oculus for training and visulaisations.

Project part-1

Project part-2

Oculus version

DIGITAL TWIN for your industry

Product development

Digital twin will help in reducing the costs of product development by optimizing the process. Virtual simulations will help with the development of new product and product variants. Initial version of a digital twin can be shared with the client to gather feedback and improve the development process. Data collected from the usage of the equipment can also help develop and improve version control.

SALES AND MARKETING

Transportation of specialized and heavy machinery equipment to the client location is an expensive and time-consuming process. However Digital Twins can be shared with the customers over web or mobile very easily. Digital Twins can be animated and the equipment can be checked by prospective customers in a simulation environment. Marketing becomes very easy by showcasing digital twins at marketing events, trade fairs and on other platforms. Digital Twins can be viewed in AR-VR for a fully immersive and interactive experience.

PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE

Industries need to monitor the health of machinery and equipment on a real-time basis to avoid sudden damages. The traditional way of tracking by noting down the hours is not very efficient to prevent malfunctions. However overlaying the real-time sensory data on a digital twin will help continuously monitor the health without even touching the equipment. Combined with predictive machine learning models on the data,a digital twin can track usage to the second and also display the stats on a dashboard while allowing sending alerts to trigger preventive actions.

TRAINING AND SIMULATION

Digital twins can be used to run simulations by developing various process scenarios. The scenarios can be designed to simulate normal operation of equipment, failure cases, extreme events, and also to unforeseen events which might halt the production process. For new personnel, training on the real machinery might be expensive or even sometimes dangerous. Alternatively Digital twin can be deployed in VR and can be used for training purposes. Digital twins can also be used to generate mobile app based interactive training manuals for customers.

REMOTE MONITORING

Digital twin can be deployed on web or mobile app and be used for remote monitoring purposes. The live sensory data can be shown on the digital twin, and can be combined with various other enterprise data sources to provide a holistic picture. Alerts can be sent to the relevant personnel in case of any problems or issues. Digital twin can also be used to record the usage of the equipment, helps to resolve issues faster by identifying the issues in real-time. Also these records can be sent to OEMs for further analysis.

AUTOMATION

Intelligence and logic can be deployed on the digital twin using machine learning and edge computing techniques. Thereby connecting the digital twin to the live equipment, corrective actions can be taken automatically and remotely which saves time and reduces costs. An example of this can be automatically switching on the cooling fan in case temperature crosses the threshold and maintaining the temperature within the limits. Automation reduces manual intervention and takes preventive corrective actions in the real-time.