Digital Twin: Collaborative Subsurface Infrastructure

THE DIGITAL TWIN:

COLLABORATIVE SUBSURFACE INFRASTRUCTURE

BY ALEX SHALASH

Uevo helps manage aging, complex infrastructure by enabling stakeholders to visualize, manipulate, and create subsurface elements in a real-time 3D interactive environment.

When it comes to subsurface infrastructure, information is inaccurate, fragmented, outdated, and in different formats, and is not shared between infrastructure providers, operators, municipalities, users, and other stakeholders. This results in project delays, accidents, high operational and public safety risks, and inflated construction costs (sometimes by up to 30%). In the U.S., there are more than 400,000 accidents every year due to unreliable location information, which inflicts $50 billion to $100 billion a year drag on the economy.

Subsurface Infrastructure Mapping

Typical infrastructure maps are twodimensional, featuring thin, straight, colored lines connecting points where the coordinates of infrastructures were collected. These maps often omit depth information, which is critical to avoid accidents; they lack real-time data and updates, especially if a company just changed its pipes or repaired after an accident; they are cumbersome to use on-site; and they are unintelligible to most stakeholders.

The Uevo Approach

Uevo is a digital twin platform that offers a 3D visualization of the subsurface infrastructure and street-level environment. It is a collaborative, cloud-hosted platform that allows multiple users to access it simultaneously. It also offers live updates, real-time data feeds from IoT sensors, a precise and persistent environment, and VR and AR capabilities for immersive use on-site and off-site to help with planning, works, and accident avoidance.

We first ingest existing information about subsurface infrastructure. To improve data quality, we use Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) for subsurface infrastructure scanning; photogrammetry of the open pit, which can be used for ongoing updates; multiple BIM visualizations; and aboveground LIDAR scans.

Benefits of the Digital Twin

A digital twin is a reliable, shared platform for better and faster decision-making. It decreases operational and public safety risks, provides substantial costs and time savings, and tracks real assets over their entire life cycle. You can run multiple copies of your digital twin to plan for replacements or upgrades and engage stakeholders in the process by bringing them into the virtual environment, independent of their physical location. The most common use is updating the location of pipes and other assets in case they were moved or replaced or for planning purposes. These changes can be done by multiple utility owners and surveyors in different locations at the same time without disrupting the work of others.

There are also indirect benefits of digital twin implementations, including lower insurance costs; decreased construction related to traffic and pollution; and increased efficiency in emergencies. You can use it to collect data, analyze it, build multiple scenarios, and run simulations. You can provide low-cost training, especially to new employees. This will help to build better and bounce back faster from natural disasters. A Penn State University study found $21 in cost savings for every dollar invested in improved subsurface infrastructure location information.

A digital twin is not a product; it’s a process and a long-term commitment. No city remains the same. A digital twin should be able to evolve with the city it represents; otherwise, it’s just an outdated 3D model.

Uevo

Uevo is a digital twin platform that offers a 3D visualization of subsurface infrastructure and street-level environment.

Alex Shalash

Co-Founder, Uevo

Zurich, Switzerland

Alex Shalash is the co-founder of Uevo, a subsurface infrastructure digital twin platform answering the call for a unifying platform to actuate data-driven actionable intelligence. He is an international tech entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in software development, IT consulting, investment banking and investment management.