Digital Twin of Shared Hostel Block to Aid Infrastructural Planning

A case of the Kapila Hostel Block in IITH campus

Faculty Guide (IITH): Dr. Prasad Onkar

Mentors (SUT): Dr. Ambarish Kulkarni Mr. Cristobal Sierra Mr. John DCoutho Mr. Nikunj Khetani

Introduction The project was undertaken as a part of the course for Interaction Design: AI and Virtual Environments. With the project brief to create a digital twin model with a reference of a built space in the campus of IIT Hyderabad, our team was motivated to bring this project to real use case impacting the policy making process within the campus.

To our leverage we had the diverse educational and work experience backgrounds of our team members, two of us being from the field of architecture and the rest three from the backgrounds of visual communication design, animation and fashion design. While individually our team members faced difficulties in getting access to high performance computers to work on the project demanded, working in a team ensured that this problem was mitigated by collective use of resources. Project management, as a result, was inculcated amongst all the team members as a part and parcel of project progress, helping all of us understand responsibilities and work towards greater efficiency into delivering the final conclusions.

Aim Devise a digital twin of an enclosed volume, with the case of Kapila hostel block in IIT Hyderabad,

predict the impact of infrastructural changes of a space on its users, with the groundwork study of the relationship of infrastructural changes and physical occupancy.

Objectives ● To create a digital twin of an enclosed space ● To develop a system to predict the impact of infrastructural changes on user occupancy ● To identify and develop channels of participation for a broader range of stakeholders in infrastructure planning using Virtual Reality

Scope & Limitations ● The study on hostel accommodation spaces can be expanded to include other institutions and structures in a built environment, to build a comprehensive digital experience of users and built spaces. ● The project only studies the relation between infrastructural changes and user behaviour in a physical space, in contrast to an extensive analysis of impact of other drivers of change such as microclimate, population demographics, etc.

Literature Study (ROL) History of Digital Twins in Architecture and Planning The introduction of the concept of Digital Twin has brought a great change in terms of architecture, construction and planning industry. It essentially presents the city or a zone or an individual component of it as a dynamic virtual form. Ensuring every element from the initial construction, retroﬁtting, and proposed changes is accounted for in one three-dimensional model. Not only does it present key elements in terms of the structural infrastructure, but it also encompasses often overlooked conditions such as the occupancy comfort of a physical space, the interior thermal comfort, and trends of consumption of resources like electricity and water. Implementation of Digital Twins in Architecture and Planning It consists of three key components: visualisation, forecasting, and diagnostics. It offers an opportunity for modiﬁcations to a built environment and/or its structural and service system to be simulated and tested before they are put into effect. It can potentially forecast how changes to a structure can impact its users. It thus enables informed policy making, decisions and resource allocation.

Literature Study (ROL) Digital Twin for the Kapila Hostel Room The Kapila Hostel Block is the hostel with a shared rooms system, and the only one of its kind in the campus. Due to its unique infrastructure and area of functionality, it is often underrepresented in decision making processes regarding students and a comfortable stay at hostel. The core reason for this lack of appropriate representation is the absence of workable data to make meaningful insights and actionable decisions for the users of Kapila Block.

Participatory Infrastructural Planning for Hostels The digital twin opens up new opportunities for the university/college administration to win over the student population for active participation in planning. One of these possibilities is to engage the users themselves as “players” in the VR simulation of their hostels to suggest changes and additions. In workshops students can develop their own ideas, for example a new furniture layout for the hostel rooms. The concerned authorities can then take up these ideas on a trial basis based on their viability and requirement to review.

Literature Study (ROL) Key Takeaways The created digital twin is the spatial, digital model of the Kapila hostel block. By describing the data with metadata and introducing resource management, development and maintenance can be planned. The update can take place in real time and for certain applications the digital twin is directly connected to the real components, e.g. the current occupancy of a room and therefore the required lighting or air conditioned ventilation. The digital twin will be used to test different scenarios for future planning, for example with regard to changes in number of users per unit space and their effects on the resource consumption of the hostels. These results will open new possibilities for discussion and decision-making within the administration and the students. It also will open up new ways for the students to ﬁnd out about latest developments on their accommodation and get involved in the process by suggesting changes as felt suitable.

Key Findings The created digital twin is the spatial, digital model of the Kapila hostel block. The existing spatial data infrastructure is enriched and described with 3D spatial data and their models. The processes of construction and details are described holistically for the spatial data and the models’ metadata. The 3D spatial data will be the reference for further spatial data additions. The conjunction of these data sets will thus allow the digital space to approach the real world in a better and smarter way. By describing the data with metadata and introducing resource management, development and maintenance can be planned. The update can take place in real time and for certain applications the digital twin is directly connected to the real components, e.g. the current occupancy of a room and therefore the required lighting or air conditioned ventilation. The digital twin will be used to test different scenarios for future planning, for example with regard to changes in number of users per unit space and their effects on the resource consumption of the hostels. These results will open new possibilities for discussion and decision-making within the administration and the students. It also will open up new ways for the students to ﬁnd out about latest developments on their accommodation and get involved in the process by suggesting changes as felt suitable.

Project Methodology The project involved the group members using different software and techniques to gather data, distil actionable insights and implement it onto the digital twin generation. 1. Literature Study ● Study the underlying principles of creation and application of digital twins in the ﬁeld of architecture, engineering and construction. ● Identify avenues to implement a digital twin model of in-campus infrastructure and enhance the process of related decision making. 2. Field Study ● Scout for appropriate structure around the IIT Hyderabad campus to make a digital twin of. ● Measure dimensions and analyse physical textures of the selected building block. ● Assess the physical use pattern of the selected space.

Project Methodology 3. Digital Twin Modelling ● 3D CAD modelling in SketchUp and later Autodesk 3ds Max. ● Rendering model surface textures using V-Ray. ● Enhancing details to high-resolution model renders using Adobe Photoshop 4. Creating VR model ● Using a system of Autodesk 3ds Max, V-Ray and Enscape to convert 3d model into a virtual reality environment. 5. Analysis and Conclusion ● Assessing the VR twin of the physical space to analyse its application in infrastructural decision making, centred around space occupants

Present / Original Site Images

The Kapila Hostel Block, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad

Software Workﬂow Stage 1 : Basic Modelling in SketchUp / 3DS Max / Blender ( Converting all ﬁle types into a common platform ) Stage 2 : Adding more objects , textures and Lighting into the digital twin model. Stage 3 : Setting out the image for rendering ( adjusting normal maps,bump maps ,albedo etc.) Stage 4 : Furnishing out the render in Vray Stage 5 : Exporting the Model in Unreal/Enscape and recording/documenting the Experience.

3D Modelling

Rendering

VR Experience

Base Model

Model Axonometric View 3D Showing Layouting

3D Modelling process

Initial Attempt

Front Elevation | Entrance View

Developments (After Crits)

Exterior Views

H - 3m R 4x4

Interior Views

Night View (Lighting)

Exporting for VR Experience

Testing with HTC Vive Pro at VR labs, IIT Hyderabad For creating the VR Experience, we used HTC Vive pro and documented the experience

Walkthrough / VR Links / Videos

Walkthrough Video

Building Simulation

Browser based VR Experience https://api2.enscape3d.com/v1/view/d222395f-3dc0-409a-a9b2-b46b0e50b307

you can click on the link for experience

Discussion and Analysis With the creation of a virtual reality environment for the Kapila hostel block, we were able to undergo an immersive experience of the digital model for the physical counterpart on campus, and make signiﬁcant analysis in terms of its applications. Digital Twin Development to Aid Infrastructural Planning with respect to User Occupancy This enables the opportunity to involve users as well as policy makers in a participatory decision making process through a virtual feedback loop where citizens can interact with suggested and proposed changes in the built structure and service systems. It allows for easier dissemination and transparency to the users of a space before putting these decisions into practice. Potential to Use AI in combination with Digital Twin Models With concepts of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and construction project management systems in place already, artiﬁcial intelligence models can be formulated to harness the data from these sets. This would enable

closed

loop

control

system,

where

end

proposal,

implementation

and

post-implementation review of infrastructural changes on users could be undertaken by an automated workﬂow.

Conclusion The digital twin of the shared hostel room of Kapila Block incorporates the spatial configuration of the built structure and interiors onto the digital space, enriched with data pertaining to infrastructure such as furniture layout, service systems, etc. which ultimately provide a clear reflection of user comfort in subject spaces. By providing a replication of the physical structure, the digital twins not just provide a ground to view and interact with the space digitally, but also present an avenue to serve as a reference for future proposal and implementation of ideas. As digital twins approach inter-connection and sharing of metadata, the digital space would increasingly mirror the real world interactions of data. This provides a significant potential to assess, review and improve policy making process and comfort analysis of occupant of a space. Additionally with building data digitised, the opportunity to visualise this data and extract key actionable insights from it is considerably enhanced. This increases avenues for greater and more efficient stakeholder participation in decision making, and will broaden the use cases in administrative fields. The undertaken project provide a basis of further research into the application of digital twins to increase the efficiency of participatory decision making in infrastructure and architecture, where all the stakeholders are able to equally collaborate and share ideas by a quick and accurate digital implementation of their proposed suggestions, enhanced by the interaction of digital twins among themselves and with the available building system data.

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