A Digital Twin for Monitoring the Construction of a Wind Farm

Abstract

Digital twins (DTs) represent an emerging technology that allows interaction between assets and their virtual replicas and enclose geometry from modeling procedures and dynamism from AI. DTs serve different purposes, e.g., testing how devices behave under diverse conditions or monitoring processes and supporting improvement. However, until now, the use of DTs for monitoring constructions has been limited, as they are frequently used only as a high-quality 3D digital representation without connecting to other systems, dynamic analysis, or simulation. This work proposes creating a DT for monitoring the construction of a wind farm. It draws a comparison between the as-designed models (from the design phase) and the as-built models (that represent the actual construction at different times). As a result, the DT can help to control deviations that may occur during construction. The authors propose using Unreal Engine to create an interface that includes as-designed models obtained from the building information modeling (BIM) and as-built models corresponding to different steps during the construction. The result is a video game-type interactive application with a timeline tool that allows going through the construction stages recorded in the as-built models and comparing them to the as-designed model.

Keywords

• digital twin (DT)
• building information modeling (BIM)
• as-built model
• as-designed model
• CAD/CAE model