Twin peaks

摘要

The term "digital twin" was one of the key phrases at the Year in Infrastructure 2018 conference staged in London, UK, by Bentley Systems, where new digital twin cloud services for infrastructure projects and assets were announced. A digital twin is a virtual replica of something real, such as a machine, structure or process, with the digital and physical counterparts paired, providing an insight into how it is functioning in the world. Greg Bentley, CEO of Bentley Systems, the US-based global provider of software solutions for advancing the design, construction and operations of infrastructure, revealed the forthcoming availability of iTwin Services -digital twin cloud services for infrastructure projects (project digital twins) and assets (performance digital twins). The company said that iTwin Services could be used transparently within Bentley's connected data environment (CDE) for its ProjectWise and AssetWise users. Bentley said that infrastructure asset owners and their teams had recognised the potential for leveraging digital twins, in many cases including the application of analytics, artificial intelligence (Al) and machine learning (ML), in simulations and decision support throughout the lifecycle of design, construction and operations.