Construction Digital Twins and Virtual Property Tour of the Customer through VR on Digital Twins

Digital twins are transforming the Construction & Real Estate industry by providing a dynamic, real-time digital representation of a proposed physical asset, allowing for better design, construction, and operational efficiency during build phase avoiding design clashes and saving cost and time by reducing re-plan & re-work significantly during actual construction.

Project Goals are:

Enhanced Accurate Design and Planning: Digital twins enable architects and engineers to create highly accurate 3D models that simulate a building’s performance. This allows for early detection of potential design issues, enabling architects to make changes before construction begins, saving time and reducing costs.

Improved Project Management: By mirroring the physical construction process, digital twins offer real-time updates, helping project managers monitor progress against the plan. This can improve resource allocation, optimise schedules, and reduce the risk of delays or unexpected expenses.

Predictive Maintenance and Operations: Once the building is operational, digital twins continue to offer value by providing data on wear and tear, energy usage, and environmental conditions. This helps facilities managers predict and prevent failures, schedule maintenance efficiently, and optimise the building’s performance over time.

Safety and Risk Management: Digital twins can simulate various "what-if" scenarios, allowing construction companies to identify and mitigate safety risks. For example, they can model how weather, equipment failures, or unexpected events might impact a project, enabling proactive adjustments to minimise risks.

Sustainability: By analysing energy use and environmental impact in real-time, digital twins help construction companies make sustainable choices. They can model energy consumption patterns and simulate the effects of green building practices, aiding in the development of energy-efficient, eco-friendly designs.

The Digital Twin Construction Project with VR for Customer Engagement merges cutting-edge technology with a customer-focused approach, creating a more efficient, collaborative, and transparent construction experience. By integrating real-time data, predictive analytics, and immersive VR, this project not only enhances the construction process but also builds lasting relationships with customers, providing them with an engaging, interactive way to visualise and influence their future space.

Real Estate projects are capital intensive and any deviation in design and resource during implementation life cycle, impacts project timeline heavily. This instead impacts cost and margin exponentially since cost of borrowing capital gets a hit with incremental timeline for the payment of additional interest. Thus the prime object of the Digital Twin project is to control deviation in design clash in build phase and plan resources with schedule in advance before project kick off so that resources are available in required quantity as per work schedule.

The major result that we get from this projects are:

Increased Efficiency and Reduced Costs: By catching design issues early and optimizing resource use, the digital twin reduces construction delays and unnecessary expenses. VR minimizes costly post-completion changes by giving clients clarity on the design.
Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: VR allows clients to engage with the project in a meaningful way, providing transparency and confidence in the design choices and resulting in fewer design adjustments later in the project.
Sustainability and Energy Management: Through real-time monitoring and predictive analytics, the digital twin optimizes energy use and resource allocation, supporting green building goals and sustainable practices.
Data-Driven Decision Making: The project enables data-based insights, from construction planning through operations, enhancing long-term value, operational efficiency, and adaptability of the building over its lifecycle

Our project focuses on creating a Digital Twin of a Construction in Real Estate, enabling real-time, data-driven insights for all stages of the asset lifecycle, from design and planning through construction and ongoing facility management. In addition, the project incorporates Virtual Reality (VR) for customer engagement, allowing clients to interact with and explore the building in a virtual environment before, during, and after construction. By integrating these two technologies, the project enhances efficiency, collaboration, and customer satisfaction while offering a highly interactive experience.

Project Objectives

Enable Real-Time Monitoring and Decision-Making: Utilise IoT sensors in site equipment and drone camera and BIM data to create a live, digital replica of the construction project, providing a real-time view of the asset’s status, progress, and environment.

Enhance Stakeholder Collaboration: Provide a unified digital twin platform accessible to all stakeholders (engineers, architects, contractors, and clients) to improve communication, streamline workflows, and foster collaboration.

Improve Customer Experience with VR: Allow customers to virtually "walk through" and experience the building at various construction stages, providing a hands-on preview of the final structure and facilitating a deeper understanding of design and functionality.

Optimise Long-Term Asset Performance: Create a digital twin that continues to evolve with the building, enabling predictive maintenance, energy optimisation, and data-driven decisions throughout the building’s lifecycle.

Key Features

Digital Twin Platform:
• Data Integration: The digital twin integrates data from multiple sources, including BIM (Building Information Modeling), IoT sensors, project management tools, and ERP systems. This aggregated data forms a live, comprehensive model that reflects the physical construction in real time.
• Real-Time Monitoring: Sensor data continuously updates the digital twin, providing visibility into construction progress, resource usage, safety parameters, and environmental conditions.
• Predictive Analytics: Using machine learning algorithms, the digital twin can predict issues (such as equipment failures or scheduling conflicts) before they occur, improving decision-making and risk management.
• Lifecycle Management: The digital twin transitions from construction to operations, where it is used to manage energy consumption, maintenance, and facility management.

Virtual Reality Experience for Customers:
• Immersive 3D Visualisation: Using VR headsets, customers can explore a 3D representation of the building that is synchronised with the digital twin. This immersive experience allows them to view layouts, walk through rooms, and understand spatial relationships.
• Real-Time Updates: The VR model is updated with any design or structural changes as they are made to the digital twin, ensuring customers see the most current version of the project.
• Interactive Customisation: Customers can test different design options, such as finishes, lighting, and furniture arrangements, within the VR environment, making informed choices and giving feedback that can be directly applied to the physical project.
• 360° Visual Walkthroughs: Clients can take guided 360° walkthroughs, inspecting specific details or areas of interest and collaborating with the project team in the virtual space.