The difficulty for an organisation to successfully plan updates on a site without a clear picture to work from can lead to financial challenges. Planning based on an outdated understanding of a site means that when it comes to implementation, a company may have dimensional errors or have judged the space inaccurately, so they have to factor rework within the project costs, which can have a heavy financial impact. As we will see, the most efficient way to produce reliable and up-to-date digital twins of a site is by using mobile laser scanning.
From an article in Power Engineering International by Nate Bridges.
Digitally managing a site involves using laser scanning technology to capture it. With a digital twin of a physical site, organisations can determine how to best develop and optimise their operations efficiently and transparently.
However, a laser scan is a snapshot in time, and the longer it takes to secure that snapshot, the less value it can provide to the business. Traditional approaches still have limitations in this sense. With static laser scanning technologies, for example, it can take an organisation more than a year to capture a site, minimising any potential efficiency gains down the road.
Oil and gas companies are considering alternative solutions to support their planning of the construction of facilities, turnaround support and management of sites. The next form of innovative technology will take a site plan from “what-if” to “what-will” happen.
The most efficient way to produce a reliable and up-to-date digital twin of a site is by using mobile laser scanning. This innovative form of mapping technology uses Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) algorithms and cloud-based processing to enable reality capture at the speed of walking, and more automated processing and alignment. This approach provides a more complete digital representation of the space in a fraction of the time compared to traditional versions of scanning methods.
For the complete article on digital twins CLICK HERE.
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