The completion of Beijing Daxing International Airport has attracted nationwide attention. This airport, which is currently the highest规格 and most advanced in China, symbolizes the highest level of airport construction and operation in our country.

Recently, China Software Network interviewed Beijing Brilliant  Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Brilliant  Technology), the supplier of the digital twin smart airport at Beijing Daxing International Airport.

Digital twin, a concept proposed by Prof. Grieves in 2003, was later defined by NASA as a paradigm for future aircraft digital twins. It wasn't until 2009, when the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory used digital twins to solve fighter jet maintenance issues, that this technology truly found practical application.

In the early concept proposed by Prof. Grieves, a digital twin consists of three parts:

1. The physical product in the physical space

2. The virtual product in the virtual space

3. The connecting data and information between the physical and virtual

By the time of NASA and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, the digital twin was redefined as: making full use of data such as physical models, sensor updates, and operational history, integrating simulations of multidiscipline, multiphysics, multiscale, and multiprobability to reflect the entire lifecycle process of the corresponding physical entity.

It wasn't until 2014 and 2015 that digital twin technology was introduced from the aviation field to other areas of application. This technology, also known as industrial simulation, was later incorporated into industrial design and architectural design (BIM). Boneng Shares' introduction of this technology into smart airport operations is indeed an innovative move.

Digital Twin: An Ideal Shortcut for Building Smart Airports

Currently, there is a multitude of software applications in airports, and there is an urgent need for an aggregated system platform. If a digital twin is used as the foundation to form an aggregated system platform for smart airport applications, it would be an ideal shortcut.

A complete three-dimensional physical model as the operational basis for a system platform is obviously much more efficient and effective in digital control, intelligent management, and visual presentation than common two-dimensional visualization operations.

By combining sensor data and historical data, a digital airport model that is identical to the physical real world is mapped in the virtual world to reflect the physical existence of the real entity airport. On one hand, mapping from the physical world to the virtual world forms the airport's data assets. On the other hand,Managers ideas can be mapped from the virtual world to the physical world through GIS, real scenes, VR, and other means, thereby technically empowering airportManagers in construction, operation, management, maintenance, and safety aspects.

According to an interview with China Software Network, Boneng is considered a leader in combining GIS visualization with digital twins and applying it to smart airports.

The application scenarios of digital twins in airports are mainly divided into four stages: planning and design phase, construction management phase, operation management phase, and operation and maintenance phase.

In the early planning and design, and construction management phases, Boneng Shares provides services through the digital twin airport to help users collaborate and discuss three-dimensional models in MR, solving complex spatial issues. It has also built an integrated construction and operation management system involving constructors, supervisors, and construction units, achieving refined control and digital management of delivery targets in terms of progress, quality, and cost review.

In the later operation management and operation and maintenance phases, the digital twin airport more efficiently, reasonably, safely, and economically solves core management issues such as airport operation command and dispatch, improves the maintenance level of important airport facilities and equipment, and the efficiency of fault elimination, assisting airport maintenance departments in completing daily maintenance and decision support for equipment.

The construction of the digital twin airport has addressed the perennial issues of low system interoperability, insufficient data integration, inadequate visualization, and low management efficiency and regulatory loopholes under manual supervision.

Beijing Daxing International Airport is the best product of this endeavor.

What are the applications of digital twins at Daxing Airport?

Brilliant  Technology  has created a comprehensive digital twin system for Beijing Daxing International Airport that is compatible with various clients, including an airport geographic information system, a high-precision integrated positioning system, an airside operation management system, an apron vehicle management system, a facility equipment maintenance and repair management system, and a construction and operation preparation system.

Beijing Daxing International Airport has established an implementation chain that starts with a high-precision map, proceeds to geospatial mapping, and finally to the deployment of positioning resources and system applications. During the construction phase alone, Daxing Airport has initiated the development and testing of more than 30 application systems based on map services and location services.

The technological development trends in the airport industry have led to the domestic evolution of airports being divided into the following four stages:

1. **Airport 1.0 Basic Airport**: This represents the form of airports in the early stages of the civil aviation industry.

2. **Airport 2.0 Agile Airport**: This represents the form of airports during the phase where all parties in the civil aviation industry sought more collaboration and mutual benefits.

3. **Airport 3.0 Smart Airport**: This represents the definition of airport forms for future intelligent operation in the civil aviation industry.

4. **Airport 4.0 Future Airport**: This represents the definition of future intelligent airport forms in the civil aviation industry.

Most domestic airports in China are currently in the process of transitioning from **Airport 2.0 Agile Airports** to **Airport 3.0 Smart Airports**, with a small number of airports in the process of perfecting their **Airport 3.0 Smart Airport** construction.

In June of this year, Boneng Shares completed a round of financing amounting to 18.2 million yuan, led by Wei'er Capital, with Gezhi Capital serving as the exclusive financial advisor for this round of financing.

Post-financing, Boneng Shares will consider exploring channel spaces in the下沉 market through diverse cooperation forms and establishing in-depth cooperation with more airport application companies, system integration companies, airport equipment companies, and airport construction companies.

Given that many small airports in China have relatively old facilities, Boneng Shares will also consider developing new products and businesses to adapt to the market of numerous small and medium-sized airports in the country. On the other hand, the awareness of digital twin technology overseas is relatively weaker compared to China, and due to the particularities and policy reasons of overseas markets, the overseas market is currently adopting more cooperative agency models.

According to an interview with China Software Network, Boneng Shares has already had in-depth business contact with airports such as Phnom Penh Airport in Cambodia and airports in Thailand.

The Revolution of Smart Airports Brought by Digital Twins

After years of development, previous smart airport applications can be roughly divided into six segments:

1. **Smart Airport Security Business Segment**: Represented by vehicle tracking and dispatch management systems, security patrol management, intelligent security surveillance systems, clear airspace environment management, non-stop construction management systems, apron supervision management, visual emergency management, and 3D emergency drill electronic sand table systems.

2. **Smart Airport Operations Business Segment**: Represented by Airport Collaborative Decision Making (ACDM) systems, visual lighting management, airside operations management, intelligent operations center systems, surface movement monitoring systems, and deicing command and dispatch systems.

3. **Smart Airport Management Business Segment**: Represented by pipeline resource management systems, visual asset management systems, and land management systems.

4. **Smart Airport Services Business Segment**: Represented by touch-screen passenger self-service systems and multi-terminal passenger information service systems such as mobile/WeChat versions.

5. **Smart Airport Commercial Business Segment**: Represented by terminal building commercial leasing management.

6. **Construction Engineering Digital Management System Segment**: Represented by construction engineering digital management systems.

If the above six units are based on the architecture of digital twins, combined with actual scenario applications such as airlines, airports, ground services, air traffic control, and air-ground collaboration, there will be revolutionary improvements in real-time feedback, airport resource integration, airspace capacity, air traffic flow, and workflow optimization.

Taking the deicing and snow removal of northern airports as an example, on the basis of the traditional deicing and snow removal process—command issuance—vehicle dispatch—result acceptance, the real-time feedback mechanism and physical world simulation of digital twin smart airports have been added. This has improved the efficiency of resource allocation, shortened the working time, and increased the effectiveness of the work (resource coverage rate of deicing and snow removal resources in the icing area).

Currently, considering that most existing airports have been built for a long time and have outdated infrastructure, the airports that can directly implement a complete set of digital twin smart airports are still mainly new airports and those undergoing expansion and renovation.

In the field of architectural design, BIM applications have begun to become more refined, and in airport construction, they are even more adept. With a combination of 2D and 3D integrated visualization, along with process simulation and parameter simulation, key links, processes, and parameters in airport planning and design are visualized and evaluated in real-time.

It can be said that the real-time feedback mechanism and physical world simulation are the two souls of digital twins in smart airport applications. From planning, design, construction to operations and maintenance, digital twins provide full lifecycle visualization services for smart airports, achieving the "five dimensions and six transformations" of smart airports.

China Software Network believes that digital twins are currently in the budding period of explosive growth.

In 2017, digital twins were still in the ascent phase of Gartner's Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, reached the peak of the curve in 2018, and by 2019, they had entered the slope of the curve.

A report released by Gartner in February 2019 showed that among organizations and companies implementing the Internet of Things (IoT), 13% were already using digital twins, and another 62% of organizations were building digital twins or planning to do so. It also predicted that by 2022, more than 60% of organizations and companies implementing IoT would use digital twins.

Currently, there are three mainstream application scenarios for digital twins: digital twin cities, digital twin manufacturing, and digital twin battlefields.

Let's take a benchmark case of a digital city, Virtual Singapore.

Virtual Singapore is a dynamic 3D city model and collaborative data platform that simulates the entire 3D map of Singapore and is the local authority's 3D digital platform.

From 2014 to January 2016, preliminary data collection of urban space was completed, which included实景 integrated 3D spaces with semantics and attributes. Information modeling technology was used to inject static and dynamic urban information data into the model, covering Singapore's 718 square kilometers of national territory, a population of 5 to 6 million, 160,000 buildings, 5,500 kilometers of streets, and the aforementioned scope of geographic information and urban infrastructure information.

The Virtual Singapore digital platform enables users from various fields to develop new tools and applications on its foundation for concept testing, services, planning decisions, and technical research.

Taking planning decisions as an example, it utilizes graphics and data collected from different public sectors, including traditional and real-time data such as geography, space, topology, demographics, mobility, and climate, to create a rich, large-scale simulation of the real scenes within Singapore.

Users can explore the urbanization of the country based on this and develop solutions related to optimizing the environment, disaster management, infrastructure management, national security, community services, and more.

According to China Software Network, Boneng Shares plans to expand into the fields of digital twin ports, digital twin rail transit, digital twin power, and digital twin cities.

Digital twins indeed have unlimited potential.