On November 28-29, 2024, the Smart Civil Aviation Development Forum 2024, hosted by the Civil Aviation Information Center of China and co-hosted by the Western Airports Group Co., Ltd., was grandly held in Xi'an. With the theme of "Creating a New Situation for the Construction of Smart Civil Aviation," the forum focused on the strategic and policy alignment of civil aviation development in the new era, full-process business scenarios, the construction of network data infrastructure, and the development of new productive forces. It invited relevant leaders, industry experts and scholars, and well-known enterprises in the industry to gather and discuss the new situation of smart civil aviation construction.

Beijing Brilliant Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Brilliant Technology) was invited to participate in this forum and had an exclusive booth at the event to showcase its independently developed digital twin operating system BLinkOS and the digital twin airport solution built on BLinkOS.

Since its establishment in 2005, Brilliant Technology has been deeply involved in the field of digital construction. With the philosophy of "infrastructure digitization and digital infrastructure foundationalization," the company has developed the proprietary digital twin operating system BLinkOS and has been a pioneer in applying digital twin technology to the civil aviation sector. After nearly two decades of technological accumulation and experience in digital construction in the civil aviation field, Boneng Shares has successively created benchmark cases for digital twin airport applications, including Beijing Capital International Airport, Beijing Daxing International Airport, and Chengdu Tianfu International Airport.

Digital twin technology is widely recognized as one of the key technologies in the new infrastructure wave in China and is being vigorously promoted and applied across various industries. In the civil aviation sector, digital twin technology is particularly seen as an important means to achieve the integration of airport investment, construction, and operation. The digital twin airport solution built on the BLinkOS digital twin operating system realizes the digitization of various airport infrastructures, providing a unified twin data management and service platform for airports. It offers a full chain of services for airport investment planning, digital construction, and intelligent operation, empowering the management throughout the entire lifecycle.

Planning Phase: Providing Visual and Quantifiable Decision Support

During the planning phase of airport construction, through the BLinkOS digital twin operating system, a combination of 2D and 3D integrated visualization, along with process simulation and parameter simulation, enables the visualization and real-time assessment of key scenarios, links, and processes in airport investment planning and design. This shifts planning and design from text and documents to a more intuitive and vivid form, providing quantifiable and visual decision support for planning and design evaluation. Beijing Daxing International Airport, based on design drawings, uses digital twin presentation during the design phase to showcase the future airport and construction progress, achieving a comprehensive display of the future airport project and overall control of the construction process.

Construction Phase: Intelligent Site Control and Digital Construction Handover

During the construction phase of the airport, based on BIM components and event processes, the BLinkOS digital twin operating system enables the construction party to achieve comprehensive practical management of the construction unit's project, covering "four controls, two managements, and one coordination" (safety, progress, quality, cost review, contract management, information management, and coordination). This facilitates refined control and digital management oriented towards the delivery target. Additionally, the BLinkOS system provides functions for the electronic transfer of project files, visual transfer of equipment assets, and digital transfer of the physical airport. 

Beijing Daxing International Airport, during its construction phase, utilized the BLinkOS system to present the design results in a digital twin format, integrating information on the progress, quality, and cost review of the delivery target. It shared spatial data results with the construction party, the contractor, and the supervising party, comparing and analyzing them with the actual construction process, making the construction situation knowable, sensible, visible, and controllable. Furthermore, through the system's electronic transfer, visualization transfer, and digital transfer functions, it effectively links construction with operation, achieving integrated management.

Operation Phase: Empowering Airport Intelligent Operations from Four Dimensions

During the airport's operational phase, the BLinkOS digital twin operating system can empower the intelligent operation of airports from four aspects:

Providing a Visual Digital Asset Management Platform: Based on the digital twin system, by integrating macro and micro perspectives and combining 2D and 3D visualization, it achieves more intuitive, convenient, and efficient digital management of facilities and equipment. Chengdu Tianfu International Airport's digital asset management platform, different from traditional asset ledger management, utilizes the digital twin service platform to implement a visual asset management system. This system tracks the location of assets under a full-scene map and between building floors, as well as monitors maintenance, repair, and status for the entire lifecycle management of assets.

Providing a Visual Production and Operations Monitoring Platform: Through the digital twin system, a comprehensive visual monitoring platform is provided for airport management personnel at all levels, including the surrounding airspace flight routes, flight area ground activities, terminal check-in/security, public area traffic, and underground pipeline status. This platform facilitates real-time control of the airport's operational status and resource utilization. Beijing Capital International Airport uses the platform to visually monitor airspace, surface, underground, and indoor areas through digital twin presentation.

Providing a Simulation Platform: The platform can realize various functions such as emergency simulation exercises, virtual training, autonomous driving training, and process simulation, providing decision support for management personnel. Chengdu Tianfu International Airport has established an emergency management system that serves as a crucial support system for the airport's emergency management center, offering functions such as emergency plan management, emergency drill, emergency rescue command coordination, training management, and knowledge base management. This system can meet the airport's needs in responding to emergency rescue incidents.

Providing a Production Operations Optimization Platform: Constructing an airport production operation simulation and optimization tool that integrates spatiotemporal and flight information, based on scenario analysis management methodology, to actively discover, optimize, and virtually verify airport operational issues, and to compare and generate optimization reports as part of the business process.