From June 12th to 14th, 2024, the 2024 Civil Aviation Digital Technology and Intelligent Equipment Exhibition was grandly held at Guangzhou Airport Expo Center. The conference, themed "Information Empowerment, Intelligence Efficiency," aimed to showcase the development level of China's civil aviation digital technology and intelligent equipment industry chain, and to promote the digital transformation of smart civil aviation and the comprehensive capability of civil aviation service support. Beijing Brilliant  Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Brilliant  Technology), brought its BLinkOS series of digital twin operating system products and digital twin airport solutions to the exhibition.

On the afternoon of June 12th, at the "Digital Twin Airport Construction Development Forum" held concurrently with the conference, Ms. Qi Huanran, Vice President of Beijing Brilliant Technology Co., Ltd. and General Manager of Chengdu Brilliant  Digital Technology Co., Ltd., shared a report titled "Digital Twin Operating System Empowering the Digital and Intelligent Construction of Civil Aviation Airports." She engaged in an in-depth exchange with guests present on how to use digital twin technology to support the digital and intelligent transformation of airports, address the increasing pressures and challenges faced by airports, and improve operational efficiency, optimize passenger experience, and ensure safe operations.

Since its establishment in 2005, Brilliant Technology has been deeply involved in the field of digital construction. With the concept of "infrastructure digitization and digital infrastructure fundamentalization," the company has developed the proprietary digital twin operating system BLinkOS and was the first to apply 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, Bion Technology has successively created benchmark cases of digital twin airport applications, including Beijing Capital International Airport, Beijing Daxing International Airport, Xi'an Xianyang 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 vigorously promoted and applied across various industries. In the civil aviation sector, digital twin technology is particularly seen as an important means to achieve integrated investment, construction, and operation of airports. 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, BLinkOS digital twin operating system utilizes integrated 2D and 3D visualization to combine process simulation and parameter simulation, achieving visual simulation and real-time assessment of key scenarios, links, and processes in airport investment planning and design. This transforms planning and design solutions from text and documents to intuitive and vivid forms, providing quantifiable and visual decision support for planning and design evaluation. Beijing Daxing International Airport, based on design drawings, presents the future airport and construction progress in a digital twin format during the design phase, 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, BLinkOS digital twin operating system enables the construction party to implement comprehensive practical management of the construction unit's project, achieving fine-grained control and digital management of safety, progress, quality, and cost review for the delivery object. Additionally, the BLinkOS system provides functions for electronic transfer of project documentation, visualization 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 object. It shared spatial data results with the construction party, the contractor, and the supervisor, comparing and analyzing them with the actual construction progress, making the construction situation knowable, perceptible, visible, and controllable. Furthermore, through the system's electronic, visual, and digital transfer functions, it effectively links construction with operations, achieving integrated management.

Operation Phase: Empowering Smart Airport Operations in Four Dimensions

During the airport's operational phase, the BLinkOS digital twin operating system can empower smart airport operations in four key areas:

Providing a Visual Digital Asset Management Platform: Based on the digital twin system, by integrating macro and micro perspectives and combining 2D and 3D visualizations, it achieves more intuitive, convenient, and efficient digital management of facilities and equipment. Chengdu Tianfu International Airport's digital asset management platform, unlike traditional asset ledger management, utilizes the digital twin service platform to implement a visual asset management system. This system manages the tracking of assets' locations across all-scenario maps and between building floors, as well as their maintenance, repair, and status monitoring throughout their entire lifecycle.

Providing a Visual Operations Monitoring Platform: Through the digital twin system, a comprehensive visual monitoring platform for all levels of airport management personnel is provided, including the surrounding airspace flight routes, airfield 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 digitally twin the airspace, surface, underground, and indoor environments, enabling visual monitoring.

Providing a Simulation Platform: The platform can achieve 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 like 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 events.

Providing a Production Operations Optimization Platform: Constructing an airport production operations simulation and optimization tool that integrates spatial and temporal information with flight data, based on scenario analysis management methodology, enables proactive identification of operational issues, optimization of problems, virtual verification, and comparison of optimization reports within the business process.

As the construction of the national modern industrial system progresses, new quality productive forces centered on innovation are rapidly developing. Bion Technology, as a new infrastructure provider for the metaverse and a practitioner in the digital twin industry, will take innovation as the foundation for its development, continuously innovating new applications of digital twin technology in the civil aviation airport sector, and promoting the digital and intelligent transformation of civil aviation airports.