STFC Augmented Reality Digital Twin

Client

Siemens

Deliverables

Augmented reality campus
Smart data display

A smart digital twin

Following on from the success of our augmented reality Keele University data visualisation tool, Siemens and the Science and Technology Facilities Council Daresbury Campus asked MAADIGITAL to create their very own digital twin.

The augmented realty campus lets users view the entire, true to life site from every angle, get up close to see live, at-a-glance data and view complete data in the dashboard view.

A challenging time for on-site work

Normally, for large-scale projects, MAADIGITAL is a ‘feet on the ground’ agency – we like to go, in person, to survey the site and capture real-world information. 2020’s sweeping social restrictions meant that we had to think on our feet.

We no longer had the capacity to travel with drones and photograph the site. The lack of photography meant photogrammetry would have been a considerable challenge, so we turned to satellite imagery and custom 3D modelling to help.

In what became an extensive research project, we gathered hundreds of images and painstakingly reconstructed both the site and the facades of the buildings.

Complex data, demystified

Different users are interested in different levels of data. To be able to serve information to as many users as possible, we created a multi-layered data experience.

At a glance, a heatmap provides a sense of improvement in efficiency over time.

Within the AR experience, buildings in the digital twin of the campus display core data when looked at, with the ability to view data over the last 24 hours.

For full, in-depth improvement statistics, each building, the traffic, and renewable energy sources has a graphical dashboard with smart graphs displaying real-time data compared with set points in the SEND project.