Across government, the rapid expansion of the cyber ecosystem and continued adoption of Internet of things (IoT) devices have created an explosion of data from a multitude of systems and methods of ingestion. However, agencies are not always able to efficiently harness these potential insights for improved decision making. Many disparate data streams are hard to centrally manage, siloed or outdated systems make information difficult to access, and data in its raw form often can’t be used at all by non-technical audiences.
To address these challenges, federal organizations in dynamic mission environments—from defense to critical infrastructure—are increasingly turning to digital twins* to synthesize and visually represent a complex digital ecosystem. Why? Digital twins interweave multiple data streams to create unbroken, and living, threads of insight that improve mission outcomes.
Together these digital threads empower organizations to accelerate real-time decisions and test scenarios far beyond the limits of the physical world. In a time of data overload, they provide agencies with mission-unique decision tools for complex, cross-functional challenges like modernizing infrastructure and supply chains, addressing the effects of climate change, and reimagining human performance to understand the impacts of training and high-stress environments.
*Digital twins are technical, realistic replicas of systems, processes, or objects. They work by directly connecting to, or twinning with, their physical counterparts through continuously updated data feeds.
This collaborative facility-based digital twin, built with Unity, allows stakeholders across the facility lifecycle to explore different layers of building information models (BIMs) as they conduct virtual site surveys and quickly and easily locate underground, unseen utilities infrastructure to inspect components and plan for future investments.
