To bring the Vision and Roadmap to life, a selection of companies were engaged to develop digital twin use cases for transport, with input from industry. These do not cover all the possible use cases for digital twins in transport, but provide a selection of tangible examples of use cases which could support improvements for the user, reductions in environmental impacts, and growth of the UK economy. There are also a selection of use cases linked here from the Digital Twin Hub. The Digital Twin Hub, based at the Connected Places Catapult, is a network for finding partners and collaborators, for learning and sharing experiences; for driving innovation, developing expertise and advancing the state of the art for digital twins.
OpenSpace is creating a Digital Twin platform to visualise passenger movements and behaviours in railway stations, in order to monitor station performance and help operators provide better information and improve the customer experience.
The company has developed Digital Twins for three stations on the HS1 network: St Pancras International, Stratford International and Ebbsfleet International and combined them into one ‘federated’ Digital Twin network to predict passenger flows at each station. The aims of the project include allowing operators to make more informed decisions during disruption, better match train service supply to demand, and provide customers with personalised journey information.
Syselek is developing Digital Twin capabilities for a project designed to provide the most effective use of electric chargers for heavy goods vehicles at fleet operators’ depot sites. The system will analyse when charging infrastructure is scheduled to be used and consider the recharging requirements of vehicles.
It is hoped that the Digital Twin system will help to inform investment decisions and guard against the specification of unnecessary installations. The company plans to consider preventative maintenance cycles in the model, and use it to reduce costs by ensuring that charging is encouraged at the most cost efficient times of day.
Evo Track is developing a Digital Twin for building and managing electric vehicle charging infrastructure to be used by shared autonomous vehicles. It hopes to forecast demand and predict usage in order to support expansion of the public charging infrastructure, but without building too many units that are beyond what is needed.
The company uses a tool to identify charging locations likely to deliver a high return on investment. It has also developed a flood alert system for use at charging stations at risk of excess surface water, to help inform motorists if a unit is likely to be affected before flooding takes place.
Slingshot Simulations has developed a Digital Twin called Compass Engine to predict the impact of introducing changes to the highway network in urban areas. It considers whether closing certain roads to reduce emissions may lead to unintended consequences, such as increasing air pollution and noise elsewhere.
It has built a digital model of Bristol and populated it with land use layers, traffic counts and energy performance certificates of nearby buildings. Traffic simulations have been run to predict emissions and noise in areas with lower quality housing that are less likely to have double glazing and could be affected more acutely by extra traffic.
Digilab is building a Digital Twin called twinAir which monitors air pollution from road traffic in real time. It is also developing an associated platform called twinlab and is launching a ‘digilab academy’ to provide specialist training to artificial intelligence practitioners.
The company has created what it calls a ‘physics informed surrogate’ for the city of Exeter that collects air quality data from the roadside. It then scales this information up in order to provide a more accurate picture of traffic related pollution right across the city throughout the day, rather than relying on data from a small number of sensors.
Mole Solutions is developing an underground freight transport system to propel goods through pipelines to help relieve congestion on the highway network, reduce air pollution and ease safety concerns associated with road haulage. The system plans to use magnetic tracks to carry driverless capsules, and could be installed between factories and distribution centres, providing a just-in-time delivery service.
Digital Twins are expected to be used to model and simulate the underground transport system prior to construction and, once built, monitor track condition and performance of the network. The use of Digital Twins could also oversee the network’s propulsion system and supply chain requirements.
Outputs | Activities |
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Research and innovation strategy defined for connected digital twins in transport 2023 - 2026 |
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Key milestones defined for achieving an ecosystem of digital twins in transport 2023 - 2032 |
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Identified infrastructure and services supporting requirements of connecting digital twins 2024 - 2026 |
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Outputs | Activities |
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Accessible procurement frameworks for connected digital twins 2025 - 2028 |
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Appropriate routes for the investment and finance community to invest in connected digital twins and provide maintenance and management funding throughout the lifecycle of connected digital twins and their assets 2026 - 2028 |
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Commercial models in place to address funding needs for connected digital twins including maintenance 2024 - 2026 |
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Marketing strategy in place to communicate achievements in digital twins and attract stakeholders 2026 - 2028 |
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Outputs | Activities |
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Baseline for digitised assets to establish the direction for digital twins in the transport sector 2023 - 2025 |
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Use cases identified based on customer/industry/government needs and the value gained from combined data 2024 - 2026 |
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Business case for use cases that require government funding and for those that industry will invest in 2027 - 2028 |
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Operationalised connected digital twin use cases 2031 - 2035 |
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The TRIB-commissioned Vision and Roadmap, produced by the Connected Places Catapult, consists of workstreams, components, outputs, outcomes and activities, which collectively guide us towards a future in which we achieve the shared vision in 2035.
At the top level, the roadmap shows different workstreams together with their corresponding components. A click on each component opens up the expected output and target delivery date. A further click on ‘Explore this workstream’ presents the output and associated activities, the key contributors and supporting organisations, outcomes, and a selection of relevant publications.
These activities are the building blocks which can be used to achieve the 2035 Vision and have been selected based on those which are likely to have the most impact. The Roadmap has been developed in collaboration with experts from academia, industry and government (further detail on the partners and stakeholder pages), but the list of activities is not exhaustive and prioritisation has been conducted by assessing the greatest potential impact of the activities.
Workstream | Component | Target output end year | |||
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2023-2025 | 2026-2030 | 2031-2035 | |||
Strategy and innovationExplore this Workstream | |||||
Enabling environmentExplore this Workstream | |||||
People, skills and cultureExplore this Workstream | |||||
Technology and dataExplore this Workstream | |||||