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Centre for Digital Built Britain completed its five-year mission and closed its doors at the end of September 2022

This website remains as a legacy of the achievements of our five-year foundational journey towards a digital built Britain
 

Our Challenge

Digital twins are realistic digital representations of physical assets, for example a digital representation of an aeroplane that can be used to monitor and predict performance, feeding out insights and interventions. These insights lead to better interventions and unlock real-world value from assets through financial savings, improved performance and services, and better outcomes for society. Digital twin technology already exists and is increasingly being introduced across industry, however there is an opportunity to gain more valuable insights about the entire built environment as an interconnected system if digital twins are developed to be interoperable, secure and connected. The introduction of a National Digital Twin, that connects the digital twins together, will enable us to use collective innovation to progress society, the economy and the environment for the public good.

Our Solution

CDBB’s research programme was developing exciting prototypes of multi-asset digital twins, based on the Gemini Principles, and working to extend the capability of existing tools to larger scales and complex systems, from university campuses to cities.

Projects within this theme

Projects in this theme Lead researcher

Building Impulse: A novel digital toolkit for productive, healthy and resource-efficient buildings

Creating a toolkit for capturing occupant satisfaction with their environment in buildings, in order to feed the next generation of smart buildings with a more holistic set of metrics for comfort and enjoyment of a space.

Dr Mauro Overend

Analysing Systems Interdependencies using a Digital Twin

Demonstrating the feasibility of using a digital twin to generate new insights on systems relationships and interdependencies in order to understand infrastructure complexity. A collaboration among a number of UK universities using empirical data from a major project (Thames Tideway).

Prof. Jennifer Whyte

West Cambridge Digital Twin Research Facility 

Enabling practical, in-the-wild exploration of the challenges associated with the production of a National Digital Twin - an ecosystem of connected digital twins, securely sharing infrastructure information to support better outcomes for us all.

Dr Ajith Kumar Parlikad and Dr Richard Mortier

Exploiting traffic data to improve asset management and citizen quality of life

Building on a tool developed by two Cambridge PhD students that allows for the generation of high-resolution, geographical data heat maps, this project explore how these maps can help to solve optimisation problems relevant to citizens’ everyday lives.

Dr Ajith Kumar Parlikad

A digital twin prototype for journeys to work in Cambridge

An early trial to address the research gap on city-level digital twins. This pilot is focused on commutes, such as journeys to work, which are a key determinant of peak-time travel demand. Examining the potential impacts of digital transformation on journeys to work in the Cambridge sub-region.

Dr Li Wan

 

Key Researchers in this Theme