Digital Twins for the Built Environment

The Focus Group “Digital Twins for the Built Environment” consists of Hans Fischer Fellow Prof. Yelda Turkan (Oregon State University) and her host Prof. André Borrmann (Chair of Computational Modeling and Simulation, TUM School of Engineering and Design).

The role of this Focus Group is to advance the current state-of-the-art algorithms in developing digital twins (DT) of existing buildings from point cloud data, a process called scan-to-DT. DTs can account for all components of a building and store semantic information describing each component's appearance, dimensions, material, thermal performance, and other properties. The objective of this collaboration is to automate scan-to-DT processes using machine learning algorithms, i.e., create methods that automatically extract and classify objects (walls, doors, windows, etc.) within the point cloud. DTs produced through this automated process will be digital replicas of physical assets, and can be used for managing, maintaining and retrofitting buildings and other infrastructure assets. They can also support sustainability goals by enabling analysis of a building’s energy performance and managing its carbon footprint throughout its lifecycle. The expected results of the work that will be carried out by this Focus Group are of direct value for society as the management and maintenance of the aging building stock represents a major challenge for essentially all developed countries. Timely building maintenance and retrofitting are important if we were to minimize buildings’ contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on climate change.

 

TUM-IAS funded doctoral candidate:
Syed Salman Ahmed, Chair of Computational Modeling and Simulation (TUM School of Engineering and Design)