Azure Digital Twins

IoT is impacting the way we do business, however, the?wide selection?of questions?we'd like?to answer can make it?daunting to?get started. What data?can we?need? How will we use it? How?can we?provide access?to it?in a very?controlled and secure way? How?can we?connect devices? The list goes on and on.

The answer?is quite?vague.?one can?use IoT?for nearly?anything, but?a couple of?common business scenarios are:

? Tracking packages (where’s my parcel?)

? Counting inventory in real-time (how much do?i have in my warehouse?)

? Guiding manufacturing processes using IoT telemetry from industrial machinery

? Monitoring machines?to get?maintenance issues before the machines break down

According to the definition on the Microsoft website Azure Digital Twins is?an internet?of Things (IoT) platform?that permits?you?to make?a digital representation of real-world things, places, business processes?and people.?what is?meant by?that is?it creates a digital copy of the physical machine that one can monitor remotely. Let’s see?a picture?to know?what?I’m?talking about

Source - Microsoft

As seen in the picture, ADT creates a virtual representation of the physical buildings for better analytics. Rather than just looking at countless telemetry from hundreds of sensors installed in the building, one can just select the virtual representation of that sensor in the building and gain insights. It saves a lot of time and I know it seems difficult by looking at it, but its pretty easy to implement.

When you have a complex environment made up of structures and IoT sensors and devices, it can become difficult to keep track of the infrastructure and make plans to maintain and expand it. With Azure Digital Twins , you can model your (planned) real-world environment and keep track of it. Digital Twins enables you to create models of devices, places, people and processes. This provides context for your IoT devices and data within the physical environments that they work in, including rooms and people. And because Digital Twins connects to your IoT devices and data, the modelled environment comes to life and can be used to simulate and predict future situations.

So, the questions arise, how to get started with this? What are the requirements for implementation? How long will it take? How much will it cost? And many more. We’ll try to answer all these in this blog, so keep reading.

Azure Digital Twin can be accessed from azure portal. One can create a digital twin by just searching in the resource list. Once created, it looks something like this:

If we click on the Azure Digital Twin explorer, we are redirected to workspace where all the magic happens.

On the first glance, one can see there is a column to write queries. This helps in filtering out the machines and sensors when you are dealing with lots of them.

The Azure Digital Twins Explorer GUI tool lets users view digital twin models and instances,?also their relationships. Although Azure digital twins host dynamic properties that track?the present?state of physical data sources,?they?indirectly?analyze incoming messages from their data sources. Instead, users can create server less functions using Azure Functions to ingest messages generated by data sources and delivered to Azure IoT Hub (or other message hubs). These functions update the properties of Azure digital twins using APIs provided for this purpose.

Here’s a flow chart that shows how Azure functions can process messages from a thermostat and update both its digital twin and a parent digital twin that models?the space?during which?the thermostat?is found?. Note that?the primary?Azure function’s update triggers the Azure Event Grid to run a second function that updates the room’s property:

DTDL is an open modelling language that’s?almost like?JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)?and is?used to?quickly develop bespoke models. To expedite development, in an intelligent environment with?the assistance?of pre-made models. A real-world environment?is made?by connecting twins. Each twin has its own set of characteristics that determine how twins connect?a posh?knowledge graph. DTDL acts as a connector between digital twin solutions?also?as other Azure ecosystem components.

Real-World?samples of?Azure Digital Twins Implementation:

Johnson Controls: Johnson Controls and Microsoft are partnering to digitally alter the way buildings and spaces are designed, built, and maintained. A holistic connection between their technology, OpenBlue Digital Twin, and Digital Twins is at?the centre?of this relationship. The platform?is?the cornerstone for energy and space efficiency, predictive maintenance, and remote operations,?and therefore the?cooperation helps enable integrated design management.

Ansys: For users leveraging Azure Digital Twins, Ansys,?a worldwide?leader in simulation software, now enables native integration of simulation-based digital twins through Ansys Twin Builder. As a result, the simulation-based twins?are often?more easily integrated into?a bigger?IoT solution.

Brookfield Properties: With Willow’s Azure Digital Twins-based offering, Brookfield Properties,?one among?the world’s leading commercial office landlords, created a digital twin of their One Manhattan West (OMW) complex. This ecosystem, dedicated to establishing a “live, work, play” ecology, lays the framework for a digital-first future while also unleashing cost reductions, energy savings, and value-added solutions presently. This solution makes use of?property?Core’s ready-to-use, open-source models,?which may?be utilized?to help?speed up development?during a?sort of?sectors.

Source – EPC

To conclude, it's proved to be a billboard big thing. Under Azure Digital Twins pricing structures, it offers low latency, great scalability, and an easy development architecture for analyzing incoming telemetry. This service has the power to unravel a large range of key use cases while also introducing new IoT solutions that provide quick, actionable insights. Hence, this service is one-of-a-kind.