Within the context of the Iliad project, the authors present early design mock-ups and resulting technical challenges for a 2D/3D/4D geo-data visualisation application focused on microparticle flows. The Iliad – Digital Twins of the Ocean project (EU Horizon 2020) aims to develop a ‘system of systems’ for creating cutting-edge digital twins of specific sea and ocean areas for diverse purposes related to their sustainable use and protection. One of the Iliad pilots addresses the topic of water quality monitoring by creating an application offering dynamic 2D and 3D visualisations of specifically identified microparticles, initially observed by buoys/sensors deployed at specific locations and whose subsequent flows are modelled by separate software. The main upcoming technical challenges concern the data-driven approach, where the application’s input data is completely obtained through external API-based services offering (near) real-time observed data from buoys/sensors and simulated data emanating from particle transport models
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Within the context of the Iliad project, the authors present technical challenges and the first results of having valid 3D scenes of (non-)existing offshore wind farms procedurally and automatically generated within either the Unreal or Unity game engine. The Iliad – Digital Twins of the Ocean project (EU Horizon 2020) aims to develop a ‘system of systems’ for creating cutting-edge digital twins of specific sea and ocean areas for diverse purposes related to their sustainable use and protection. One of the Iliad pilots addresses the topic of offshore floating wind farm construction or maintenance scenario testing and validation using the Unity 3D game engine. This work will speed up the development of these scenarios by procedurally and automatically creating the Unity 3D scene rather than manually (which is done at present). The main technical challenges concern the data-driven approach, in which a JSON configuration file drives the scene creation. The first results show a base wind farm running in Unreal 5.1. The final product will be able to handle environmental conditions, biological conditions, and specific human activities as input parameters.
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Digital Twins of the Ocean (DTO) are a rapidly emerging topic that has attracted significant interest from scientists in recent years. The initiative, strongly driven by the EU, aims to create a digital replica of the ocean to better understand and manage marine environments. The Iliad project, funded under the EU Green Deal call, is developing a framework to support multiple interoperable DTO using a federated systems-of-systems approach across various fields of applications and ocean areas, called pilots. This paper presents the results of a Water Quality DTO pilot located in the Trondheim fjord in Norway. This paper details the building blocks of DTO, specific to this environmental monitoring pilot. A crucial aspect of any DTO is data, which can be sourced internally, externally, or through a hybrid approach utilizing both. To realistically twin ocean processes, the Water Quality pilot acquires data from both surface and benthic observatories, as well as from mobile sensor platforms for on-demand data collection. Data ingested into an InfluxDB are made available to users via an API or an interface for interacting with the DTO and setting up alerts or events to support ’what-if’ scenarios. Grafana, an interactive visualization application, is used to visualize and interact with not only time-series data but also more complex data such as video streams, maps, and embedded applications. An additional visualization approach leverages game technology based on Unity and Cesium, utilizing their advanced rendering capabilities and physical computations to integrate and dynamically render real-time data from the pilot and diverse sources. This paper includes two case studies that illustrate the use of particle sensors to detect microplastics and monitor algae blooms in the fjord. Numerical models for particle fate and transport, OpenDrift and DREAM, are used to forecast the evolution of these events, simulating the distribution of observed plankton and microplastics during the forecasting period.
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The IMPULS-2020 project DIGIREAL (BUas, 2021) aims to significantly strengthen BUAS’ Research and Development (R&D) on Digital Realities for the benefit of innovation in our sectoral industries. The project will furthermore help BUas to position itself in the emerging innovation ecosystems on Human Interaction, AI and Interactive Technologies. The pandemic has had a tremendous negative impact on BUas industrial sectors of research: Tourism, Leisure and Events, Hospitality and Facility, Built Environment and Logistics. Our partner industries are in great need of innovative responses to the crises. Data, AI combined with Interactive and Immersive Technologies (Games, VR/AR) can provide a partial solution, in line with the key-enabling technologies of the Smart Industry agenda. DIGIREAL builds upon our well-established expertise and capacity in entertainment and serious games and digital media (VR/AR). It furthermore strengthens our initial plans to venture into Data and Applied AI. Digital Realities offer great opportunities for sectoral industry research and innovation, such as experience measurement in Leisure and Hospitality, data-driven decision-making for (sustainable) tourism, geo-data simulations for Logistics and Digital Twins for Spatial Planning. Although BUas already has successful R&D projects in these areas, the synergy can and should significantly be improved. We propose a coherent one-year Impuls funded package to develop (in 2021): 1. A multi-year R&D program on Digital Realities, that leads to, 2. Strategic R&D proposals, in particular a SPRONG/sleuteltechnologie proposal; 3. Partnerships in the regional and national innovation ecosystem, in particular Mind Labs and Data Development Lab (DDL); 4. A shared Digital Realities Lab infrastructure, in particular hardware/software/peopleware for Augmented and Mixed Reality; 5. Leadership, support and operational capacity to achieve and support the above. The proposal presents a work program and management structure, with external partners in an advisory role.
