At the 2022 Technology Impact Awards in British Colombia, the Vancouver International Airport (YVR) recently received the Excellence in Industry Innovation Award by the BC Tech Association. The award-winning project involved a Digital Twin that was produced by GEO1 using RIEGL LiDAR and in partnership with GeoSim and Talon Helicopters.
A Digital Twin is a virtual representation that serves as the real-time digital counterpart of a physical object or process. Digital Twin models are being used at an increasing rate by airports to anticipate passenger movement and deploy resources, such as staff and vehicles, accordingly. They can also be used to develop simulations for training ground personnel and first responders, as well as to model emergency events or visualize future infrastructure development.
Once the data for YVR had been acquired by GEO1 with two RIEGL VUX-1LR Long Range Laser Scanners at an oblique angle to get improved coverage, the data could be stitched together by GeoSim to produce the final 3D model.
As the second largest airport in Canada, this Digital Twin allows YVR to be positioned at the forefront of innovation in the industry.
The digital twin of YVR is a visually immersive, accurate, and interactive 3D model of the airport. It can be integrated with real-time data to visualize operations or manipulated to simulate future change.
With an array of Phase One 150-megapixel cameras and RIEGL VUX-1LR Long Range Laser Scanners, the GEO1 team collected data at the rate of almost 1,000 megabytes per second.
