Transport for London (TfL) has entered into a partnership with advanced digital twin start-up Spinview to create a digital model of the London Underground.
The digital model will improve the safety and efficiency of maintaining the network by monitoring tracks and tunnels and providing detailed 3d images. It will also provide data on heat levels, noise levels and carbon emissions.
Spinview was awarded the government’s smart grant, which will fund the partnership. It will support the Mayor of London’s ambition to haze a zero carbon railway by 2030.
The data collected by the digital twin will be available to employees across TfL to help them better manage assets and help them reach environmental targets.
Spinview’s world first Deep Rail Sensor (DRS) device will not only capture the geometry of the spaces, but it will “sniff out” the environmental pollutants.
The project will begin by modelling the Piccadilly Line, one of the Underground’s “deep tube” lines with some track as low as 30m below ground level.
TfL director of the Piccadilly Line upgrade project Paul Judge said: “This partnership with Spinview offers us a really exciting opportunity to gain real-time access to our assets on the Underground network, many of which we can currently only inspect during engineering hours.
“Not only will using digital-twin technology support the smarter, more efficient maintenance of the railway, it will also enable us to more accurately monitor environmental challenges such as carbon emissions, noise levels and heat as we strive to do more to lessen our carbon footprint and help tackle the climate emergency. This is another example of us working with a wide range of market innovators to stay at the forefront of technology”.
Source: newcivilengineer.com