Aeromon Quadcopter Digital Twin

Project Title

Aeromon Quadcopter Digital Twin

Project Area of Specialization Artificial IntelligenceProject Summary ABSTRACT:

Innovation is the charm of 4th Industrial Revolution. ICT Organizations all over the world have declared the year 2019 as a "Year of Succesful Innovation"

Industries constantly strive to produce smarter solutions for their operations that are effective and commercially efficient. One robust technology that was introduced under the umbrella of Industry 4.0 is called "Digital Twin".

What is Digital Twin? It's a dynamic digital replica (2D or 3D) of a physical asset, system or a process. It uses sensors on physcial counterpart to enable useful Data Visualizations and decision making. Companies tend to use smarter approaches for operations to maximize profits, so that they sustain and maintain competitive edge. One such approach is employing Digital Twin technology for the Maintenance of Aircrafts, Radars and other Aviation assemblies.

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

The World is using Digital Twin technology on commercial level for large-scale benefits but unfortunately there is no initiative regarding this technology in Pakistan.

Digital Twins have been developed for Aircraft Landing Gears, Monitoring health of sensitive patients, Computer Aided Contruction by mulitude of companies inlcluding GE, Siemens and IBM.

PROBLEM SOLUTION:

We hereby take initiative to start adopting this Technology in Pakistan. Aviation Industry needs Digital Twin, and we want to take first steps in building it indigenously.

The Project aims at creating a Digital Twin of quadcopter – a flying asset. We chose quadcopter for this Project as it is the simplest domestic use-case that finely resembles the large-scale and highly sophisticated machines of Aviation industry i.e. Planes, Jets, Radars, Drones etc.

Project Objectives OBJECTIVES:

• Real-time simulation
• Remote monitoring and control
• Real-time liasion between virtual and real asset
• To present a prototype of Digital Twin technology
• To consider this Technology for solving biggest problems of Aviation Industry e.g. Inspecting Fuselages, Landing gear failures, Equipment failure

SCOPE:

This project aims at creating a digital twin of a Quadcopter. In this project, following characteristics of the quadcopter shall be modelled and simulated:

• Quadcopter flight and landing
• Rotation of propellers
• Dynamic altitude of quadcopter
• Live GPS Position
• Environment temperature
• Battery capacity
• Missions

How will it be demonstrated? The quadcopter would be flown in the air. System would get the telemetry data of quadcopter (propeller rotation, altitude gain or loss, flihgt movement, missions) and communicated to its 3D model, which will present a real-time Digital Twin in Unity Engine.

Finally, we would get an operating model which allows us to monitor the asset remotely.

Project Implementation Method MODULES:

MODULE 1: Modelling

• 3D Model of Drone
• Environment Modelling
• Dashboard and Interfaces
• Walkthroughs

MODULE 2: Digital Twin

• Simulation of propellers
• Simulation of altitude
• Simulation of position
• Battery percenatage
• Flight status

MODULE 3: Communication Middleware

• Capture image
• Record/Pause/Resume/Stop video
• Take-off
• Landing

MODULE 4: Reporting

• Flight plots
• Media

MODULE 5: Missions

• Way Point mission
• Hot Point mission
• Fly to a point mission

MODULE 6: Dashboard

• Get current temperature
• Flight timer and battery consumption indicator
• Real-time connection info

Benefits of the Project

• Real-time monitoring of a remote asset (quadcopter) using Digital Twin 
• Agent based Modelling and Simulation
• Serves as a prototype for more sophisticated usecases in Aviation Industry and Pakistan Air Force

Technical Details of Final Deliverable TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES:

Tool / Technology	Rationale
Unity 3D	Game Engine
Pencil	Mockups Creation
Android Studio	Communication Middleware
Blender	3D Modelling
Firebase	Real-time Database
C#	Simulation Programming language
Java	Middleware Programming language

CONCEPTS:

• Building a liaison between physical and digital environment
• Remote asset monitoring
• Remote asset control
• Basic visualizations
• 3D Modelling in Blender
• Hardware Software connectivity and cross communication
• Arduino 2.  Drone
• Designing and Development in Unity3D
• Scripting in Unity3D
• Working with Drone SDK
• Unity3D Simulation

Tool / TechnologyUnity 3DPencilAndroid StudioBlenderFirebaseC#JavaFinal Deliverable of the Project HW/SW integrated systemCore Industry ITOther Industries Others Core Technology Artificial Intelligence(AI)Other Technologies OthersSustainable Development Goals Industry, Innovation and InfrastructureRequired Resources

Elapsed time in (days or weeks or month or quarter) since start of the project	Milestone	Deliverable
Month 1	Project Scope	Scope Document
Month 2	Requirements Specification	Software Requirements Specification (SRS) document
Month 3	Design specification	Software Design Specification (SDS) document
Month 4	40% Implementation	Design and Development of Interface (Working condition | static)
Month 5	70% Implementation	Development of core functionality mainly Real-time model control
Month 6	100% Implementation	Complete functionality + Two way Real-time control