Virtual Reality (VR) applications in multiple industries

Virtual reality technology (VR) has important features such as perception, immersion, and interactivity. It integrates the latest high-tech development achievements such as 3D graphics, display, and simulation, to generate a digital environment that is highly similar to the real world in terms of vision, hearing, and touch. So that people in the virtual world can have an immersive feeling and experience.

Hightopo’s self-developed “HT for Web” product can interact with various objects in the virtual environment by adapting to VR devices, such as grabbing, moving, and splitting. Now it has compatible with many VR devices such as HTC Vive, Oculus, Qeust2, Pico, etc.

Digital Twins Empower Carbon Neutral Industrial Park Management

Growing climate change concerns in recent years have led to an increased need for carbon dioxide emission reduction. This can be achieved by implementing the concept of circular economy, which promotes the practice of resource conservation, emission minimization, and the maintenance of sustainable revenue streams. Hightopo utilizes the self-developed visualization product — HT for Web to build a lightweight, interactive, and smart energy visualization management system for industrial parks. HT for Web contains not only 2D dashboards but also 3D graphics, to provide a comprehensive solution for energy management and monitory. Empower industrial park managers and operators to achieve energy saving, centralized monitoring, management & decentralized control of energy. The system includes power distribution, lighting, air conditioning, heating, water supply and drainage of buildings, etc.

Based on Web, the B/S structure system adopts a modular idea in the development process, that is, each module is developed separately and then integrated to reduce circular dependence and coupling. So as to unify the supervision of each measurement point and optimize the construction management. On the one hand, find out the inefficient operation of the equipment or the corresponding floor area, on the other hand, find out the abnormal energy consumption, reduce the peak power consumption level, and give reasonable suggestions based on data analysis.

Responsive design and cross-platform capability allow users to access the system anywhere, any time, using any kind of device. Highly interactive and lightweight models ensure an outstanding user experience, regardless its even visit from mobile devices. Main System Overview The Energy Medium module shows users the current medium consumption in two ways, one is divided systematic, the other is divided in spatial. Clicks again to trigger the information about the energy consumption of each subsystem or each device respectively.

Enviorment Data Visualization Use wireless sensors to collect environmental data, including indoor and outdoor temperature, humidity, CO2 concentration, VOC concentration, PM2.5 concentration, etc., and classify them according to whether to realize self-renewal in different environments, and propose energy storage optimization solutions for photovoltaics and wind power. Energy Consumption Visualization Data was synced and displayed at the 2D data panel, data sourced from AC, lighting system, and other consumer systems was sorted, analysed and updated in real-time. Water Supply Device Visualization

The core system achieves automatic loading and unloading of equipment by communicating with background data. The 2D data panel enables intelligent control and management of all pipelines, equipment and structures in the water supply and drainage system, get a full grasp of the water system equipment operation status, which includes each floor wireless water meters, LORA switches, and energy efficiency management platform to ensure the safe and efficient operation of the water supply system. Power Supply Equipment Visualization

The highly interactive system ensures fast response for the power supply. Each equipment is able to interact and give feedback in real-time. This includes sensors, GPRS/4G/NB-IoT and more. HT cross-platform capability allows users to visit the system on their mobile phones, tablets, and PC devices. PV Energy Storage Visualization

PV Energy Storage is easy to get affected by multiple factors such as weather, temperature, and humidity during actual operation, resulting in intermittent photovoltaic power and random fluctuations in grid power. Digital twins are a good solution for this issue. HT integrated with energy storage equipment data and weather sensor data, TN-S power supply system data to visualize and provide continuous & stable power supply, improve the system work efficiency and power supply reliability. Distribution System

The power supply system is generally constructed at the same time as the main building, often comes with problems such as ageing equipment, hidden safety hazards, and low intelligence. HT simulates the application scenario of power distribution equipment in buildings. Basement Power Distribution Room Visualization

The power distribution room refers to the indoor power distribution place with a low-voltage load, which mainly distributes electric energy for low-voltage users, and is equipped with medium-voltage incoming wires, distribution transformers and low-voltage power distribution devices. The appearance of the underground power distribution room is highly restored and modelled according to the on-site pictures, CAD drawings, and other data. Based on this, an interactive Web 3D scene can be made and each piece of equipment in the power distribution room can respond to interactive events. When a situation such as a short circuit, electric leakage occurs, an alarm signal will be issued in time, and supervisors will be notified in real-time, prevent fire and other safety accidents, and ensure the normal operation of system functions and system safety. Electrical Wiring Diagram

HT for Web not only has a powerful render for 3D graphics, but HT also supports the 2D vector component and the HT special rendering makes 2D and 3D can merge together and reusable. Water Supply Visualization

Water supply systems use a combination of pipes (of different dimensions and materials), valves and outlets to deliver water to building users. Some water supply systems also use storage tanks and pumps. Visualize the water flow/pipeline location on the 3D will greatly help operators to get a comprehensive understanding of the whole water supply system.

Photo-realistic modelling restores the water pump room. Realize the unified management of water supply flow, pump frequency, inlet and outlet pressure, and water turbidity, pH value, residual chlorine, etc., to meet the user’s needs for water quality, water volume and water pressure, and to solve the actual operation problem of the water supply system due to changes in water demand, accidents such as pump stoppage, etc., to ensure the normal operation of enterprises. HVAC System Chilled Water Storage

A chilled water system uses a conventional electric chiller to prepare cold water during the valley power period at night, and then store the cold water in a water tank (tank). The water storage technology can cut peaks fill valleys and balance the load of the power grid. The water absorbs heat from the building and disperses it outside. The system cools the water down to a temperature of 4 degrees and then circulates it through the water coil’s air handler. Water Level Visualization

Using cloud computing, Internet, GIS and other technologies to remotely monitor parameters such as water level, water flow speed, load flow rate, cooling tower energy consumption, etc., to obtain the complete change of water level, and convert them into electrical signals to transmit to the computer. Reduce the installed capacity of various equipment, improve the efficiency of the host, make full use of the advantages of the cold storage device, and reduce the energy consumption of the system. Lightning System Visualization

HT supports OBJ format 3d modelling files and MTL files and displays them on the web. Combine with the weather system, we can analyst and control the indoor light intensity and operation duration. Therefore, control the energy consumption. Also, system will highlight the out-of-function device, easy for operators to locate and maintain. Guest Room Control System

HT as a visualization tool, adapted with B/S structure, makes it easy to integrate with other systems. Also, the B/S structure offers the capability of remote access the system anywhere, anytime. Without downloading app all the data are live in real-time. Operators can access the system on phone, PC or tablet and with any modern browser, reducing the uncertainty of management and daily operation, increasing efficiency. Conclusion Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) provide real-time remote monitoring and integrated control of a wide range of connected systems, allowing modes of operation, energy use, environmental conditions and so on to be monitored and allowing hours of operation, set points and so on to be adjusted to optimise performance and comfort. BEMS can also trigger alarms, predict problems and inform maintenance programmes. Hightopo brings the market-leading web graphic component library — HT for Web to empower BEMS, use digitization and visualization as two key pillars to help achieve the energy efficiency goals and towards the goal of Carbon Neutral.

Tokyo Olympics draw to a close this Sunday night after more than two weeks of competitions held amid extraordinary restrictions and mostly behind closed doors. The pandemic Olympics give us a thought, how we should improve stadium management? One of the answers is definitely Digital Twin.

How Digital Twins Enhance Large Event Spaces

Managing large event spaces, such as football stadiums and performance halls, comes with several challenges: ensuring security, responding to dynamic circumstances, controlling the influx of people, and providing the audience with a comfortable and entertaining experience.

Hightopo 3D Visualization solution is the best fit for these circumstances. By capturing data in and around the stadium, allowing us to create a virtual copy(Digital Twin) of the area that will be used to provide analytics and insight into the experience of attending a game there. This data will help stadium and venues facilities managers to identify potential problems, optimize sustainability and manage risk.

Web-based Lightweight 3D Model

stadium layout

Utilizing Hightopo powerful 3d graphic rendering engine to achieve this interactive 3D scene. The web-based visualization solution enables interactive events from any modern browser. The elements/ scenes can be zoomed, panned, and rotated. The lightweight models make sure a fast and immersive user experience.

Crowed / Traffic Monitoring

Hightopo visualization solution combines 3D model with 2D data visualization such as bar chart, line chart and data indicator to display the important data sourcing such as traffic, crowd density, regional congestion etc. Breaking down the data silos.

Combine with facial recognition and 5G technology, the visualization solution will leverage stadium security and management. With AI technology, the system can even predict the traffic and crowd density, so that venues managers can act before things go sideways and to effectively guide and evacuate the passenger that exceeds the carrying capacity of the stadium.

3D Heatmap Visualizations

Heatmap Visualization

Through the image recognition and analysis of multiple cameras, a complete heat map(thermal map) of the stadium can be formed. The heatmap provides an understanding of crowd density distribution, help in decisions such as the number of employees needed and managing assets such as lighting and cooling devices.

Immersive AR and VR Experiences

The use of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) is on the rise in large event venues, especially with the roll-out of 5G in event stadiums. AR and VR tools can help make the experience unforgettable, converting a one-time event attendee into a lifelong customer.

VR can provide a virtual tour of the entire venue to an immersive experience of the event. On the other hand, AR maps, which introduce geospatial awareness tapping into the users’ location coordinates, can be effective in guiding visitors to their seats, parking locations, and other spots within the event area.

Hightopo 3D models work seamlessly on VR and AR, the ht-vr.js plugin makes sure a smooth integration for your 3d scene to VR scene.

Surveillance Video Integration and Video Fusion

The digitization of information flow, coding compression, and open protocol enables a seamless connection between the intelligent network video surveillance system and the various subsystems in the security system, and realize management and control on Hightopo visual management platform.

Combined with video fusion technology, multiple surveillance videos can be fused, so that the originally fragmented video can be viewed in a panoramic view of the real three-dimensional scene, and the overall scene can be grasped from any angle required to help users quickly overview the overall situation. The 3d scene and the dome camera work together to accurately locate the target area to be tracked in the scene, and drive the pan-tilt to control and adjust the camera direction and focal length to achieve precise tracking.

Better Resource Efficiency

Minimizing operational costs and maximizing resource efficiencies are important objectives for building management. Digital twins — integrated with IoT sensors — enable data-driven decision-making, as they collect real-time data. Here are a few examples:

• Gathering data from sensors, digital twins improve energy efficiency by automatically turning systems on or off, or adjusting settings, based on need and finding the right level of resource usage at specific times to serve large crowds.
• Visibility into available parking stalls improves space management and also helps visitors not waste time and fuel finding an open spot.
• Better facility management practices can be implemented with multi-scenario testing and predictive asset maintenance.

Meticulous Planning for Emergencies

A huge concern in large event spaces is to ensure safety and be prepared for possible disasters. A digital twin event venue helps with disaster response. It can model entry and exit points, a large number of people who will exacerbate an emergency situation, and numerous other constraints and stress factors.

AR and VR technologies take disaster response training from classrooms to the ground, aiding in scenario testing, simulating disaster events, and guiding through possible solutions. During an emergency, heat map visualizations help monitor the shifting footfalls and come up with a corresponding evacuation plan.

disaster response

While conventional approaches rely on experience, expertise, and intuition in planning events in large spaces and stadiums, the advanced digital twin technology relies on sensors, AR and VR tools, heat map visualizations, IPS to gather real-time data and perform simulations that can assist before and during the event.

Conclusion

Hightopo visualization solution converts all quantifiable aspects of a physical building into an evolving virtual replica, allowing owners, facility managers and built environment professionals real-time insights to strategize and optimize every aspect of a building’s operations.

• Insight into a building’s efficiency performance in real-time.
• Predicting potential failures in systems like HVAC, water and electrical.
• Providing project team with access to lookalike built and lookalike design models, which are constantly synced in real-time.
• Providing insight to a client to support ongoing structural enhancements.

Besides stadiums, Hightopo has had also done some projects that cover archives, exhibition halls and other smart buildings. Combined with GIS, BIM and other technologies to improve the efficiency of operation and maintenance personnel and the green and intelligent development of venues and exhibition halls.

For more information, please refer to our website: https://www.hightopo.com/

or contact us by Email: service@hightopo.com

Tokyo Olympics draw to a close this Sunday night after more than two weeks of competitions held amid extraordinary restrictions and mostly behind closed doors. The pandemic Olympics give us a thought, how we should improve stadium management? One of the answers is definitely Digital Twin.

How Digital Twins Enhance Large Event Spaces

Managing large event spaces, such as football stadiums and performance halls, comes with several challenges: ensuring security, responding to dynamic circumstances, controlling the influx of people, and providing the audience with a comfortable and entertaining experience.

Hightopo 3D Visualization solution is the best fit for these circumstances. By capturing data in and around the stadium, allowing us to create a virtual copy(Digital Twin) of the area that will be used to provide analytics and insight into the experience of attending a game there. This data will help stadium and venues facilities managers to identify potential problems, optimize sustainability and manage risk.

Web-based Lightweight 3D Model

stadium layout

Utilizing Hightopo powerful 3d graphic rendering engine to achieve this interactive 3D scene. The web-based visualization solution enables interactive events from any modern browser. The elements/ scenes can be zoomed, panned, and rotated. The lightweight models make sure a fast and immersive user experience.

Crowed / Traffic Monitoring

Hightopo visualization solution combines 3D model with 2D data visualization such as bar chart, line chart and data indicator to display the important data sourcing such as traffic, crowd density, regional congestion etc. Breaking down the data silos.

Combine with facial recognition and 5G technology, the visualization solution will leverage stadium security and management. With AI technology, the system can even predict the traffic and crowd density, so that venues managers can act before things go sideways and to effectively guide and evacuate the passenger that exceeds the carrying capacity of the stadium.

3D Heatmap Visualizations

Heatmap Visualization

Through the image recognition and analysis of multiple cameras, a complete heat map(thermal map) of the stadium can be formed. The heatmap provides an understanding of crowd density distribution, help in decisions such as the number of employees needed and managing assets such as lighting and cooling devices.

Immersive AR and VR Experiences

The use of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) is on the rise in large event venues, especially with the roll-out of 5G in event stadiums. AR and VR tools can help make the experience unforgettable, converting a one-time event attendee into a lifelong customer.

VR can provide a virtual tour of the entire venue to an immersive experience of the event. On the other hand, AR maps, which introduce geospatial awareness tapping into the users’ location coordinates, can be effective in guiding visitors to their seats, parking locations, and other spots within the event area.

Hightopo 3D models work seamlessly on VR and AR, the ht-vr.js plugin makes sure a smooth integration for your 3d scene to VR scene.

Surveillance Video Integration and Video Fusion

The digitization of information flow, coding compression, and open protocol enables a seamless connection between the intelligent network video surveillance system and the various subsystems in the security system, and realize management and control on Hightopo visual management platform.

Combined with video fusion technology, multiple surveillance videos can be fused, so that the originally fragmented video can be viewed in a panoramic view of the real three-dimensional scene, and the overall scene can be grasped from any angle required to help users quickly overview the overall situation. The 3d scene and the dome camera work together to accurately locate the target area to be tracked in the scene, and drive the pan-tilt to control and adjust the camera direction and focal length to achieve precise tracking.

Better Resource Efficiency

Minimizing operational costs and maximizing resource efficiencies are important objectives for building management. Digital twins — integrated with IoT sensors — enable data-driven decision-making, as they collect real-time data. Here are a few examples:

• Gathering data from sensors, digital twins improve energy efficiency by automatically turning systems on or off, or adjusting settings, based on need and finding the right level of resource usage at specific times to serve large crowds.
• Visibility into available parking stalls improves space management and also helps visitors not waste time and fuel finding an open spot.
• Better facility management practices can be implemented with multi-scenario testing and predictive asset maintenance.

Meticulous Planning for Emergencies

A huge concern in large event spaces is to ensure safety and be prepared for possible disasters. A digital twin event venue helps with disaster response. It can model entry and exit points, a large number of people who will exacerbate an emergency situation, and numerous other constraints and stress factors.

AR and VR technologies take disaster response training from classrooms to the ground, aiding in scenario testing, simulating disaster events, and guiding through possible solutions. During an emergency, heat map visualizations help monitor the shifting footfalls and come up with a corresponding evacuation plan.

disaster response

While conventional approaches rely on experience, expertise, and intuition in planning events in large spaces and stadiums, the advanced digital twin technology relies on sensors, AR and VR tools, heat map visualizations, IPS to gather real-time data and perform simulations that can assist before and during the event.

Conclusion

Hightopo visualization solution converts all quantifiable aspects of a physical building into an evolving virtual replica, allowing owners, facility managers and built environment professionals real-time insights to strategize and optimize every aspect of a building’s operations.

• Insight into a building’s efficiency performance in real-time.
• Predicting potential failures in systems like HVAC, water and electrical.
• Providing project team with access to lookalike built and lookalike design models, which are constantly synced in real-time.
• Providing insight to a client to support ongoing structural enhancements.

Besides stadiums, Hightopo has had also done some projects that cover archives, exhibition halls and other smart buildings. Combined with GIS, BIM and other technologies to improve the efficiency of operation and maintenance personnel and the green and intelligent development of venues and exhibition halls.

For more information, please refer to our website: https://www.hightopo.com/

or contact us by Email: service@hightopo.com

A logistics park is an industrial area specifically designed for storage, management, distribution and transportation of various goods. In addition, companies operating from logistics parks often use them to assemble, package, process or do light manufacturing of products. Looking ahead to the next 2 to 10 years, a predicted surge in the preference for digital transformation will bring fundamental changes to the way warehouses operate. Accordingly, the adoption of disruptive warehouse digitalization will reach its apex.

In this article, we will introduce the HT for Web to create digital twins of a logistics park to open up upstream and downstream systems and utilize smart hardware to achieve data linkage. Covers modules such as (i)daily management of the park, (ii)traffic flow monitoring, (iii)access monitoring, (iv)warehouse management and monitoring and other aspects. With the help of this comprehensive management warehousing system, visualize and analyse the industry park to improve management and work efficiency of the logistics park, and to reduce labour and management costs.

Lightweight 3D Model

HT for Web (refer as HT below) supports multiple types of model rendering, adopts lightweight yet photorealistic 3D modelling technology. It also supports importing BIM model files in IFC format to generate scenes, and supports rendering oblique photography model files in 3D Tiles format.

The system comes with an interactive 3d scene and a detailed 2d data panel along the left and right sides to display the data. The 3d scene can be zoomed, panned, and rotated, and each device in the scene can respond to interactive events.

Daily Management of Logistics Park

environment monitory visualization

Integrate the weather system to HT visualization management system, to monitor the environment in the park, collect environmental data from the aspects of temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, PM2.5, etc., and display it in real-time on the 2D panel.

green energy management

In a large scale logistics park, energy-consuming is a critical aspect to handle and manage. Ultize HT powerful data visualization system to get real-time data about power consumption and power generation to help park operators get insights on the overview energy usage.

1. EV Charging Station

Vehicle charging piles are set up in many places in the park, and the energy-saving contribution of the park charging piles and real-time power monitoring is displayed through HT 2D visualization. And with the 3D effect, the charging piles in the park are equipped with different colours to check the charging status of the vehicles and abnormal warnings. HT’s 2D panel is bound to chart data, and 2D and 3D are seamlessly integrated and reused in three-dimensional space.

2. PV Roofing and Solar Street Light

As a distributed photovoltaic project, the photovoltaic roofs is combined with charging piles, new energy vehicles and smart street lights. It uses photovoltaic modules installed on the roof to generate electricity. It is stored in the battery through a charging device or directly supplied to electric vehicles for charging. Photovoltaic roofs also provide power transmission for street lights, public facilities and other facilities in the park to achieve the effect of energy saving and emission reduction. Data was seamlessly integrated into 2D panels such as daily/cumulative electricity storage, power generation, discharge etc.

surveillance system

Multiple surveillance cameras have been installed in various corners of the park and integrated into HT visualization system. Realize the detection and query of the operation status of equipment which related to various video surveillance systems. Once the operation and maintenance system finds that the operation status of the video surveillance system equipment is abnormal, it will immediately automatically send a fault alarm to the operation and maintenance management centre.

Optimized vehicle and dock management

With smart video, site operators can create an optimized vehicle and load management workflow — from truck entry to docking and cargo pickup. HT visualization solution achieves this with a dashboard that displays the status of each loading dock, allowing vehicles to be directed efficiently as soon as they register at the park’s security checkpoint. Based on simple red, yellow and green indicators, vehicles can be processed more efficiently and queuing can be reduced.

As well as improving the vehicle processing workflow, park operators can improve access security based on vehicle license plate recognition technology. Smart cameras can also be used to monitor the speed of vehicles entering the logistics park, detect illegal parking, and send automated alerts to security teams when rules are breached.

Access Monitoring

Through intelligent equipment such as face recognition and AI cameras, the people entering and leaving the park are monitored, identified, tracked, and analyzed to obtain real-time data on the flow of people in the area, and provide accurate traffic statistics and behaviour analysis data for the park operation and maintenance personnel.

HT offer various kind of UI component, such as line chart, bar chart, pie chart etc to display data in an intuitive way and empower operators to maximum efficiency.

Warehouse Management Visualization

HT powerful rendering engine ensures smooth loading and the capability of handles up to 2 million faces 3d models. In this demo, we photorealistic modelling an AS/RS(Automated Storage and Retrieval System) warehouse. Each box inside the shelf is interactive and able to fetch information such as cargo location, real-time trajectory, equipment status, and inventory data.

In addition, models such as warehouse shelf, stacker, conveyor, unstacking machine, AGVs (Autonomous Guided Vehicles), stackers, robotic arms and other equipment are all interactive and able to be triggered to show it’s operating status. When the system received an equipment alarm, the related equipment in the 3d scene will pop up with alert information to inform the operators.

AGVs (Autonomous Guided Vehicles)

AGVs are material handling systems or load carriers that travel autonomously throughout a warehouse, distribution centre, or manufacturing facility, without an onboard operator or driver. AGVs can send the current position and status to the host computer through the wireless network. The host computer updates the database according to the current status and simultaneously accesses the HT visualization system to display the path in real-time. The AVG walking path can also be set according to project requirements.

palletizing robot

The palletizing robot completes various rotations, movements or compound actions through the mechanical arm to achieve prescribed actions and change the position and posture of the grasped objects. In this demo, we can see how HT’s powerful rendering engine achieve precise control of the entire palletizing robot operation process, and highly simulate the swing process of the robot arm.

cargo elevator

The cargo elevator plays an essential role in conveying, lifting, and assisting in loading and unloading materials in storage and transportation. Integrate the robot system, the visualization system allow to display of machine equipment information such as equipment code, task code, hoist current level, equipment status, equipment next maintenance time and other basic information. It is convenient for operators to control and maintain.

goods information visualization

Warehouses are expected to play a key role in increasing customer satisfaction, effectively predicting product demand, and making better use of the resources at hand. As a result, the demand for forecasting and accurate decision making is on the rise.

Predictive analytics make use of statistical techniques such as predictive modelling, big data, and data mining to analyze historical trends and make predictions about the future.

Predictive analytics, together with artificial intelligence (AI), can be very effective for recommending optimized inventory levels, replenishing inventory, and increasing operational efficiency as well as warehouse optimization as a whole.

Conclusion

With the advent of always-on e-commerce, the demand for faster responses, and the need to manage a larger number of SKUs with fewer errors, warehouses need to scale up and meet the standards of an intelligent, efficient, and automated warehouse. Hightopo offers the ultimate WMS visualization solution to the warehousing & logistics industry.

Hightopo is dedicated to handling the technical difficulties in the last phase of the data processing procedure in the IIoT: data visualization. Hightopo provides a visualization solution for the real-time monitoring systems by a powerful web-based 2D and 3D graphics rendering engine. It has launched a proprietary software application named HT for Web and continuously strives to make HT for Web one of the top software applications worldwide. HT for Web has been applied in various industries, such as telecommunications, electricity, hydropower, transportation, petrochemical, manufacturing, medical, and industrial control industries.

As the hub of modern transportation, ports and freighters play an important role in promoting international trade. According to relevant statistics, about 90% of global trade relies on maritime transportation. Efficiency and well maintenance is the lynchpin of the maritime transportation industry.

With the help of Hightopo visualization product — HT for Web, creating an interactive 3D digital twins environment of port, ships to explore, analyse and experience outcomes before taking action will greatly increase efficiency and help communicate vital information to stakeholders across the business.

Smart Port Benefits to Increase ROI, Safety, and Smarter Choices

Port efficiency relies on balancing demand and supply in a flexible way and integration within the entire transport system. A port is dependent on a continuous inbound and outbound flow of cargo and passengers arriving and departing from the port by different means of transport.

The whole port is modelled and monitored through real-time information and incoming data that an IoT system captured. Digital twins improve mooring and casting off, remote-controlled cranes, connected vessels, asset tracking, speed up ship docking and reduce load time to help customers minimise operational costs, improve customers satisfaction, optimise revenues, and even generate new revenue streams.

Through visualised digital twin platforms, a terminal operator, for example, can monitor end-to-end cargo tracking and fleet management services, as well as supervise the workforce in the field. The result is more accurate and pinpointed loading and unloading times, for example, creating faster truck and ship turnaround times.

Improved accuracy with real-time information could also lead to a potential reduction in failures in container movements by cranes and operatives — reducing energy usage and a port’s overall carbon footprint.

Using data to digitally map a crane’s box moves per hour, gaining information to reduce wasted movement and energy emitted by handling equipment. By first measuring the total time a straddle carrier is in use, for example, a port can implement smart systems, automation and remote control of equipment to achieve optimised equipment levels and vehicle management, reduced idle time, fewer fleet hours, and pooled equipment management.

For Path Planning, HT offers an inbuilt algorithm to calculate the faster path. Base on port CAD file to proportional model the assets. Click on the start point and endpoint, the algorithm will automatically draw a line and offer operators greatly convenience.

Fed by multiple data streams of real-time data and historical databases, is also an operational planning tool for the coordination and synchronization of port operations. It could be an essential foundation for virtual arrival processes and green steaming and for the hinterland window to support efficient use of trucks, trains, and infrastructure for diverse needs.

Smart Ship Management Visualization

Smart Ship offers a multi-layer optimization in the fields of fuel consumption, energy efficiency and emissions control management, with full respect to the implementation of the requirements of maritime sector regulations and taking into account applications of circular economy concepts in the maritime as well.

Interactive 3d model sync with data from IoT devices and with the help of 5G technology, GPS, the data can be shown on the board in a near-real-time manner. Visualize containers information such as goods, storage capability, temperature, goods status etc, offer a transparent freight management experience.

Constantly monitoring vessel’s engine and propeller is crucial. With HT visualization system, whenever the data exceed the threshold or any atypical situations happen, the visualization terminal will give an alarm notification to operators and managers, security a safe journey.

Peeping rapidly through atypical situations such as weather reports, harnesses the applicability of digital twin in ship control systems. An overall virtual vessel can be made to accomplish virtual software integration, acting as a stimulator with all on-board systems replicating a physical vessel in cyberspace. Thus, Digital twin allows testing of virtual vessels in real-life situations and study modifications that may be required for the physical duo.

Weather Reports: Analyze atmospheric data such as atmospheric pressure, temperature, wind direction, wind speed, sea visibility, wave etc. Scientific management, to take protective measures before the arrival of meteorological disasters.

Surveillance Video Integration: The video surveillance system and the various subsystems in the security system are seamlessly connected, unified visualized and management in the HT visualization system. Give cargo more intelligent management, improve the efficiency of identifying safety incidents. Allow managers to control the situation in the shortest time and occupy the dominant position.

Vessel turnaround time takes a huge concern regarding the increased efficiency of developing technology to forecast routes and optimum speed recommendation. Ports receiving data stats regarding a vessel can highly implement those to guide other ships which grossly reduces the time for which a vessel stays at the port. Ship routing themselves according to the fuel-efficient route reduces the transit time, enhancing the chances of delay and granting ship owners higher vessel reliability.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that the digital twin is the future. Being able to predict potential dangers and create the optimum design, will enhance safety and operation greatly. With the element of the unknown significantly limited, the digital twin concept can help the shipping industry make better use of digitalization and move to a new era.

Hightopo — HT for web, brings cutting-edge 3d data visualization and web 3d rendering technology to provide a comprehensive visualization solution, fasten the digital transformation process, offer interactive 3d digital twins to empower the maritime industry leading to a better future.

The mining industry has progressed significantly from ancient times by the artificial mining stage where people manually carried out mining activities with the help of simple digging and drafting tools to the current dynamites that we envision when we think about mining. Thanks to the development of IoT, Industry 4.0, 5G, AI technology, Smart Mining is now the new stage of mining industry.

What exactly is Smart Mining?

All equipment and machines that are physically present at the mining site are digitised and connected to a single digital system, allowing seamless data integration between all the individual equipment. Examples of such data include workflow progress, location, mining equipment condition, geological data about the locations and whereabouts in depth of ore.

Along with the above-mentioned technology, visualization is the last but not least aspect of the digital system — the smart ‘brain’ of the mining management. **Hightopo **is a leading solution provider of data visualization, user interface, graphics and image processing in the market, special focuses on 2D & 3D data visualization. Hightopo product HT for Web is a data visualization graphic component middleware based on HTML5 standard browser technology special made for the industrial monitoring field.

In this article, we will explore how HT for Web (HT for short) helps Smart Mining.

Workflow Progress

Open-pit Mine Visualization

The data on the mining range, mining depth, mining volume, and ore consumption of open-pit mines is the top priority of mine work progress monitoring. Visualizing those data in a timely and accurate manner is necessary for mine management. HT comes with rich data presence format, such as charts, tables, interactive data-driven icons to help managers get an insight into the mining site and greatly increase work efficiency.

Underground Tunnel Visualization

HT powerful 3d rendering capability ensures the smooth loading and interaction of the 3d model even on the web. First-person mode roaming bring an immersive experience on monitoring tunnel environment and area. HT visualization is also VR supported, therefore, this 3d model can be viewed on VR devices and provide a safety training for underground workers.

The walkthrough feature also supports rewind and fast forward, and change view. Helping operators to get views at different angles, get insight on equipment distribution.

Worker Location

In order to ensure the safety supervision of the coal mining process, the CAD drawings can be imported into the HT platform, connected to the background data and synchronized and dynamically updated according to the position coordinates of the operators. When the warning signal is triggered, the system can immediately notify the nearby staff to evacuate to a safe area and reduce the tragedy of the mining accident. Keep tracking mineworkers’ safety in real-time.

Mining Equipment Condition

As a graphic component library based on the HTML5 standard, HT can seamlessly integrate various multimedia functions and support the integration of various video resources to form a unified video stream. It can mark camera objects on 2D and 3D situation maps and associate their video signal sources. Scene interaction is used to retrieve the corresponding surveillance video to meet the monitoring needs of operation and maintenance personnel for real-time situational awareness of the scene, historical data retrospective comparison, and emergency response plans.

Ventilation System

3D visualization brings a vivid presentation of the device/equipment. Compare to traditional diagram data, HT visualization makes the content more readable and controllable. Sync data from sensors and display it on the data panels in real-time and historical trends. Binding the data to 3d models using HT APIs enable the various kind of animation. As the management platform, operators are able to based on current state of equipments to adjust the ventilation volume, fan status to optimize the efficiency of underground work.

Belt Conveyor System

HT visualization solution covers 2d and 3d, what makes HT stand out is its 2d and 3d integrated feature. As the image shown above, the 2d icon, chart, table, etc can be seamless work on 3d scene.

Drainage System

In the past, the control lines of manual inspection were disorderly, lack of interaction and cooperation, and on-site maintenance costs remained high. With the help of HT 3D visual drainage monitoring module, real-time dynamic data of high-level pools, downhole sumps and pumps are displayed intuitively. Synchronously collect multiple information such as temperature, current, pressure, and flow rate of drainage equipment, and create multi-parameter real-time online management and control.

Lighting System

Web-based HMI/SCADA solution for the easy creation and deployment of highly customizable and fully interactive topology diagrams, dashboards and charts.

This allows operators to improve situational awareness, the mobility of visualization anytime and anywhere, and important equipment control, which provides form a centralized view of operations.

Spatial & Geological Data (HT GIS)

HT also provides solutions for displaying the minefield in combination with GIS maps. Our new product — HT for Web GIS combine HT powerful visualization and graphic rendering technology, to GIS application such as Mapbox, Cesium. Seamless integrate drone aerial photography to HT’s original 3D model and scenes to solve the huge workload of traditional manually modelling.

High-precision real-time monitoring of information such as environmental situation, excavation and mining progress, equipment operation, working condition status, etc., gives data spatial attributes and visualizes complex factors. Form a set of insightful reference data to provide strong decision support for mining operation supervision.

Conclusion

Hightopo visualization solution enables mining site managers to keep track of mining asset conditions, supervise workflow efficiently and keep track of mineworkers’ safety in real-time. These managers and business owners are thus guaranteed to make better-informed decisions at any given time with all the data and information available as insights and information required will be integrated into a single dashboard supported on tablets and monitors. Due to the lightweight and B/S structure of HT, information can be accessed by mine managers and employees anywhere anytime.

Smart mining is not a distant future anymore. Mining industry business owners should follow suit to this change and reap its benefits by using digital transformation. It is the next step for business owners to consider and sharpen their competitive advantage.

From 1885, since the first modern turbine first turned on its wheels, the world has seen new light. Even today, over 50% of the world’s energy is generated by conventional thermal power plants. But now, we are at the threshold of change. Experiencing headwinds from customers, regulatory authorities, and competition from unexpected sources. The Paris Agreement has thrown light on polluting emissions that need to go down. And maintain costs need to be controlled. Workforce is ageing, taking away their years of experience, and there is a need to capture their tacit knowledge.

As the reins of power, move from old to new. It's time to go digital! It’s time for fossil-based thermal plants to embrace flexibility, reliability & higher efficiency ways of operation and maintenance. Hightopo brings the powerful web 3d visualization technology into the energy industry, helping thermal plants making smooth sailing of digital transformation journey.

Web Lightweight 3D Model

HT supports multiple formates of model rendering, adopts lightweight 3D modelling technology, photorealistic rendering, presents a high-precision simulation of the thermal power plant. Interactive 3D scenes can be zoomed, panned, and rotated, and each model can respond to interactive events.

HT also supports importing BIM model files in IFC format to generate scenes, Furthermore, oblique photography model files in 3D Tiles format is also supported.

Hightopo 3D visualization technology adopts B/S architecture. Users can access the 3D visualization system anytime and anywhere through PC, Tablet or smartphone from a modern browser. Built on the foundation of Digital Twin and powered by data-driven models, Hightopo delivers Flexibility, Reliability & higher efficiency.

Data Visualization & 3D Flythrough

The data panel on the left side indicates power plant information, includes plant information such as location, asset info, and the monthly cost, revenue, and profit analysis chart.

The right side panel shows real-time equipment operation data, production data, emission. Empower plant manager and operation staff to get accurate insight.

3d flythrough & walkthrough

Hightopo powerful 3d rendering enables the smooth 3d flythrough or walkthrough of the scenes. Empower users with an immersive experience to overview the thermal plant.

Positioning Tracking & Electronic fence

Ultra-wideband (UWB) is a short-range radio technology which is used for indoor/outdoor positioning. The object to be tracked (asset/person) is equipped with a small tag ( UWB Tag) that sends data (ID, ToF, timestamp) to the receiver. The receiver has a fixed position in the infrastructure and can use the running time of light to calculate the distance of the asset. Implement the UWB system to HT data visualization solution, real-time location of tracking worker can be shown on 3d scene, managers can monitor the location of workers and intuitively view data such as worker information, contact information, and action trajectory. Workers also can use the UWB Tag to send SOS signals when a dangerous situation is encountered, the information will be fed back to the alarm record of the security interface immediately, and the staff of the centralized control centre can respond as soon as they receive the call for help.

electronic fence

In a conventional fossil fuel power station, electronic fences generally appear in highly dangerous areas such as steam turbines, transformers, and booster stations; When an object venturing into these certain areas will trigger alerts to operation & management staff, who will then respond. Combine with Position Tracking technology, this feature will greatly ensure the safety of the staff.

Surveillance Video Integration & Video Fusion

Surveillance cameras located among the plant, the photorealistic 3d scene indicated these cameras with an eye-catching icon. The simple click interaction on the icon will then popup the real-time or historical surveillance footage. With a more advanced facial-recognition camera, the system is able to capture workers rule-breaking behaviour and log into system.

Compared with the traditional monitoring system, the interface of the 3D scene is more intuitive and simple, which is convenient for the monitoring staff to identify abnormal information and improve monitoring efficiency. Enable the capability of quickly locate cameras and better maintenance.

Power Generation Process

Fossil fuel power plants burn coal or oil to create heat which is in turn used to generate steam to drive turbines which generate electricity.

The burning of coal or oil heats giant boilers filled with water. This transforms liquid water into steam. The steam creates a lot of pressure in the boiler. The pressure rotates a steam turbine. This drives a generator to produce electricity. The rotation of the turbine drives a generator. It is the generator that produces electricity.

Generators are devices that convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. First, pressure from heated air makes a rotor turn. A rotor is a shaft found in the centre of the generator. The rotor connects to a coil of wire. The wire spins inside a fixed magnet around it called the stator. The magnetic field pushes electrons along the wire. This forms an electric current then goes to transmission lines.

Embrace the advanced Industry 4.0, IoT technology, with data source from equipment sensors and then fed back to HT data visualization tool, a smart power generation monitoring system can be formed. In-depth development and application of smart power generation control technology to enhance the comprehensive capabilities of power generation companies in smart management and control, smart operation, smart safety monitoring, smart analysis and remote diagnosis, and build a future-oriented innovative management and operation model for smart coal-fired power generation.

Conclusion

With the increasing share of renewables, power plants are forced to operate at part-load conditions. An ageing workforce, concerns over asset reliability and operational costs provide a prerogative to adopt Digital solutions in order to stay competitive. For conventional thermal power plants, this is an era in urgent need of digital transformation.

Hightopo — HT for web, brings cutting-edge data visualization to provide a comprehensive solution to optimize Operations & Maintenance in thermal power plants. Empower fossil fuel power plants for smooth sailing of digital transformation journey.

Hightopo seasoned with decades of experience in the energy industry, collaborated with various big-name companies, has become the first-tired of data visualization solution provider.

The traditional command center dashboard is usually to display data in the 2D chart, bar, and other visual monitoring based on Web SCADA front-end technology. However, with the help of digital twins, we can now achieve much more than that.

Hightopo is a digital twin company, specialized in 3d data visualization. In this example project, we modelling the real scene of a subway station, as detailed to each door, smoke detector, elevator, camera, etc. In this full simulation, it allows us to intuitively monitoring station situation in real-time!

In order to help users navigate the subway station more intuitively and friendly, 3 interactive modes are provided:

• First-person mode: this view is similar to the view of passengers, users can control moving forward and backward through the keyboard and mouse.
• Automatic roaming mode: in this mode, users do not need to have any operation, the scene automatically moves forward and backward to patrol the scene of the subway station.
• Mouse operation mode: the left mouse button rotates the scene, and the right button pans the scene.

Click the picture to preview scene

Cameras

When we click on the camera, real-time video footage will popup.

Elevators

data sent back from each elevator will trigger different animations.

Smoke Detector Alert

Digital twin received real-time data sent back from the physical smoke detector, it will async the status and show the alert effect on our digital twin model.

VR / Mobile / Tablet

Our digital twin solution is a lightweight web-based tech, which means our product can merge into our clients’ website or system with no limitation. And it’s cross-platform supported, mobile devices, tablets, even VR devices.

Hightopo — Everything you need to create a cutting-edge 2d&3d visualization

As the feature mentioned above, digital twin can achieve so much more than the traditional ways can do. With our technology and experience, we can help your organization do the digital transformation as smooth as possible.

Digital twin solution for smart park

What is a digital twin? It’s a virtual replica/representation (generally 3d-model) of physical devices, process, system, or service. It could be buildings, factories, and even cities.

Digital Twin Example:

• Compressors
• Turbines
• Data Center
• Heat exchangers
• Water usage
• Blowdown systems
• Gas lift systems

Before the introduction of this concept, manufacturing companies used to create virtual models using CAD tools followed by converting this virtual model into an actual physical object. Then, they just discard or archive the virtual object. With the digital twin concept, that virtual model is no longer discarded, rather, it is connected to the physical object so that we can collect real-time data sourced from those smart sensors through physical objects. Data about object status, working condition, or position being integrated with a physical item, etc. All this data is sent back to the digital twin and their interaction can help optimize the product’s performance.

industry simulation

For instance, sensors might detect when a car’s engine oil needs changing and the car’s digital twin will have an overlay image indicating the new information, which can appear on the owner’s device or the manufacturer’s system. Therefore, using this real-time data enables us to understand, learn, reason, and real-time optimization.

Digital Twin Benefits:

• Proactive optimization
• Monitor real-time data
• Increase production
• Avoid downtime
• Increase efficiencies
• Take informed action
• Reduce costs
• Optimize maintenance schedules/start-ups

Real-time data monitoring

So how Hightopo came in to help you with the digital transformation?

• We design the 3d model for your property
• Collect/analyze data and blinding into our model
• Integrate it into your own system

One of the most common uses for digital twins is the dashboards.

Hightopo provides anything from basic to advanced intelligent dashboards, the exceptional value of our solutions are in the engineering subject matter detail and embedded IT expertise. Our web-based solution allows the capability of merging into whatever our client’s preferred system is. As the feature to be light-weight, easy-to-use, cross-platform, fully-interactive, our digital twin solutions are most ideal for small-medium factories, industry organizations.

3d model — engine

What makes us special and what benefits you would gain?

• Make the invisible visible — demystifies information that was previously in a ‘black box’ now can be visualized in a most straightforward way.
• Powerful — gives the client the crucial information needed to make informed proactive operational decisions.
• Improves — increases production, saves on downtime, reduces inefficient operations. Enables optimization.