16 Jun 2022

Delivering a digital twin ecosystem for the SHAPE-UK project (Guest blog from IOTICS)

The project is amongst the winners of the clean-maritime competition and it's paving the way for a future of clean fuel in the shipping industry

IOTICS and its partners are paving the way for a green hydrogen shipping economy with the SHAPE-UK project at Portsmouth International Port. IOTICS built a digital twin ecosystem of the port which enabled data from disparate sources to interrelate and interoperate, even across organisational boundaries.

Principal Port Project Manager, Anisa Koci explained the benefits of transforming Portsmouth International Port into a living lab:

“We are able to make data available dynamically from all sorts of sources in and around the port because our living lab includes an ecosystem of digital twins which share data securely,” she said. “This makes our living lab a great environment for researchers from many disciplines, because they have easy access to real and contextual data for their investigations.

IOTICS implemented a fabric of digital twins over existing IT infrastructure to form an ecosystem. There have already been significant benefits of using digital twin ecosystems. Consortium members are already able to access their own data confidently and selectively share across organisational boundaries. Reader in Environmental Innovation at the University of Portsmouth, Dr. David Hutchinson explained how IOTICS improved the capabilities of digital twins,

“Very often, a digital twin is created, where a single partner has harvested data and created an output that no one else fully understands. This makes it difficult to replicate (the black box effect), or update, so the digital system continues to reflect reality,” he said. “With a platform, such as that offered by IOTICS, partners are able to retain ownership and control of that data and choose how, and if to share it with other twins in the system.”

Digital twin ecosystems can deliver insights across a number of use cases. The SHAPE-UK project is just the beginning of a future of secure, selective data sharing. Dr. Hutchinson expressed his excitement at the benefits digitals twins could bring in the future,

“As we move forward there will be significant benefit from the input and insight that digital twins can bring… [Digital twins] will allow us to try new ideas and facilitate innovation without the huge immediate capital costs that are so often a block to achieving rapid decarbonisation.”

Are you ready to take the first step in building up your data sharing ecosystem? Contact IOTICS and talk to a member of our team today.