Ep. 117: Can digital twins help improve the safety of work?

The Safety of Work

Using the paper, “Digital Twins in Safety Analysis, Risk Assessment and Emergency Management.” by Zio and Miqueles, published in the technical safety journal, Reliability Engineering and System Safety, we examine intricate simulations that predict traffic flows to emergency management tools that plan safe evacuation routes, and we delve into how these virtual counterparts of physical systems are redefining risk assessments and scenario planning.

As we navigate the world of operational safety, we discuss the diverse array of models—from geometric to sophisticated hybrid simulations—and their groundbreaking applications in forecasting fire spread and optimizing evacuation procedures. These digital twins aren't just theoretical concepts; they're powerful, real-time lifesavers in emergency situations, emblematic of the future of safety science.

Discussion Points:

• What are digital twins and how are they used?
• Use of digital twins is de rigueur in traffic flow, fire engineering, water flow structure
• Identifying all recent papers written on digital twins
• Virtual simulations offer advanced risk assessment capabilities
• Overview of tasks and functions identified, industries - construction, naval engineering, manufacturing
• Technical discussion on digital twin creation and maintenance
• Six key challenges of digital twinning
• Smart paint innovation improves virtual model accuracy
• Cybersecurity risks
• Real-time operational safety monitoring
• Digital twins promise improved safety and operational efficiency
• Emergency management potentially bolstered by real-time simulations
• Practical takeaways
• Industry practice may surpass academic digital twin findings
• The answer to our episode’s question is, “yes, keep it in mind as a digital tool”

Quotes:

"Ideally, a digital twin is a complete virtual copy of a product or service that is an electronic simulation that is completely accurate compared to that real product or service.”- Drew

“One of the first documented digital twins was in the aerospace industry - NASA [used it] during the Apollo 13 program.” - David

“this idea of having a complete digital picture of the thing that you're building is becoming fairly common, so that lends itself very much towards using it for things like digital twins.” - Drew

“we may never quite know exactly how different the digital twin is from the physical object itself. That’s the challenge.” - David

Resources:

The Paper

The Safety of Work Podcast

The Safety of Work on LinkedIn

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