Multinational software company, Dassault Systèmes is facilitating the construction of the UK’s nuclear power plant using virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) to create digital twins of the infrastructure.
In an interview with Energy Live News, Aneela Nasim, Director of Infrastructure, Energy and Materials for Dassault Systèmes said: ‘A virtual universe can help plan and rehearse for real-world scenarios.
‘In a project as big as Hinkley Point C, there are more than 10,000 people working on the site. Some of those people work for EDF, the company in charge of the project but all others work for supply chains.
‘And so many different entities have to come together and share data in these big infrastructure projects,  that it creates chaos. That’s how you end up with delays and project cost overruns.
‘But working in the same data environment means that when one supplier makes a change to their data, everyone else working in different rooms and at different times can instantly access that information.’
Aneela Nasim told us that the construction industry is far behind others in digitising records.
Ms Nasim said: ‘So much of the construction sector is still on paper and this can lead to errors in data.
‘The AI that works alongside the VR can adjust for errors in data. So if two suppliers have conflicting data, the AI can find the error and correct it.’
Dassault Systèmes is also involved with the living heart project and a project that created a virtual twin of Singapore.
She said: ‘What we’re doing is bringing data together from different sources and making that data talk to each other.
‘In creating a twin digital city, you can foresee things like, how potential flooding might affect traffic flows.
‘It’s all about planning and optimisation and understanding and rehearsing before you physically do things.’
