The Mixed Reality Lab at CSIRO’s Data61 will enable manufacturing and other industries to create ‘Digital Twins’, or virtual replicas of physical objects and systems.
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The Mixed Reality Lab at CSIRO’s Data61 will enable manufacturing and other industries to create 'Digital Twins', or virtual replicas of physical objects and systems.
Digital twins could improve product innovation and productivity by 25 per-cent by 2020, according to the International Data Corporation.
The Mixed Reality Lab at CSIRO’s Data61 will enable manufacturing and other industries to create ‘Digital Twins’, or virtual replicas of physical objects and systems.
The Mixed Reality component merges the real-time interactive physical and digital worlds, allowing the user to view the digital twin via a computer or augmented reality set.
"By comparing a digital twin of a manufactured object against the original design, we can quickly, accurately and cost-effectively identify defects and map entire manufacturing processes across a global supply chain," explained Matt Bolger, senior software engineer at CSIRO’s Data61. "Defective components can be identified in real-time and corrected, while downstream processes can be adjusted to minimise the impact of delays."
Located in Clayton, the lab houses a set-up of industrial and consumer optical cameras and sensing equipment to capture detailed information about a physical object and the space surrounding it.
The equipment is underpinned by sophisticated algorithms (Workspace) which merge the enormous amounts of data collected to create a digital twin in a matter of minutes.
The lab is a unique combination of Data61's research expertise across machine learning, computer vision, computational modelling, IoT, and CSIRO's patented Stereo Depth Fusion technology for depth estimation.
Industry applications
With the ability to be scaled to the size of the object being scanned, the Mixed Reality Lab can be tailored to create products for a variety of businesses, including health, agriculture and mining.
"Our technology can also be applied to humans to analyse their movement, using deep learning and biomechanical modelling," said Mr Bolger.
"This could help elite athletes improve their performance and reduce workplace injuries."
Infographic showing how the Mixed Reality Lab works.
An example of a manufacturing use case:
manufacture an object (drawn graphic of rocket ship in a 3D printer)
scan the manufactured object (drawn graphic of simplified scanner; camera; light projector; rocket ship)
create and compare a digital twin of the object (drawn graphic of rocket ship on computer screen)
use augmented reality to identify defects between the digital twin and the original design (drawn graphic of person wearing augmented reality googles).
Infographic: Mixed Reality Lab - how does it work?
By comparing a digital twin of a manufactured object against the original design, we can quickly, accurately and cost-effectively identify defects and map entire manufacturing processes across a global supply chain.
Defective components can be identified in real-time and corrected, while downstream processes can be adjusted to minimise the impact of delays.
[Music plays and image appears of a close-up of an object being scanned and then the image changes to show a CSIRO Data 61 Mixed Reality Lab sign on a wall]
[Image changes to show the Mixed Reality Lab and the camera pans around the room]
Narrator: At CSIRO’s Data61 our new Mixed Reality Lab in Melbourne is at the forefront of digital twin technology.
[Images move through to show a male taking a photo, a large computer operating, a male wearing goggles, a scanned 3-D image, a doctor looking at an x-ray on a screen, a hand operating a touch pad]
A virtual model of a physical process or object, digital twins have the potential to transform industries including manufacturing, health and agriculture
[Image changes to show a scanned image of a city and the camera pans over the diagram]
and even change the way we design our cities and infrastructure.
[Images move through of various cameras and sensing equipment and then the image changes to show two males holding up a physical object and then the image changes to show the scanned object]
The Mixed Reality Lab houses a state of the art set up of optical cameras and sensing equipment to capture detailed information about a physical object to create its digital twin in a matter of minutes.
[Image changes to show various pieces of equipment on a table and then the image changes to show the scanned images of the equipment]
The technology can be tailored to multiple applications to automatically validate components or processes.
[Image changes to show Lachlan Hetherton talking to the camera and text appears: Mr Lachlan Hetherton, Senior Software Engineer, CSIRO’s Data61]
Lachlan Hetherton: Really the Mixed Reality Lab is able to be applied to a huge number of domains
[Images move through to show Lachlan looking at a pair of computer screens, 3-D printed plastic products, a 3-D printer in operation, and a male walking through a crop in a field]
and we looked at industries like health and bio-security, agriculture.
[Image changes to show Lachlan talking to the camera again and then images move through of various people being scanned as they move]
You could detect objects, you could do things like detect strains on the human body using visual analytics.
[Images move through of a scanned image of a wheel, people being scanned while they are moving, Lachlan working on a computer, and two males looking at a computer screen and talking]
Narrator: Digital twins of manufacturing processes, human movement, and cities and infrastructure will significantly improve productivity, reduce costs and transform all manner of industries.
[Image changes to show Matt Bolger talking to the camera and text appears: Mr Matt Bolger, Senior Software Engineer, CSIRO’s Data 61]
Matt Bolger: I think we’re only scratching the surface on where we can take some of this.
[Music plays and a honeycomb background pattern and the CSIRO, and Data61 logos and text appears: Creating our Data Drive Future, www.data61.csiro.au]
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