Development and implementation of the digital twin of an innovative pedestrian bridge
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The French–Taiwanese project NEMELIFT (ANR-22-CE51-0040) aims to develop an innovative crossing technology and its Digital Twin. This bridge, designed to be cost-effective, quick to deploy, and highly agile, is distinguished by its modular architecture and the integration of a dedicated active control mechanism [1]. While commercial solutions for digital twinning have been proposed recently, most of them are limited to 3D visualisation or data monitoring through dashboards, without real physical simulation. Digital twins based on physics simulation engine remain the exception, reserved for critical applications (aerospace, nuclear) or developed by large groups with substantial R&D resources [2]. The work aims to present the development of a Digital Twin based on physics simulation engine dedicated to the monitoring of a pedestrian bridge equipped with an active control mechanism. The proposed framework comprises three core components: a virtual sensing module leveraging camera measurement and Digital Image Correlation, a physics-based simulation kernel built on multibody dynamics, and a real-time model updating module for online parameter identification. The proposed digital-twin framework also accounts for civil engineering constraints, including harsh environments, limited power supply, outdoor deployment, and unreliable network access. Consequently, it is designed to operate on low-power edge computing hardware rather than relying on cloud resources or high-performance servers. This work aims to present the implementation of this DT, its performances and main limitations.
