Digital Twin – a virtual model of a physical asset that mimics the operation and behavior of its physical counterpart – is gaining attention in cloud technology as it can be monitored and controlled from anywhere. The sensors present on the model’s physical asset continuously capture the environmental and operational data which is streamed to the cloud where it can efficiently enhance the static data. The dynamic combined data can be later analyzed in real-time after being used as an input to an engineering model or statistical model in the cloud, thereby generating insights that can help in controlling the ongoing operation of physical assets.
The Digital Twin platform from Wipro, designed and developed by Sanjoy Paul and his Team, connects data from both design and operations in a seamless manner. Typically, these two systems are separate and unconnected but they need to be integrated for Digital Twin to reach its full potential. Product design-specific data is typically stored in PDM/PLM systems while operational data is sent to and processed in the IoT platform.[i]With the advancements in multiple systems, many individuals tried to connect data from these two disparate systems in the best possible manner; one such individual is Sanjoy Paul. To his discoveries, there are numerous methods for carrying out this integration, and most frequently, it is carried out in an unstructured style. However, Wipro’s Digital Twin Platform uses a sophisticated asset modeling framework to seamlessly integrate two seemingly unrelated systems. The feedback loop is closed by feeding the Plant/Operation system with the output of the Digital Twin platform.It also had an industrial strength time series database and an in-memory database for quick access to data during real-time complex event processing, and decision making
Sanjoy Paul was born in India on January 22, 1962. After excelling in the field of computer science, he became a technology executive, business consultant, and author. Today, Sanjoy is the global managing director at Accenture, leading R&D in systems and platforms, and a part-time teaching faculty in the Computer Science Department of Rice University. His entrepreneurial spirit has seen him founding and leading several successful companies, such as Relevant Ad Technologies Inc., a contextual advertising company; DigiNotebooks, an EdTech company, and Almawiz Inc., a digital contact center and lead generation company. He is revered for his cutting-edge research in areas such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Digital Twin, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML), Computer Networks, 5G and Wireless Networks, Multimedia Streaming, and Content Distribution. Sanjoy Paul’s commitment to excellence and innovation is an inspiration to us all.
Dr. Paul earned a bachelor’s degree in electronics and electrical communications engineering (ECE) in 1985 from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and a doctorate in electrical engineering in August 1992 from the University of Maryland at College Park. In May 2005, he earned a master of business administration (MBA) from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School.His previous positions include Adjunct Professor in the Department of Computer Science at San Jose State University (2020), Global Digital Head of Manufacturing and Technology at Wipro, Ltd. (2016-2020), Managing Director at Accenture (2011-16), Associate Vice President & General Manager at Infosys (2007-11), Founder & CEO at RelevantAd Technologies (2005-07), Research Professor at Rutgers University (2005-07), Research Director at Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies (2001-05), Chief Technology Officer at Edgix (1999-2001) and Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Labs (1992-99).
In 2016, Sanjoy stepped into a new role as VP and Global Head of Digital for Manufacturing and Technology at Wipro. His mission was to revolutionize how clients in the process and industrial manufacturing, automobile, and aerospace industries operated. To accomplish this objective, he implemented the Digital Twin platform for Industry 4.0, and digital customer care initiatives leveraging the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms in Natural Language Processing (NLP),Knowledge Graph, and Omni-channel communication. Over the following four years, he worked tirelessly to drive digital transformation and by 2020, the businesses he supported achieved remarkable success, and Sanjoy had become a leader in the field.
Being a visionary, Sanjoy has remainedfirmin revolutionizing manufacturing industries using digital technologies. He is renowned for his expertise in the Internet of Things (IoT) and Digital Twin. Determined to create a platform to make his vision a reality, he became successful in his endeavors by creating a platform called Looking Glass – an Industrial IoT/Digital Twin Platform – that acted as a key to the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry.
Sanjoy always considered Looking Glass a powerful Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform with a great device manager, able to configure, provision, and communicate securely with devices. To him, it’s a must-have for anyone looking for a comprehensive IIoT solution. The power of data management was evident as it enabled an industrial strength time series database and an in-memory database for quick access to data during real-time processing. Its real-time analytics capabilities were impressive, as it supported complex event processing and the ability to execute complex statistical models in real-time.
With the help of Looking Glass Platform, remote asset monitoring, and predictive maintenance solutions aim to gather real-time data from field assets, build a statistical model based on previous data, and translate the model into an IOT engine to anticipate machine and/or component failure in real-time[ii].
The Looking Glass was the innovative tool the industrial world had been waiting for. It had a sophisticated asset modeling layer allowing various industrial applications related to asset management and digital twin technology. It was the perfect solution that the industry needed to move forward.
The Looking Glass Platform was also used to create a Supply Chain Digital Twin by connecting the “track and trace” information from the suppliers to the manufacturers to the warehouses to the distribution centers to the retail stores; thus, improving the visibility of the inventory in store and in flight between these various stakeholders in the supply chain.
Emphasizing the safety of industrial workers and making them more productive for manufacturing companies in the digital age, Sanjoy Paul came up with certain inventions including Smart helmets.
Smart helmets are nothing but safety helmets that are equipped with various sensors connected to a gateway located on the helmet, which, in turn, connects to the wireless infrastructure of the factory. In certain situations, such as when a worker unknowingly walks into an area with hazardous conditions, such as welding, fast-moving conveyor belts, high voltage zones, or areas with dangerous chemicals, the sensors can detect and alert the worker of potential danger.[iii]To identify potential hazards in a factory, tracking of workers and vehicles is essential. Sensors mounted on helmets can detect gas leakage in confined areas and alert workers and their supervisors. Furthermore, man-down scenarios can also be detected using sensors, enabling supervisors to take necessary action.
Many times, industrial workers do not recognize their fatigue and continue to work, endangering their health and endangering others, especially when operating industrial vehicles. Small cameras mounted on the dashboard of the vehicles can continuously monitor the worker’s eyes, and if the percentage closure of the eyes exceeds a certain threshold, the worker receives a fatigue alert. Moreover, a notification is also sent to his supervisor.Fatigue can also be detected when specific biometric measurements exceed a certain threshold or when a worker works longer than his or her normal duty hours. Intelligence can be built into the system so that if a worker removes his helmet during working hours, the system alerts him, but if he removes the helmet during lunch hours, the system does not. Digital Twin of a Factory involves not just the digital twin of machines but also the digital twin of the human workers. The sensors on the Smart Helmet of the workers help track the activities of workers, their location, and their physical condition like fatigue. All this sensory information is managed through the Looking Glass platform. Thus, with the Digital Twin Looking Glass platform, Smart Helmets serve as safety measures at large for workers.
Just as safety is important for the workers, so is the improvement of productivity. The workers become more productive through the use of technology like Augmented Reality and remote advice from experts when doing maintenance and repair work in the factory. The identification of problems is done through the processing of data in real-time by the Looking Glass platform, which triggers the generation of step-by-step instructions for a maintenance worker, guiding him to systematically diagnose and fix the problems using an Augmented Reality (AR) headset like Hololens. Thus, the Looking Glass platform helps in improving the productivity of the workers.
Other than these inventions, Sanjoy carried out certain projects as well including intelligent assets with automated decision-making capability. This project seeks to enable the sharing of resources without the need for a middleman. Through the use of the Internet of Things (IoT), smart contracts, and distributed ledger technology (DLT), any asset can be made “smart,” allowing it to participate in a marketplace, the auction itself, select the best bidder, and enable the winner to use the asset within the bounds of a contract. Automated transactions involving payment by the user and payback by the asset (for instance, when the asset is unavailable and the user is not able to use it) are also handled.
Knowing that while the world has raced ahead in virtually every industry to deliver personalized experiences using the most advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies, the aviation industry has lagged, Sanjoy Paul came up with the idea of connected aircraft cabin for enhancing the passenger experience.
Similarly, while significant progress has been made in reducing maintenance costs in heavy industries using a combination of Internet of Things (IoT), AI, and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies, the airline industry has lagged far behind.To Sanjoy, there are several reasons for this. The most important reason, however, has been the lack of secure and cost-effective connectivity between the aircraft and the internet, followed by the aircraft’s lack of edge (fog) computing architecture. The lack of seamless and cost-effective connectivity between the aircraft and the internet prevents leveraging the full power of cloud computing, which allows access to unlimited content on the internet, and big data/analytics.
Sanjoy offered the solution to these issues in the form of a connected aircraft cabin. He used a combination of Wi-Fi, BLE, and Wired Ethernet to connect devices in an aircraft’s cabin, while using Iridium or SATCOM to connect the aircraft to the internet. However, with the latest communication technologies, the latter is being dramatically transformed.Some in-flight components, such as the flight attendants’ Cabin Control Panel (CCP), Passenger Infotainment Unit, Hi-Speed Data Unit, and On-board LAN, rely solely on in-cabin communication technologies, whereas the pilot’s Flight Deck Control Panel relies on both in-cabin and aircraft-to-ground communication technologies.[iv]
Every function of a connected aircraft was designed to contain a significant economic impact on the entire aerospace industry. In the case of in-flight services, for example, hyper-personalized services provided to passengers involve a variety of service providers such as entertainment content providers (Netflix, Hulu, etc.), transportation providers (Uber/Lyft, etc.), hospitality providers (Marriott, Hilton, Sheraton, etc.), product/service providers (Wine, Golf, etc.), and others.Being sure that this ecosystem would easily generate several billions of dollars of new revenue for the airline industry, Sanjoy remained determined in its completion.
Sanjoy Paul spearheaded dozens of projects of similar nature involving new-age digital technology and made sure to leave a mark every step of the way. He received the MIT Technology Reviews’ Grand Challenges for India Award for solving societal problems with his smart plug project. The project primarily focused on developing a device that converts a legacy electrical appliance like a refrigerator or HVAC into a smart appliance; Sanjoy not only delivered an advanced product but also ensured that it was cost-effective. Later, he also became the recipient of the Infosys Excellence Award for Innovations and Thought Leadership for the most innovative product of the year.[v]
[i]https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/beginners-guide-digital-twin-illustrative-approach-sanjoy-paul/
[ii]https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/de-mystifying-industrial-iot-iiot-platforms-personal-opinion-paul/
[iii]https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/improving-safety-industrial-workers-making-them-more-productive-paul/
[iv]https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/connected-aircraft-poised-transform-aerospace-industry-sanjoy-paul/
[v]https://www.infosys.com/content/dam/infosys-web/en/investors/reports-filings/annual-report/annual/Documents/AR-2011/Additional-Information/Awards_for_exellence.html