Platform on civil engineering, underground infrastructure, energy, construction equipment & construction machinery
As a technical automation company, ICT Group is active across the board within the infrastructure sector. The company specializes in realizing the digital control of physical assets such as bridges, locks and tunnels, and is presenting the Physical Twin at InfraTech 2023. Herman Kraaij, Business Development Infra, gives us a sneak preview.
ICT Group brings people, technologies and ideas together. "We specialize in the automation of the technical domain, and that across the full breadth of the market: from the manufacturing industry and automotive to food, pharma and infra," Kraaij clarifies. "We do this with 1,900 employees worldwide, of which 1,000 work in the Netherlands. That makes us the largest technical automation company in the Netherlands. Within infra, we are active both on the passenger side (transport operators, municipalities, provinces, ProRail, etc.) and in the operational aspect or hard and critical infrastructure, such as bridges, tunnels, locks and railroad infrastructure. When it comes to hard infrastructure, we can take care of the entire palette if required: from planning studies, preliminary design, realization and maintenance. In doing so, we make grateful use of the knowledge and expertise of INNOCY, our internal engineering firm."
According to Kraaij, the biggest challenge for the next 20 years in infrastructure is the large-scale replacement and renovation (V&R) task of the Department of Public Works, provinces and municipalities. "Most of the engineering structures were built in the period between the 1960s and 1980s, and they are now in need of renovation. A lot has to be done in a relatively short period characterized by shortages of personnel and materials. The tightness in the labor market is perhaps still the biggest challenge," Kraaij believes. "Moreover, the infrastructure domain is very domain-specific and the artworks are also part of the critical infrastructure. For example, the Van Brienenoord Bridge is located in one of the busiest connections in the Netherlands, both for road and waterway traffic, but the bridge is on the verge of being renovated. In short, the focus of the V&R task must be on maintaining good traffic flow in the Netherlands."
The phase of testing and demonstrating that a renovated structure meets all (safety) requirements and functions properly is one you want to carry out in the shortest time possible, Kraaij says. "We have developed a solution for that: the Physical Twin. "It boils down to reconstructing a physical work of art to scale. This allows us to test the integration of the control system with the electrical system off-site, without the need for on-site stoppages. The goal is to keep on-site integration and commissioning as short as possible. The entire application is then already tested and demonstrated before it is implemented on-site. As a side benefit for the client, operators and other users, it is interesting to gain knowledge without burdening the actual object. And, because you get through the testing and validation phase faster you also save on effort. In times of enormous tightness in the labor market, this is a great bonus." At InfraTech, ICT Group shows a Physical Twin of any bridge/lock combination.
According to Kraaij, with the Physical Twin you can not only test desired behavior extensively and intensively, but also simulate and demonstrate undesired behavior of the system. "For example, what happens if a barrier of a bridge/lock combination unexpectedly does not close? The bridge should then not be able to be opened. You can test and demonstrate that with the Physical Twin, and it is part of the validation. In combination with the HoloLens and our HoloNXT platform, we visualize as if you really open a bridge from a control room with the push of a button, for example. Because this all takes place off-site, it significantly reduces the conversion time on-site, including the acceptance tests before handover and validation. In short, less disruption, less energy consumption, no long process waiting times, no safety issues and no unnecessary wear and tear on moving parts." ICT Group was named the Netherlands' best Digital Transformer in the Software, Development & Platforms/Enablers-Overall category by entrepreneurial platform MT/Sprout. "Therefore, we are in the party for the V&R task with domain knowledge of the operational environment and knowledge of robust software architecture."
