During the recent years, the tendency to face threatening and complex incidents in Thailand has increased. This involves problems of cross-national crimes, marine security, newly-emerging diseases, etc. The organization dealing with security as the main institution responsible for solving security related problems must revise and update the plans to respond to the Government’s economic policy or Thailand 4.0. In Khon Kaen, there is the Smart City Project approved in 2016, which is aimed at developing Khon Kaen into a smart city based on the international standard in 2 aspects: Smart Mobility, Smart People, Smart Economy, Smart Environment, Smart Governance, and Smart Living.
The goals of the security organization in addition to developing the city into a smart city where people are safe and have good quality of life are behind the Smart City Operation Center’s (SCOPC), Khon Kaen University, to adopt the 3-dimension Digital Twin map so that the security officers can increase their competence in prevention of bad incidents, protect the people, and face unexpected situations effectively.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rawee Hanpachoen from the Faculty of Architecture and a researcher of the Smart City Operation Center (SCOPC), Khon Kaen University revealed, “Digital Twin is a 3-dimension map that has high resolution just like it is the twin of the real area. The police assign us the problem. Then KKU researchers create a simulated situation onto the model area. The police then use this to plan for suppression of the incidence. At present, the Digital Twin has been used in many cases such as when guarding national leaders. The 3-dimension Digital Twin is used for planning distribution of officers in the area and setting the guarding points. It can be used in creating simulations similar to a game on the model so that the police officers can plan their operation in each case.”
The principle of work of the Digital Twin technology is to make a copy or simulated model of physical items in a digital format, both as pictures or data. Then there is a mechanism to connect with the real object via a sensor system that collects information related to the physical status of the object in real-time. This is like moving the object into the digital world. Digital Twin is an integration of many technologies, i.e., VR and AR that form the structure or form of the object in the digital world, the sensor technology, and Internet of Things (IoT), which connects the data between the real world and the digital world as well as updating data in real-time into the Digital Twin. There is also the data-analyzing technology such as Machine Learning used for prediction of incidents and Software Analytics to regulate the operation of software in the technological system. There is the communication infrastructure to connect systems together such as Cloud, Edge Computing, Automation, and security system, all of which enable co-working of all of the technologies.
The integration of all these smart systems leads to the capacity in checking an object with high resolution, to the point that simulation can be made when the environment or the status of any one point of the object has changed. It will show what impact arises to the object. Users can simulate a situation and predict the possibility more effectively.
Although it is an advanced technology that meets the needs to manage the safety and orderliness of a city, Digital Twin has not been used in the work of police officer as the first start, for the beginning of use arose from the needs of Khon Kaen University to build its database in a 3-dimenstion form in order to be acknowledged of details of the University’s resources.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rawee Hanpachoen explained, “The beginning of the use of Digital Twin was when Khon Kaen University responded to the Smart City Policy of Khon Kaen city that led to establishment of the Smart City Operation Center (SCOPC). KKU President is the chairman of this center, with Vice President for Innovation and Enterprise, Director of Science Park, a number of professors from many faculties and many research project leaders being members of the center.
The use of Digital Twin technology is the need of Khon Kaen University to build its database in the form of a 3-dimension map and then to change the 3-dimension map into data so that all of the university’s resources can be visualized including buildings, classroom buildings, roads, electricity poles, dust bins, etc. The application can be used to work by the University’s security organization. An area can be simulated to plan the construction of a building or a structure as well,” said Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rawee.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rawee then added, “We plan that KKU will be the first university having a system to manage and regulate our resources. This technology will benefit the administrators, ajarns and students, including the parents. The parents should know what the university has. They can see this on their cell phone. This kind of things make the parents feel confident to send their children to study in KKU, for they can see that the campus is safe and convenient to live. Now we are under the stage of scanning the campus area and it is expected that the system can be put into real use next year.”
The Digital Twin is the first time technology is used for management of the campus interior, and it has now been extended for the use in the city in order to respond to the city’s policy in making Khon Kaen a smart city. It will enable the administration of the city become more efficient, which means the quality of life and good living of the people under the smart technology and innovation.
By Rawiporn Saisaenthong
