Prompt identification is crucial to detect aging and damage at an early stage in buildings. This implies continuous maintenance and for that reason, the insurance industry has a great interest in accompanying and supporting its customers in this constant process of renewal.
Over the last two decades, new technologies have opened different possibilities to manage data of built assets more efficiently, reducing the efforts to collect and maintain building data as well.
What is a 3D digital twin and which are its benefits?
A 3D digital twin represents an object, for example, a building, in a digital environment as a realistic 3D model. It brings together all its relevant data and becomes the central data and collaboration interface. By doing that 3D digital twin gives a continuous flow of information over the entire life cycle of the building and provides, among others, the following added values:
- Greater efficiency: Thanks to permanent monitoring of the building and more efficient and timely planning of maintenance.
- Risk reduction: It can detect anomalies and potential malfunctions at an early stage using AI to take preventive measures and minimize future risks.
- Greater transparency: The continuous data collection of the building makes it easy to visualize changes over time. In addition, the integration into the Insurance IoT Cloud creates a broad database and enables the collection and interpretation of additional empirical values.
What solutions have we explored?
The Eurapco Lab aims to explore and build a concept for a platform and an ecosystem to collect property data for 3D digital twins called the Turtle-concept. This service platform will be able to gather actual property data, decode the building and instantly measure different areas (like facade, roof, etc). It provides a great benefit for someone who is planning renovations since all the contractors on such a platform can offer a quote based on the same correct and verified information.
How does the Turtle-concept work?
First, the platform will capture images of the customer’s property. These images are taken from different angles around the building and cover all visible areas. Once this phase is completed the images are processed into a 3D digital model and measurements are taken from it.
In the last step of the process, the Turtle-concept will be ready to use in different formats and qualities. Furthermore, 3D digital twin models can be visualized on desktop, mobile, or any AR/VR device.
What is the potential for the insurance sector?
Among the benefits that the Turtle-concept will bring to the insurance industry, the following are highlighted:
- Leading innovation: Less than 3% of companies worldwide have holistically captured the opportunities offered by digital twins. Those that are already working on this topic today are among the “first movers” and can tap into new business models.
- Driving the digital infrastructure: Due to the use of key technologies, such as IoT, AI, 5G, and VR, the digital twin is qualified to be one of the most important innovation drivers for the next five years.
- Promoting further business development and sustainable living.
How are we moving forward?
The insights from the Turtle-concept have been shared with the partners and can be used in the development of new service propositions. The Eurapco Lab is exploring the application of this technology in the Agritech field in cooperation with Länsförsäkringar and LocalTapiola, and several contacts to platform suppliers have already been established.
