What are digital twins?

Digital twins are a representation or replica of some physical product or service. This representation is fully digitized, allowing emulation of all the functions of the original product.

In other words, we are facing a system that allows us to “copy” all the information about “something” in the real world. Using NASA as an example, they are able to create replicas of their spaceships on a computer. These have all the features, such as the speed achieved and the built-in systems.

The digital twins in the real estate sector

The real estate sector is also taking advantage of digital twins.
Among the different options that we offer, we find the following:

• Through digital twins, all the changes made to a property can be perfectly simulated. In this way, you can anticipate what will happen when changing elements such as the floor level or adding new spaces to the property.
• Knowing all the characteristics of a house or apartment through a digital twin helps to make better decisions. After all, to know where you are going to invest your money, you must first know the conditions of the property to be acquired.
• Obtaining data in real time, such as comments, opinions and reactions from customers and owners. Our point of view is never the only one and digital twins allow us to obtain additional information from other users.
• It is an excellent promotional tool, especially for potential clients. Showing what will be the final result of the construction with all its characteristics helps to get clients more easily.

For these reasons, digital twins are gradually gaining ground in the real estate sector. The possibility of completely representing a physical space already built gives us a world of possibilities. It is about reusing the digitization of said space for various uses (sale of the property, renovation of a house, insurance claim for a lifting of the floor, interior design, among others…).

For example, Matterport, the giant of 3D virtual tours, has managed to digitize millions of physical spaces since its inception; How do they do it?
Thousands of users have purchased a Matterport camera capable of scanning a space in 3D and saving that view to a cloud link.

In other words, this means having complete data (2D and 3D) of a house, apartment, commercial premises, office, showroom, ship, plane, warehouse or any physical built space. In the case of Matterport, its initial goal is that brokers could use these views to put their properties up for sale. Once the property has been scanned in the cloud, it can be reused for various uses.

Hauzd, through its interactive 3D digital platform for real estate, is creating thousands of digital twins of buildings, apartments, houses, offices, commercial premises and industrial buildings that, unlike Matterport, these spaces have NOT yet been built.

The purpose is to be able to re-use these digitizations in the cloud in order to integrate them with different proptech solutions on the market and add value to the real estate developer/property manager. The integrations are with different types of solutions such as CRM, ERP, Property Management software, Property Marketplace, Real Estate Post-sale Solutions, among others…

Other industries are already using digital twins

It is clear that the use of digital twins at the real estate level is highly relevant. However, in what other sectors is this synergy between the real and virtual worlds useful?

At an industrial level, digital twins replace prototypes by offering more functions at a lower cost.
They also have uses in regard to the industrial operating process, seeking to minimize errors and accidents.
In logistics, the use of digital twins is focused on monitoring delivery systems.
Some of the companies that are already taking advantage of digital twins to be more efficient in terms of products and services:

DHL, seeking to improve national and international shipping systems.

Rolls Royce, an automotive company that has performed performance tests for its engines through digital twins.

Bayer Crop Science has worked with digital corn factories to understand what production and distribution would look like in the United States.

General Electric has been another of the companies that are part of the success of digital twins to reduce costs.

Undoubtedly, the innovations represented by digital twins have led leaders from different markets to incorporate them. The greatest benefits that these represent are related to productivity and savings in production costs.