Modern oil and gas infrastructure is complex, extensive, and often located in harsh remote environments. As a result, facilities managers and operational teams face significant challenges with operational tasks like monitoring of critical equipment, predictive maintenance, change management, and strategic planning.

Visual digital twin technology from Cupix can transform these tasks by offering near real-time monitoring.

The result is greater operational continuity, lower costs, higher efficiency, and stricter adherence to safety standards than ever before.

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What is a Cupix visual digital twin?

A digital twin is a virtual replica of a physical object or system created with simulation technologies and real-time data. 

In practice, a company builds a digital twin by capturing spatial data for the asset and marrying it to real-time information gathered by sensors, as well as any other pertinent data sources. The resulting virtual model mirrors the behavior and characteristics of its real-world counterpart, offering context for making operational choices.

Many digital twins are built on spatial models generated by 3D laser scanners, but this methodology is imperfect for creating a digital twin of an oil and gas facility. Capturing the facility with this complex technology can take months and cost millions of dollars. And it requires flying specialists to the site and interrupting operations.Cupix offers an alternative way to build a visual digital twin: Using data captured by off-the-shelf 360° camera and advanced proprietary processing. This process is fast, inexpensive, and can be done by anyone.

How to Build a Visual Digital Twin with Cupix

1. Capture the Site: A stakeholder uses a 360° camera to walk through the site, recording panoramic time-lapse video as they go.

2. Document Areas of Interest: If they encounter an area of interest — such as damaged equipment or areas needing maintenance — they can use their smartphone coupled with the Cupix Capture app to take a high-res 2D photo and/or record an audio note for additional context.

3. Process the Data: The completed capture video is uploaded to the Cupix platform, where it is processed using Cupix’s proprietary AI technology.

4. Generate the Digital Twin: Cupix creates a spatial model that can be explored as a 3D "dollhouse" or a 360° virtual tour.

5. Contextualize Notes Automatically: All photo and audio notes are automatically integrated into the Capture with their actual 3D geospatial location.

6. Add Additional Data: Stakeholders in the office can enhance the digital twin by attaching various data types—such as spreadsheets, historical documentation, drawings, models, and logs—to the corresponding geospatial locations. They can also integrate real-time sensor data or connect the Cupix platform with their existing technology systems or Power BI.

The resulting visual digital twin not only provides a crucial visual document of the asset at a single point in time. It also offers spatial index for intuitive access to all the data needed for fast, efficient, operational decision-making. 

And, since it is available remotely, teams can make important operational decisions even when they’re off site.

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What are the applications?

This visual digital twin has several applications in oil and gas operations. Here are the applications with the highest impact.

Near real-time monitoring

The Cupix visual twin technology is fast and easy to use, making it possible to capture new data whenever the facility makes modifications like installing or removing equipment. This updates the digital twin to a true reflection of the facility as it exists, right now.

Compare that to a digital twin created with traditional 3D scanning. Since the technology is slow and expensive, a facility will often perform 3D capture only to deliver an “as-built” model at the end of construction. Using this model as the basis for a digital twin is ineffective because of the changes that the rig has undergone since construction.

Having a visual digital twin from Cupix, which can be updated regularly, gives teams a much clearer understanding of the real-world asset. It also enables them to monitor that operation of the asset much more effectively.

In other words, it gives enough visual context that you get to “be” on the site without actually being there.

Remote collaboration

A visual digital twin on the Cupix platform is accessible to any stakeholder with an internet connection and the right permissions. It can be used by the workers on the facility and their counterparts back in the office — all at the same time.

Since everyone is looking at the same visual context and information, this platform enables powerful remote collaboration, which leads to much more effective decision making.

This remote collaboration also minimizes the number of personnel that need to travel to the job site. And that reduces complex logistics, eliminates exorbitant transportation costs, and greatly reduces risk profile.

Planned maintenance, hazard ID and compliance.

A visual digital twin makes inspection tasks much faster and more effective.

Consider a professional tasked with inspecting an oil platform that has hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces of equipment. They are also responsible for everything in the areas surrounding that equipment, like pads, bases, bulkheads, and so on.

If they are doing maintenance planning, they will use a planned maintenance system (PMS) that gives a list of five machines to inspect this week, three next week, and so on, until they’ve looked at all over the course of a year. 

In the past, they would have to be on site to inspect the machinery on their list this week, whether it’s an engine, a motor, or a separator, or another part of the asset. With a Cupix visual digital twin, this inspector can search for the name of the machine, click, and the platform will “fly” them to the correct location.

Now they can get rich visual context by looking around. They can pull up whatever information they need. No time wasted looking for this file, that file, a piece of paper that has gone missing, or digging through five different log books.

This workflow doesn’t only apply to planning maintenance, either. Professionals can use the same fast and powerful process for identifying hazards and ensuring compliance with a wide variety of standards, laws, and regulations.

Remote change planning

The combination of real-world context, unified data, and remote access is very powerful for a number of applications. Especially change pre-planning.

Imagine a rig is installing several large batteries, for example, and they need to run the cable through several decks. If they were using drawings alone, they would lack the real-world context to plan the cable run. If they pre-planned with pictures, that would give them a better sense of the real-world context, but would still limit their ability to do effective planning.

By using a visual digital twin and the original drawings, the teams in the office will have all the information they need to take measurements, see all the necessary context, and do a very refined pre-planning for the cable run.

Better operational efficiency with CupixWorks Digital Twin

As you can see by now, a visual digital twin created with the Cupix platform can transform operational processes in oil and gas.

It offers an easy, inexpensive workflow. It generates a near real-time record of the site and connects disparate data sources to their respective assets. 

And it offers a powerful tool for tasks monitoring, predictive maintenance, hazard identification, compliance, remote collaboration, and even remote change planning. In the process, it minimizes site visits, improving safety and reducing costs.

The result is more efficient decisions and a major safety upgrade. In other words? Better operational efficiency and much lower risk.