This presentation outlines our vision on the D-Reader, the product our company develops. The product is focused on automated understanding of engineering drawings.

1. DII
Presentation 1
Digital copies of the assets

2. Digital transformation is profoundly changing the world. There are some
major trends in creating and managing physical objects with digital
technologies. We believe this process improves society, makes it safer,
better run and better provided. It creates new business opportunities worth
tens of billions of dollars and impacts major industries.
We believe every human-created useful asset in the future will have a digital
form. Assets will exist in physical and digital dimensions and we believe we
know what solutions, currently underdeveloped, will scale this process to a
mass market and spark the exponential growth of digitisation.
DII is working on the development of a software system which will help to
automate the digitisation process and decrease the need for human
interaction. Automation software is the key to the exponential growth of
digitisation.

3. Further, we will consider main technology trends for building and the use of physical
objects. In all cases these trends require digital replicas (copies) of the objects as
one of the key inputs.
These trends became possible due to the following underlying technologies, some of
which are relatively new, while some have existed for decades:
- Computer aided design (CAD)
- Affordable hardware including sensors, computers and servers
- Smart infrastructure
- Virtually unlimited processing power with cloud computing
- High processing power of local devices (edge power)
- Internet of things (IoT)
- Data science
- AI and machine learning
Underlying technologies

4. Key technology trends based on
digital versions of physical assets

5. New products can be designed and tested before their physical replicas
have been built. Environmental conditions can be modelled for testing.
Digital prototyping dramatically decreases risks and costs involved in
creating new products. The realistic digital version of an object can be
explored, studied and improved while still in design form. Some industry
standards allow design verification with a digital model without building the
physical object. The exact cost of construction can be determined.
Digital prototyping became mainstream a trend over ten years ago.
However, it is constantly developing with new versions of software
packages increasing the similarity between physical and digital objects and
modelling of environment conditions.
1. Digital prototyping

7. BIMs are digital prototypes of objects in the building environment. BIMs
connect all engineering systems and elements of the object in question into
one file or a group of files. The global building information modelling market
was valued at $5.20 billion in 2019, and is projected to reach $15.06 billion
by 2027.
BIM technology has completely changed architecture and construction
industries by improving participants’ collaboration, planning and
management of their projects. In most of countries the use of BIMs is
required under government regulations and they are used by all reputable
architectural, engineering and construction firms. There are a number of
industry- and government-led initiatives on adopting, standardising and
further development of the next generations of BIM technologies.
2. Building information models (BIM)

9. Multiple connected sensors can help to manage various structures: homes,
offices, public places, industrial facilities etc.
Smart tools make facilities’ management more effective, secure, customer
friendly and sustainable.
The smart facilities’ industry is also known as ‘building automation’. The
global intelligent building automation technologies market was valued over
$65 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow.
Smart facilities use BIM as a key model, which becomes a basis for all
processes.
3. Smart facilities

10. Smart facilities

11. A digital twin mirrors an object’s physical copy in design and operation. It
utilises previously mentioned technologies to the point where the digital
version of the asset is an exact replica and constantly connected with its
physical copy (twin) by a sufficient number of sensors that it fully reflects its
condition and activities. The twin allows one to manage the asset remotely,
monitor its condition, collect vast amounts of data, simulate scenarios and
model future conditions to predict behaviour.
Digital twins became an extremely popular tech trend and is a mainstream
technology in certain industries. There are twins of large equipment objects,
objects of built environment, processes and even cities.
4. Digital twins

13. Image from Sap.com
Using Digital twins for assets

14. Digital construction is the use and application of digital tools to improve the
process of delivering and operating the built environment. Those tools
include BIMs, cloud computing, VR & AR applications, UAVs (drones), laser
scanning, robotics, data science applications, etc. They make construction
projects safer, collaborative and efficient. This market is worth $50billion
globally and growing at approximately at 15% per year.
Using digital tools for manufacturing has been popular for many years but is
constantly evolving with further process automation, rapid prototyping,
robotisation, AR/VR, additive manufacturing, simulation, new CNC-
machinery, machine learning, etc. The global market for digital
transformation in manufacturing was valued at $220.90 billion in 2018 and
is anticipated to rise up to $642.35 billion by 2025.
5. Digital manufacturing and
construction

16. A smart city is an urban area that uses different types of electronic Internet
of Things (IoT) sensors to collect data and then use insights gained from
that data to efficiently manage assets, resources and services. This
includes data collected from citizens, devices, and assets that is processed
and analysed to monitor and manage traffic and transportation systems,
power plants, utilities, water supply networks, waste management, crime
detection, information systems, schools, libraries, hospitals, and other
community services.
The global market for smart city services is estimated over $400 billion and
is growing at a very high rate (over 20% yearly by many observers).
6. Smart cities

17. Smart cities

18. The future of connectivity within digital transformation trends is broad and
is the subject of constant development. One of the trends is designing a
network of connected assets, exchanging the data as well as networks of
those networks. For example, in the UK there is a widely presented concept
of the national digital twin (network of twins based on compatible
protocols). Connections of the ecosystems will provide additional flow of
data and can create vast information ecosystems of objects communicating
directly with each other.
7. Connected places

19. Images by https://www.cdbb.cam.ac.uk/
Digital twin
and
Ecosystem of connected twins

20. Image by https://www.cdbb.cam.ac.uk/
Digital ecosystem

21. We regularly update a selected
web resources library
on all mentioned trends at
www.dii.ai/links

22. A digital version of an asset
has become the centre
of its life cycle
It is used at every stage of a
product’s life and enables the
use of various technology
solutions while managing the
asset.
Below we look at its use with an
example of the product:
An oil rig

23. At the design stage a digital
version (prototype) of the rig is
created. The product is designed
using latest engineering CAD
software, which plans and tests
all of its various parameters and
its multiple subcomponents
under various conditions. With
current CAD capabilities, the
software allows full validation of
design while the product still
exists only in a digital form.
1) Design

24. The rig construction project uses a
digital model and updates it with ‘as
built’ drawings as the design may be
changed during construction period.
Rig construction involves building and
assembling multiple parts and
components coming from many
suppliers. Digital drawings of
components are used to transmit data
to suppliers and to upload designs to
CNC machines. A digital model
integrates data from all suppliers to
ensure compatibility.
2) Construction

25. When the rig is operated, it works in a
remote environment. To ensure safety
and efficiency it collects data from
thousands of sensors. The data are
analysed to make necessary
decisions.
Many large rig operators have digital
twins of their rigs, which allows them
to control all drilling parameters from
their offices, provide technical advice
and support, and process data for
complex decisions, ensuring its robust
operation.
3) Useful life

26. During years of operation, oil and gas
rigs are often upgraded and
renovated. Any changes and
additions require a design group to
perform necessary calculations using
the original design model. CAD
software is used to perform all
necessary calculations often
involving collaboration with
engineering contractors and
components’ suppliers. In this case,
the use of common engineering
standards and platforms is required.
All activities are centred around a
digital model of the product.
4) Renovations

27. At the end of their useful life, oil and gas
rigs need to be decommissioned, which
requires elaborate planning and
engineering. To calculate all steps the
exact engineering data are required and
having digital models helps engineers
use necessary modelling software.
In reality, however, usually the older rigs
were built before the latest CAD
packages were developed. That creates
complexities requiring engineers to
manually transfer the data into new
formats.
5) Decommissioning

28. Summary and the scaling question
1. Digital transformation of physical assets is taking place and is well
underway. The transformation has become real due to technological
advancement in computing, software engineering and affordability of many
devices.
2. Digital transformation has created multiple trends and technologies.
Some of them have created their own industries worth billions of dollars
and profoundly impacted traditional industries such as construction, urban
development, real estate management, transportation, energy etc.
3. One of the key elements enabling using those technologies is a digital
version of the asset based on its CAD model.
The question is: if all those technologies are creating so much added
value, what prevents them from scaling to mass market?

29. What prevents the mass spread of those technologies?
Indeed, the majority of digital twins are popular with high-worth industries
like oil rigs, wind turbines, space ships, planes, extensive industrial
facilities, etc. Hence they operate as some form of ‘premium segment’ of
the market.
What needs to happen so digital twins become scaled to mass market? If
software can be scaled without much additional cost and processing power
is unlimited, what stops every important physical asset becoming ‘smart’ or
to obtain its digital twin?
The main factor is that creating a digital twin still requires a lot of manual
input. This is particularly true with older assets, which were built prior to the
digital era and whose designs exists only in old formats. Those are called
‘legacy assets’ and their digitisation still needs to occur, but which will
involve considerable, expensive, qualified labour.

30. Legacy assets challenge
Because older asset designs are usually preserved in older formats (paper
copies or 2-D CAD files), to use all modern innovations a digital model has to
be created. Essentially this means the asset design has to be recreated from
the older drawings. For large and complex assets this is a problem as it
takes a vast amount of time and resources as it is predominantly a manual
task.
We believe the absence of the relatively painless process of digitizing assets
is one of the factors holding digital technologies back from much wider and
faster deployment. If there was an efficient automation solution to this
challenge – this could accelerate global digital transformation exponentially.
DII is researching ways to automate the creation of digital models for legacy
assets. The next presentation will explain how we see this happening.

31. Thank you
This was Presentation 1 of 3 outlining
the DII business case.
Presentation 2 explains
how we address digitising existing objects.
www.dii.ai