AWS IoT TwinMaker makes it faster and easier for developers to create and use digital twins of real-world systems like buildings, factories, industrial equipment, and production lines. This session reviews key features and use cases and shows a demo of the new service.
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Content
0.82 -> Good afternoon, everybody.
2.72 -> Welcome to our session.
4.98 -> This is intro to AWS IoT TwinMaker.
9.24 -> It's a new service that was announced yesterday
11.6 -> in Adam's keynote.
12.92 -> So if you watched the keynote and you're curious
15.97 -> about what TwinMaker is,
18.48 -> or you're thinking about applying digital twins
21.77 -> to your operations,
23.65 -> or you're already building digital twins and wanna learn
26.94 -> how the service can help you get there faster,
30.7 -> then this is the session for you.
32.93 -> My name is Saras.
34.26 -> I am a principal product manager in AWS IoT.
37.94 -> And with me today is Dane Loughlin from Invista
41.6 -> who's here to talk to us about how industry leaders,
44.37 -> such as themselves are applying digital twins today.
48.18 -> We're really excited to share with you what we learned
51.08 -> in this space over this experience,
53.42 -> and hopefully inspire you to think
56.62 -> about how you can apply digital twins in your businesses.
62.67 -> Thank you for being here and with that, let's get started.
68.96 -> On the agenda today we'll cover a brief background
72.38 -> on what digital twins are and how they're used.
76.23 -> We'll talk about how digital twins are built
79.97 -> and what makes it so challenging.
83.1 -> We'll take a deeper look into TwinMaker's capabilities,
88.26 -> and then I'll hand it off to Dane to talk to us
91.27 -> about their motivation
93.73 -> and experience building a connected worker tool
98.19 -> using this new service.
101.18 -> Okay, so what are digital twins?
106.29 -> There's a lot of interpretations out there,
108.54 -> but simply put digital twins are virtual representations
113.43 -> of physical objects and processes
117.2 -> that very closely mimic the state and behavior
122.12 -> of the physical counterpart and are built
125.16 -> to solve specific business challenges.
128.65 -> Customers are using digital twins to get better visibility
132.84 -> into their operations,
134.89 -> to get a deeper understanding about their environments
137.79 -> and looking for ways to improve and bring improvements
142.08 -> into the environment and even using analytics
145.67 -> on the digital twin to generate insights
148.23 -> that are then applied to the physical world
151.07 -> to drive those improvements.
153.73 -> But digital twins are not really a new concept.
157.03 -> They've been around for a long time,
159.62 -> but what makes them relevant now is customers
163.58 -> across industries are focusing so much
166.86 -> on digital transformation,
169.27 -> as well as advanced technologies like graph databases,
174.93 -> immersive visualizations, broad adoption of IoT,
178.6 -> machine learning and cloud computing
180.78 -> in general has made digital twins, not just possible,
185.64 -> but within reach for all our customers.
191.44 -> Going back to the solving of specific business challenges,
196.48 -> nobody wants to create digital twins
198.98 -> for the sake of creating digital twins.
200.98 -> It's really hard.
202.91 -> What the first question we have to ask is,
205.65 -> what is the outcome that you are working towards?
209.27 -> That's the only way to define the problem
213.2 -> and then solve that problem.
216.23 -> So if you take the business outcome as a given,
220.36 -> now you can start to think about what data
224.11 -> or input needs to go into it.
227.05 -> You can start to think
227.95 -> about what insights you wanna generate from that data,
232.23 -> as well as what's an intermediate business outcome
235.25 -> that gets you part of the way there?
237.61 -> When you answer these questions,
239.13 -> it gives you a better understanding
241.47 -> of what your digital twin needs to look like.
244.74 -> How are you going to use it
245.98 -> and what improvements it's going to drive?
251.27 -> So we spoke to a lot of customers across industries
254.36 -> and they shared with us a lot of interesting
257.91 -> and innovative use cases.
260.36 -> What we found was that a majority of customers are focused
264.37 -> on applying digital twins to transform their operations.
269.34 -> I'll give you two examples.
271.78 -> When an operator is trying to root cause
274.74 -> and correct operational issues in manufacturing,
279.32 -> they're slowed down by having to constantly context switch
282.74 -> between different applications that have the data
285.42 -> that they need to solve the problem.
288.03 -> They're pulling up asset information
290.09 -> with a specific asset ID.
291.81 -> Then they're trying to pull up quality
293.57 -> or maintenance history data with probably an asset ID
297.37 -> that does not map to the other applications.
299.83 -> They're switching between all these different dashboards
302.57 -> and this kind of context switching
304.15 -> and different applications slows down resolution
307.73 -> of the issue and can lead to, you know,
311.45 -> equipment failures or downtime.
314.32 -> But what they really need is the ability
317.46 -> to visualize the data that they need to get the job done
322.58 -> in the context of the environment
324.28 -> that they actually have to apply this to.
327.04 -> And they wanna do this using a comprehensive application
330.98 -> that is essentially a single pane of glass,
333.7 -> giving them real time 3D view into the facility
337.37 -> so they can quickly pinpoint and address
340.27 -> those equipment and process anomalies
343.75 -> and reduce the time to resolution.
346.76 -> It also enables remote experts to be able
349.51 -> to have a comprehensive understanding of their operations,
353.97 -> making it more effective for them to do their jobs.
358.07 -> As another example, customers in real estate are
363.08 -> hyper-focused on improving occupant health,
367.8 -> safety, and comfort.
370.07 -> And the way they wanna do that is by collecting data
374.49 -> about temperature, occupancy data,
378.27 -> energy consumption data, air quality data,
381.2 -> and visualize that in the context of their environment
384.94 -> to see what are areas of improvements
387.32 -> that they can focus on.
389.87 -> Also allows them to visualize how energy is being consumed
393.86 -> in the building at a granular level.
395.9 -> So at like a floor level or an individual room level
399.25 -> to see like what are some optimizations
401.53 -> that they can apply to start to think about, you know,
404.36 -> reducing their carbon footprint.
406.78 -> But these are just two examples of a vast array
409.98 -> of use cases that digital twins can be applied to.
412.83 -> And we find a lot of customers want to start here.
415.7 -> They want to connect to data sources
417.84 -> from all these different sources,
419.63 -> bring it all together, visualize it,
421.98 -> and then start to understand
423.68 -> what are improvements I can make,
425.59 -> what are areas that are ripe for innovation
429.41 -> and will drive improvements in their businesses.
437.19 -> So let's talk a little bit
438.71 -> about how do you make these digital twins?
442.33 -> So customers and companies are collecting
444.83 -> and generating so much data, not just data in volume,
449.59 -> but different types of data.
452.39 -> You see here, there is IoT and process data
456.12 -> that's being collected from IoT sensors and devices
459.11 -> and equipment that tell you the current state
462.16 -> of these machines.
465.29 -> There is visual data.
467.961 -> The as designed context from CAD files
472.44 -> or as built context from point cloud scans,
476.1 -> there's geospatial data,
477.93 -> there's modeling data as well as video data
482.16 -> from cameras that are deployed in these facilities.
484.98 -> These are all very different kinds of data.
487.9 -> But when you're thinking about building digital twins,
490.77 -> you have to bring all of these pieces together,
493.62 -> depending on your use case,
494.75 -> you might need all of them or a subset of them,
496.53 -> but you do have to bring them together in and codify them
499.99 -> into a virtual model
502.12 -> that represents the physical environment
505.17 -> where these data sources are relevant,
507.27 -> how they're related to each other,
509.17 -> and what are the various elements in that environment.
512.45 -> And you wanna use that to drive insights.
514.96 -> And once you have that digital twin,
517.07 -> you wanna embed those into end user applications.
522.32 -> These are the applications that end users use
526.38 -> to consume the data and insights
529.77 -> from your digital twin and use that
532.27 -> to do their day-to-day jobs
534.39 -> and find those areas of improvement to improve operations.
541.429 -> What we find though, is that there's a layer of shared data
547.7 -> and resources that is generated
549.92 -> that truly forms the foundation of your digital twins.
553.71 -> And if you think about a typical asset going
556.58 -> through its life cycle from design build operate,
561.17 -> there is different types of data
563 -> and resources being generated and collected.
565.84 -> For example, in design,
567.1 -> you're getting your CAD files,
569.55 -> your builder material.
570.92 -> In your build you have other vendor information.
574.75 -> When you get to operations,
576.05 -> you have maintenance, IoT data,
580.76 -> all of this data truly forms the foundation
583.56 -> of what needs to go into that digital twin.
586.18 -> And that's why we believe AWS is the best place for you
589.09 -> to be building your digital twins because of the breadth
591.81 -> of solution that we have available from edge solutions,
595.3 -> for data collection and ingestion, purpose-built databases
599.71 -> to store different kinds of data, advanced analytics,
602.933 -> serverless compute resources available to you.
607.03 -> So essentially we wanna bring the power of AWS's
611.03 -> entire portfolio of services to bear
613.34 -> on your digital twin use cases.
615.38 -> And for that data is a key enabler.
621.04 -> When we talk to customers,
623.36 -> they tell us digital twins are really hard to build,
625.6 -> and we believe them.
627.41 -> Building and managing digital twins, it's complex,
630.91 -> it's time consuming, it's complicated, it's costly.
634.8 -> And it requires specialized skills from developers
638.68 -> that not all customers have.
641.35 -> The three main key pain points that customers point
645.41 -> to us is I have so many different data sources,
649.87 -> these data sources hold important context
652.7 -> for my digital twins,
654.14 -> but there is no seemingly easy way
656.8 -> to connect the dots between them.
659.74 -> The second challenge they describe to us is,
662.89 -> modeling physical systems is very complex
666.78 -> because physical systems are complex in nature.
669.87 -> And being able to do that,
673.1 -> that tracks in the assets lifetime gets even harder
677.11 -> because you have to now think about version control.
680.76 -> And third, digital twins are used by the end users,
684.8 -> and you have to make these visualizations effective
687.55 -> for the end user and it has to be applicable
690.57 -> for the use case and for the persona
693.13 -> that's using the digital twin.
695.22 -> And in a way that makes their job easier.
697.61 -> So should not have information overload,
699.96 -> but also should not be context switching.
702.12 -> So it needs to be very specific to the challenge
705.05 -> that customers are trying to solve.
709.54 -> So that is why we're very excited
711.5 -> to announce in preview AWS IoT, TwinMaker.
715.13 -> These challenges that our customers have told us
717.41 -> over and over again, was the motivation
719.33 -> for us to build this service.
721.53 -> So we're really excited that we're now able
724.86 -> to make this available to all our customers.
728.23 -> What is this service?
730.6 -> It's a new AWS IoT service that allows you
734.03 -> to make digital twins of real world systems
737.97 -> faster and easier than ever before,
739.99 -> and use them to optimize your operations.
745.29 -> The three key benefits of the service, one,
748.33 -> it lets you access data where it lives
750.93 -> from various different sources
752.92 -> without having to re ingest the data,
755.81 -> without having to move it all into a single repository,
759.41 -> so truly the data can live where it is.
762.75 -> Second, it allows you to
764.87 -> accurately model your complex physical environments
768.76 -> into a knowledge graph that understands
771.75 -> all the different elements in that environment,
774.95 -> the data sources behind those elements that are relevant.
778.57 -> What are the relationships between them?
781.03 -> What are the interactions that they have?
783.08 -> So you can start to create a virtual digital version
787.58 -> of that physical environment.
789.72 -> And then third, creating immersive 3D views.
793.61 -> A lot of the customers that we spoke to are really focused
797.47 -> on bringing those 3D next gen experiences to their end users
802.33 -> because it's been proven that visualizing data
805.84 -> in its natural context makes it easy
808.34 -> for operators to understand
810.42 -> and comprehend that the data and insights
812.65 -> that they are trying to use to get their jobs done.
816.23 -> So those are the three key benefits of this service.
820.08 -> This is a very visual concept.
822.62 -> So I wanna play a quick video so we can get
825.47 -> on the same page of what kinds
827.17 -> of applications I'm talking about.
830.12 -> So this is a cookie factory demo that we've built.
833.38 -> What you're seeing here is you can easily bring
836.67 -> together data, sensor data, equipment data,
840.76 -> video feeds from cameras and other contexts
844.05 -> into a consolidated digital version of your operations.
849.15 -> You can create immersive 3D visualizations
851.97 -> off your environments, showing real-time data video,
855.88 -> and all the contexts that's been modeled
858.57 -> to help your operators make better decisions
861.35 -> and make them quickly.
865.78 -> So how does it work? How did we make that?
867.56 -> There are four key pillars and I'll talk
870.66 -> about all four of them in the next few slides.
873.61 -> It's Data Connectors, Model Builder,
876.49 -> Scene Composer and Application Toolkit.
881.78 -> We'll start with Data Connectors.
884.49 -> So data connectors from TwinMaker allow you
887.4 -> to connect to desperate data sources wherever they may live.
893.25 -> Our motivation behind Data Connectors is
896.14 -> to truly embrace the brownfields
898.2 -> and create a federated interface that acts
902.28 -> as an abstraction over the underlying data sources.
906.4 -> It fuses data from IoT sensors, cameras, documents,
911.94 -> maintenance history, other context setting
913.83 -> and business applications
914.93 -> and it's able to fuse context
916.64 -> between all these different data sources.
919.3 -> And how it does that, it creates a knowledge graph
925.62 -> using these data sources.
928.08 -> The Data Connectors come built in with AWS services.
932.95 -> For example, we have out of the box connectors
935.5 -> for AWS IoT SiteWise,
937.49 -> a service that stores industrial IoT data.
941.81 -> It connects seamlessly with Kinesis video streams
944.87 -> that allows you to ingest and store video data from cameras,
949.87 -> as well as allows for live and historical playback.
953.61 -> And while I'm on the topic of KVS, Kinesis video streams,
957.54 -> we also just announced a Greengrass Edge Connector
961.44 -> for KBS that now allows you to control
965 -> what video from cameras is uploaded to the cloud
967.77 -> for cases where you have bandwidth constraints,
970.13 -> or you want to limit the amount of video
972.09 -> that you're storing in the cloud.
973.33 -> So it enables you to upload data based on certain triggers.
978.17 -> The trigger can be a user requested a video segment,
981.91 -> it can be an alert has happened in the facility.
985.3 -> And because then you can use that as a trigger,
988.67 -> to only upload certain segments that relates
991.64 -> to the timestamp of the event.
993.35 -> So a really cool tool to add video to your digital twins,
997.08 -> but do that in a cost effective manner.
1000 -> And we also have connectors to Amazon S3,
1003.29 -> which we know is a typical place
1006.02 -> where customers are storing application data
1008.63 -> as well as unstructured data, but it doesn't end there.
1012.92 -> We know that there is so many data sources out there
1015.7 -> that customers wanna connect to, and as we go forward,
1018.4 -> we're gonna add support for more data sources,
1020.827 -> but we wanted to make it easy for developers
1023.1 -> to get started creating connectors
1025.66 -> for their own data sources.
1027.5 -> So we added a flexible framework that allows you
1031.24 -> to write your own data connectors to data sources
1035.55 -> that you may be using.
1037.55 -> We have samples available for data sources,
1040.31 -> such as Amazon Timestream, Siemens MindSphere,
1044.3 -> as well as Snowflake,
1045.68 -> and you can easily take these connectors
1048.17 -> using our custom connector framework
1050.81 -> and apply them to any of the data sources
1053.69 -> that you wanna connect to your digital twins.
1060.43 -> Next, we'll talk about the Model Builder.
1063.33 -> This is how you describe relationships and data properties
1066.38 -> for your digital twin.
1069.06 -> Our Model Builder embraces
1071.2 -> the entity component architecture.
1074.06 -> This is any component architecture is commonly used
1078.16 -> in game development,
1079.46 -> but as we talked to customers and they described
1081.59 -> all these use cases to us,
1083.27 -> we realize that this is a very good fit
1085.77 -> for modeling digital twins as well.
1088.97 -> Simplistically, what this architecture allows us to do,
1092.29 -> is model elements in your environment as entities.
1098.02 -> This can be equipment, it can be processes, people, spaces,
1103.24 -> and you attach various components to that entity,
1107.71 -> and that component brings context into that entity,
1111.32 -> so based on the state that each of those components is in,
1116.09 -> it drives the behavior for the entity
1118.25 -> that they are attached to.
1120.02 -> So all the data connectors that I talked about
1123.1 -> in my previous slide are now essentially components
1126.93 -> that you attach to entities,
1128.48 -> and these entities can be pieces of,
1130.76 -> it can be assembly lines,
1131.84 -> it can be processes that you wanna model
1134.68 -> into your digital twin.
1135.99 -> So it's a really flexible way
1137.5 -> to build out your digital twin model into a knowledge graph.
1143.62 -> And this knowledge graph is essentially common metadata
1147.57 -> that allow, that connects the dots
1149.112 -> between all these different pieces.
1153.6 -> What this common metadata or knowledge graph allows us
1157.26 -> to do is provide a single unified API
1162.9 -> on top of our knowledge graph
1165.33 -> that essentially removes the heavy lifting
1169.64 -> from the application development side to how you query
1174.7 -> for data coming from your digital twin.
1177.4 -> So all you have to do is call TwinMaker APIs and ask for,
1181.46 -> I want data for this entity from this time to this time,
1185.08 -> and the complexity of knowing where this data lives,
1188.72 -> what data store it is stored in and how to query
1191.51 -> that particular data store is abstracted away.
1194.56 -> So it's a really powerful tool
1195.91 -> for rapid application development using these simple APIs.
1200.82 -> Another thing that the common metadata allows us
1203 -> to do is put all these data streams on a common timeline.
1207.85 -> That means you truly have the power to rewind time
1211.45 -> and see the state of your environment
1213.41 -> or your facility at that particular point in time.
1216.72 -> And rewinding back in time doesn't just do that
1220.01 -> on a data stream per data stream basis,
1222.48 -> it essentially rewinds time across all your data.
1225.92 -> So you can truly see the state of your environment
1230.88 -> in the past.
1232.84 -> And at the heart of a lot of the stuff
1234.47 -> that we have done with a TwinMaker is
1236.71 -> to make managing change easy
1239.57 -> because we know physical spaces
1241.66 -> and physical environments change all the time.
1244.01 -> So with this Model Builder, as your operations mature,
1249.61 -> and you start to collect different types of data
1252.44 -> or new data streams,
1254.55 -> what that looks like is you're adding additional components
1257.9 -> to those same entities without having to redo the graph.
1261.24 -> So it's really easy to keep your knowledge graphs up to date
1264.87 -> and as things progress, bring those improvements
1267.43 -> into the virtual digital twin as well.
1273.2 -> Get a sip of water.
1282.58 -> Okay.
1284.5 -> Next we have the Scene Composer.
1286.89 -> Scene Composer allows you to create
1289.08 -> those 3D spatial representations of your environments