Digital Twins: The ultimate solution for enhancing Situation Awareness
Read time: ~4min
Situation Awareness is a topic that is becoming increasingly discussed in operational contexts. “Good” situation awareness provides a wealth of benefits and mitigates many risks.
We'll explore how enhancing situation awareness with the aid of digital twins can mitigate cognitive overload and improve decision-making in volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environments.
Understanding Situation Awareness
Situation awareness (SA) is the perception of environmental elements within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status in the near future. It's a critical factor in decision-making, especially in high-stakes, dynamic environments like mining operations.
SA operates on three levels:
Perception (Level 1): This is the basic level of awareness, where you perceive the status, attributes, and dynamics of relevant elements in the environment. In a mining context, this could be understanding the current state of the mine, the equipment, and the workers. As a user, you want this context to be specific to you, and your area of responsibility, within the overall context of the site or operations.
Comprehension (Level 2): This level involves understanding the current situation by integrating disparate pieces of information. It's about the 'so what' - so what does it mean that a piece of machinery is malfunctioning? How does this impact the overall operation, and what are the potential implications? Rapid comprehension of the situation relies on having the right data in the right context. Too much data can slow comprehension.
Projection (Level 3): The highest level of SA, projection involves forecasting future actions based on the current situation. It's about the 'now what' - now what will happen if that equipment can’t be repaired today? What potential scenarios could play out, and how should we plan accordingly? Projection is automatic and based on our comprehension.
Humans iterate between perceiving new data, comprehending what this data means, and projecting potential implications of the data. This process is automatic and iterative.
VUCA: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity
VUCA is a concept that originated in the military but is increasingly relevant in today's fast-paced, unpredictable business environments, including mining. It stands for:
Volatility: The nature and dynamics of change, and the speed at which it happens. In mining, this could refer to sudden changes in market demand or unexpected equipment failures or incidents.
Uncertainty: The lack of predictability and the prospects for surprise. For instance, the uncertainty of geological conditions or lack of data related to an issue or incident.
Complexity: The multiplex of forces, the confounding of issues, and the chaos and confusion that surround an organisation. In mining, this could be the complexity of managing various stakeholders, from workers to regulators to local communities, or even the tradeoffs inherent in balancing production targets with preventative works.
Ambiguity: The haziness of reality, the potential for misreads, and the mixed meanings of conditions. An example could be interpreting multiple conflicting reports from the field data or understanding the implications of new environmental regulations.
All operational environments are subject to VUCA, and the ever increasing pace of change and operational requirements is driving VUCA ever higher.
The Power of Digital Twins in Enhancing Situation Awareness
Digital twins are virtual replicas of physical systems and environments, providing high-context visual information to users based on near real-time and historic data. They are a powerful tool for enhancing situation awareness, particularly when designed to help individual users in their own context.
At the perception level, digital twins provide a comprehensive, real-time overview of your mining operations or area of responsibility. They visualise the status and dynamics of relevant elements in the environment, helping you quickly identify potential issues, including risks and non-fault issues.
At the comprehension level, digital twins integrate disparate pieces of information into a coherent whole. For example, they help you understand the implications of a malfunctioning piece of machinery by visualising its impact on the overall operation.
At the projection level, digital twins, combined with predictive AI or simulation tools, can forecast future scenarios based on the current situation. They can enhance or baseline your automatic projection of possible future events, underpinning personal experience with data driven projections.
Digital Twins mitigate predictive AI impacts on VUCA and situation awareness
The advent of predictive AI has revolutionised many industries, including mining. Predictive AI uses machine learning algorithms to predict future outcomes based on historical and real time data. It can help operational managers in mining to enhance their situation awareness, particularly at the comprehension and projection levels.
However, the introduction of predictive AI can also increase the complexity and ambiguity of your environment. The algorithms used by predictive AI are often complex and difficult to understand, and their predictions can sometimes be ambiguous. This can lead to a new kind of cognitive overload, where you're overwhelmed not by the volume of information, but by its complexity and ambiguity.
This is where digital twins come into play. By visualising the predictions of predictive AI in the context of your mining operations, digital twins can help you comprehend these predictions and project their implications. They can reduce the complexity and ambiguity of your environment, mitigating cognitive overload and improving decision-making.
Conclusion
Digital twins, particularly when combined with predictive AI, are a powerful tool for enhancing situation awareness and navigating VUCA environments in mining operations. They can help you quickly and accurately perceive the status and dynamics of relevant elements in the environment, comprehend the implications of these elements, and project future scenarios based on the current situation.
By reducing cognitive overload and improving decision-making, digital twins can help you better manage the challenges of your VUCA environment. They are not just a tool, but a solution for achieving high situation awareness and overcoming the challenges of VUCA.
Remember, the key to effective decision-making isn't just about having more information—it's about having the right information at the right time, understanding its implications, and being able to project future scenarios based on it. That's the power of situation awareness, and with the help of digital twins, it's a power that you can harness to navigate the challenges of your VUCA environment.
If you are looking for help with the design and implementation of digital twins, or for more information on potential use cases of digital twins and AI, reach out to the team to see how we can help.