Does the 3D scene builder support creating digital twins with custom 3D models?

Adwait Naik 45

Hi there,

I want to create a digital twin for my robot with a 3D model (in .GLB) format. I already have the 3D model. How do I use it to create a digital twin using the 3D scene builder?

Could you guide?

LeelaRajeshSayana-MSFT 16,046 Reputation points

2024-03-21T17:18:55.87+00:00

Hi @Adwait Naik Greetings! I am following up to see if you got a chance to review the below response. Please let us know if you have any additional questions or need further assistance.

If the response helped, please do click Accept Answer and Yes for the answer provided. Doing so would help other community members with similar issue identify the solution. I highly appreciate your contribution to the community.

1 answer

Sander van de Velde | MVP 33,136 Reputation points MVP

2024-03-07T14:36:43.3233333+00:00

Hello @Adwait Naik,

welcome to this moderated Azure community forum.

Azure Digital Twins is a solution, capable if visualizing complex environments (buildings, vehicles, machines, robots, etc.) as a simplified model.

This way, users without the underlying technical knowledge can keep making decisions, especially when the raw telemetry is turned into meaning with business rules.

If this is what you want, how do you proceed.

In the past, I wrote this blog post regarding the whole experience. Read through it to get a general understanding of the steps to execute and how everything falls together. You can also check out this quickstart.

It must be clear you start with modelling the ADT environment where your twins live. Twins van be related (eg. a building twin has several product line twins. Each product line twin has one of more robots).

The environment contains the last known values and state of each twin.

The twins have properties telling something about the actual device. What is the state? how much power is used? What are the angles of each robot join?

Once this is done, you can upload the image to the ADT 3D Scenes Studio editor and start connecting twins to image elements.

If you have multiple robots in your picture, you can add multiple robots, each one related to a robot in your picture.

Add legends, alerts, play with colors. Change twin properties and see how the image changes.

Then, eg. write custom code in an Azure Function (like this example in GitHub) or use a Logic app to manipulate the properties using Azure IoT Hub data or telemetry coming from another source.

As an alternative, you could also use another visualization tool like Babylon.JS or Unity. This give you more control over the moving parts in your 3D representation (less static).

As you can see, there are a lot of moving parts (pun intended) regarding digital Twins.

If you also interested in that business rule engine part, check out this blog post.

If the response helped, do "Accept Answer". If it doesn't work, please let us know the progress. All community members with similar issues will benefit by doing so. Your contribution is highly appreciated.
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1 person found this answer helpful.
LeelaRajeshSayana-MSFT 16,046 Reputation points

2024-03-25T21:05:01.3+00:00

Hi @Adwait Naik We noticed your feedback that the answer on this thread was not helpful.

Thank you for taking time to share your feedback. If your issue remains unresolved, please let us know how we can assist. We are here to help you and strive to make your experience better and greatly value your feedback. Looking forward to your reply. Much appreciate your feedback!

Sander van de Velde | MVP 33,136 Reputation points MVP

2024-03-25T21:36:22.47+00:00

Hello @Adwait Naik ,

can you please continue the discussion and share what is preventing you from creating a digital twin using the 3D scene builder.

Adwait Naik 45 Reputation points

2024-03-26T15:42:35.6966667+00:00

Thanks for providing the information and links to the blogs, @Sander van de Velde | MVP . I still have some queries:1. With my custom 3D .glb/.glTF model of the robotic arm, would it be possible to create azure digital twins?

After creating the ADT instance, how do I control the real robot using the digital twins?

Thanks

Sander van de Velde | MVP 33,136 Reputation points MVP

2024-03-26T22:33:55.47+00:00

Hello @Adwait Naik ,

once you have constructed and created twins based on DTDL models in the Azure Digital Twins environment, these twins can be connected to individual parts of the 3D model.

If you want to see Azure Digital Twins in action, check out this elaborate video on Youtube showing how the 3D model of an airplane is connected to actual sensor data.

The video also shows how the 3D scenes studio interface supports executing links to extra webpages (via an Azure Function). From there (or via the links directly) you could start sending commands to your robot.

The documentation lists both ROS, ROS2, and C++ as ways to program the robot.

You probably need some intermediate service (eg. based on WebSockets, SignalR or MQTT) to send the commands from the web pages to the robot control logic.

As said before, an alternative visualization can be introduced, by connecting and listening to the twin change eventstream coming from the Azure Digital Twins Environment.

Please check out the video first. After that, it's recommended to start building an Azure Digital Twins demonstration based on the samples sample1 sample2.

If the response helped, do "Accept Answer". If it doesn't work, please let us know the progress. All community members with similar issues will benefit by doing so. Your contribution is highly appreciated.

LeelaRajeshSayana-MSFT 16,046 Reputation points

2024-04-01T15:51:02.0233333+00:00

@Adwait Naik Greetings! I am following up to see if you got a chance to review the above response. Please let us know if you have any additional questions or need further assistance.

If the response helped, please do click Accept Answer and Yes for the answer provided. Doing so would help other community members with similar issue identify the solution. I highly appreciate your contribution to the community.

LeelaRajeshSayana-MSFT 16,046 Reputation points

2024-04-04T16:09:43.8766667+00:00

Hi @Adwait Naik We still have not heard back from you. Just wanted to check if the answer provided below was helpful? If it answers your query, please do click Accept Answer and Yes for the answer, as it might be beneficial to other community members reading this thread. And, if you have any further query do let us know. Thank you
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Does the 3D scene builder support creating digital twins with custom 3D models?

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