Bentley Systems recently launched a new design product that automates the creation of digital twins for telecom towers. OpenTower iQ gives designers and contractors 3D visualization and predictive design for utility towers. It enables data captured by drones to be brought into 3D models and lets users incorporate artificial intelligence to inform design decisions using Bentley's iTwin cloud service.
"The tower operators are extending their service to 5G and need to re-simulate and constantly reconfigure their assets for new devices," says Greg Bentley, the technology firm's CEO. "They start literally with drone surveys for their existing inventory, they use machine learning to recognize the components in their digital libraries," and then they can simulate how wind loads affect the structural aspects of their designs, he adds.