Towards a Digital Twin for Smart Street Lighting systems Using a Virtual Reality interface

The smart management of the public lighting infrastructure is essential to reduce energy consumption without negatively affecting the quality of life of citizens. The corresponding decision-making process needs tools and approaches to steer stakeholders’ strategies based on clear evidence and data. By introducing Virtual Reality in the context of the Digital Twin framework, it is possible to mirror a system in real-time and at scale through a realistic and controlled reproduction of the real environment and its functionalities. Interactivity, immersion, and visualization techniques are expected to bring more understandability and replicability in the management and design of street lighting policies. In this paper, a Digital Twin solution for monitoring the performance of the outdoor lighting installations at a university campus is proposed. Through a Virtual Reality replica of the campus, current lighting management services are introduced to showcase the advantages of the approach.