Bentley Acceleration Initiatives Introduces OpenTower iQ

OpenTower iQ, driven by iTwin, is a textbook example of co-venturing, bringing together creative emerging innovations from visionary firms to meet a business need in double-quick time.

FREMONT, CA: Bentley Acceleration Initiatives recently announced the availability of OpenTower iQ, a digital twin solution powered by iTwin for telecom towers that offers 3D visualization, real-time decision support, and predictive design from the ground up. OpenTower iQ results from a digital co-venture among Bentley and Visual Intelligence, a Houston, Texas-based sensor technology firm, and Aeroprotechnik, an aerial inspection engineering company based in Viseu, Portugal.

Bentley Acceleration Initiatives is a strategic venture fund and incubator program launched by Bentley Systems (BSY). It aims to put ecosystem partners together in a digital co-venture to speed up the development of innovative cloud solutions based on the Bentley iTwin platform. OpenTower iQ, driven by iTwin, is a textbook example of co-venturing, bringing together creative emerging innovations from visionary firms to meet a business need in double-quick time.

Tower companies and engineering firms are seeking for all-inclusive, engineering-grade solutions to co-locate, adjust, and manage telecom infrastructure for the 5G rollout as the demand for data continues to rise. OpenTower iQ automates the tedious task of manufacturing as-built models and uses artificial intelligence to identify vital components, making it simple to change existing towers and maintain accurate models.

OpenTower iQ allows tower companies to track their towers’ health and gain access to shared, secure data through an easy-to-use portal. Cost-benefit analysis is provided by data analytics to improve operating performance and revenue assurance. Tower inspection quality is improved, and smart inventory management saves time, money, and improves protection. OpenTower iQ is designed to manage operators’ vast asset portfolios, processing and analyzing tens of thousands of towers with ease.

Combines Artificial Intelligence and Patented Drone Technologies

Bentley Acceleration Initiatives acquired digital twin technology from Aeroprotechnik, a leading aerial inspection engineering corporation that focuses in automated asset data capture and digitalization solutions, to further accelerate the launch of OpenTower iQ. Artificial intelligence and reality modeling capabilities in the technology help tower companies speed up rollouts, improve decision-making, and shorten sales cycles by providing accurate information on current site conditions.

Visual Intelligence, whose proprietary dual-sensor drone technology digitalizes physical infrastructure with millimeter precision to reliably deliver 3D, engineering-grade asset intelligence, has also collaborated with Bentley Acceleration Initiatives. Alternative aerial and ground-based approaches are unable to map as much visible surface area as Visual Intelligence. Its proprietary drone sensor technology can capture the components of a tower, such as bolts, wires, ladders, and other objects, with a level of precision previously unattainable.

A tower company can now virtually inspect their tower, see whether it was built properly, decide whether the tower’s structural integrity is intact, and run co-location scenarios using a detailed millimeter precise digital twin. Unlike rudimentary reality models created by other cameras, Visual Intelligence creates a digital twin that is accurate enough to support advanced analyses like link integrity and mount mapping.

“The objective of Bentley Acceleration Initiatives is to incubate new businesses and augment existing ones using Bentley iTwin technologies. We provide a go-to-market accelerator to rapidly bring to users the innovative ideas from Bentleys research and development in partnership with emerging industry leaders and technology specialists such as Visual Intelligence and Aeroprotechnik. Bentley Acceleration Initiatives helped incubate OpenTower iQ by funding its development, seeking out technology partnerships to fill whitespaces, and creating a comprehensive go-to-market strategy,” said Santanu Das, Senior Vice President, Chief Acceleration Officer, Bentley Acceleration Initiatives.

“Our next step is to invite additional interested ecosystem partners to kick start new digital integrator services to capture huge emerging opportunities for enterprise integration and implementation for towers. The telecom industry is going through a rapid transformation as multinetwork operators are expanding their portfolios through consolidation and moving from a 4G platform to 5G. Without a doubt, digital twin solutions like OpenTower iQ, powered by iTwin, will help tower owners make the most of the industrys burgeoning opportunities,” added Das.

“OpenTower iQ for tower planning and management is a game-changer for the telecom market. Within a couple of days, we had a high-quality reality model available with the reports and other aspects of the projects. Now, all the tower data is available in digital form, and is accurate and current,” said Nikhil Jani, Vice President, Telecom and Utilities, Genesys International.

“Until now, drone data has failed to live up to its promise to the tower industry. This is largely because survey-grade drone sensors cannot collect the fidelity of data required to extract engineering-grade tower intelligence. Our patented drone sensor technology is the first of its kind to collect millimeter-class tower information. We partnered with Bentley to utilize OpenTower iQ to translate this new fidelity of data into as-built digital twins, and then apply AI to automate and unlock new kinds of tower insights. With OpenTower iQ, were enabling new applications of drone data and accelerating the value of digital twins to tower companies worldwide,” said Ted Miller, Founder and Chairman of Visual Intelligence and Former Chairman and CEO, Crown Castle International.

“Bentley Acceleration Initiatives proved to be an effective platform for ecosystem partners like Aeroprotechnik to scale up artificial intelligence-based solutions, transforming emerging technologies into real value for Bentleys users,” said Nuno Marques, Founder, Aeroprotechnik.