Unique testbed in digital twin city creates innovation opportunities for businesses

For Gothenburg's 400th anniversary in 2021, a digital twin, a three-dimensional replica of the city (above and below ground), will be created. It is called Virtual Gothenburg. Virtual Gothenburg Lab is a collaborative project that will develop usability for Virtual Gothenburg.

Virtual Gothenburg Lab is a collaborative project with academia, industry and the public sector. The project creates a unique opportunity to test and develop ways of working, tools and methods for visual, digital and virtual activities.

In a digital twin, scenarios can be created for new planned areas along with traffic simulations. How, for example, will self-driving vehicles function and how will they be perceived? Solar and shadow studies can also be carried out, as well as studies of noise/sound and air quality.

"Virtual Gothenburg has many possible uses, and entails to a large extent that the city's way of doing things will change, at the same time as these new approaches will also contribute to creating new innovation power," says Eric Jeansson, geodata strategist at the city planning office.

"What is exciting about Virtual Gothenburg Lab is that the city contributes with its digital twin and successively makes more data available, which in turn contributes to development in collaboration with both businesses and public enterprises," says Lars Bern, managing director for Testbädd Göteborg, Business Region Göteborg. "Through Testbädd Göteborg, Virtual Gothenburg Lab will be connected to other testbed environments and we're already seeing interest from foreign companies that are curious about how they can participate in a venture like Virtual Gothenburg Lab."

"Technically, we may not yet be at the global forefront, but our ability to cooperate and our openness to ideas and suggestions are strengths we will apply to involve more people and both attract talent and businesses to our region," says Lars Bern.

"The possibilities of digital twins and tools that can be applied in the virtual testbed are many, and in addition to 'hard' issues such as traffic, buildings and energy systems, this can also be an environment for connecting to social welfare issues and demographic data."

The testbed project is made possible thanks to funding from Vinnova, which is a shared development environment for testing innovations.

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