In a spectacular 246-meter high tower on the edge of Rottweil in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Thyssenkrupp Elevator has been testing its new elevator concepts for some time now. The focus is currently on its cable-less model Multi , which moves multiple cars in a single shaft independently of each other, and not just vertically, but horizontally, too. In collaboration with Australian technology company Willow, Thyssenkrupp has developed the Willow Twin , a digital twin of the system. The Microsoft Azure cloud platform and Azure Digital Twins have been used as the basis for this digital twin .

The partners want to leverage the Willow Twin to seamlessly control the elevator system and to establish predictive maintenance. The data for the twin is provided by the hundreds of sensors integrated in Multi. All the data collected can be correlated to determine the necessary maintenance intervals, the resource utilization, and the energy efficiency of the elevator. It should also make it possible to determine users’ habits in the future.