A ‘digital twin’ of the Port of Dover is to be created – allowing those behind the harbour to increase its efficiency and potentially help ease traffic flows.

Digital twins harness AI and cutting-edge technology to replicate a location digitally with all available data allowing a recreation of the environment around it for detailed analysis.

For example, many cities have used digital twins to understand how changes to key infrastructure schemes could have an impact.

The Port of Dover ‘twin’ will create a “dynamic 24-hour, 365-day all-weather simulation” of the complex tidal flows across the harbour “and predict with maximum confidence the conditions essential for safe navigation”.

It hopes by studying various scenarios, it will be able to remain operational during harsher weather conditions as well as welcome larger vessels and an even greater range of cruise and cargo ships.

The goal is greater operational efficiency and an increased volume of UK imports and exports.

The scheme has been boosted after the Port, working alongside the universities of Plymouth and Manchester, was awarded a £333,585 grant by Innovate UK to create the AI-augmented digital twin.

The funding underpins a three-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), that will harness the universities’ world-leading expertise in hydrodynamic modelling and cutting-edge research in AI and machine learning

Doug Bannister, chief executive of the Port of Dover, said: “This hugely exciting project will play a vital role in our journey to become the UK’s most seamless, sustainable, and tech-enabled port.

“The enhanced navigational analysis brought by the digital twin of Dover Harbour – Britain’s busiest port - will extend our capability and operational hours and subsequently deliver a huge bonus of growth and productivity to the national economy.”

Yu-wang Chen, Professor of Decision Sciences and Business Analytics at the University of Manchester, added: “This KTP is a great opportunity for the universities of Plymouth and Manchester to form a strong partnership with the Port of Dover, integrate our knowledge across disciplinary boundaries to tackle real business challenges, and apply AI and emerging technologies to facilitate the digital transformation of the port.”

There are also plans to work on a similar land-side digital twin to support energy efficiency and decarbonisation as well as using AI to optimise traffic flows and port operations.