Approche DevOps pour le développement et l’évolution systématique des jumeaux numériques appliqués aux environnements bâtis

Abstract

Over the past decade, digital twins have experienced remarkable growth, driven by their high potential and tangible impact across various sectors, particularly in the built environment, where they open new possibilities for optimizing asset management and enhancing operational efficiency. However, deploying digital twins relies on complex software systems that require not only rigorous integration but also ongoing maintenance and the ability to evolve continuously to meet changing user requirements. Despite progress in this field, the development of digital twins remains hindered by the lack of systematic and scalable approaches. This gap is especially critical given the interdisciplinary collaboration required, drawing on a wide range of expertise. In software engineering, the DevOps paradigm has emerged as a key strategy to improve system quality and reliability, by applying best practices from software development across the entire application lifecycle. This thesis introduces a DevOps-based approach tailored for digital twins in the built environment. The goal is to foster agile, iterative development that can quickly deliver value while supporting the continuous evolution of systems, particularly through the automation of integration and deployment processes (CI/CD pipelines). It presents JuNo-OPS, a framework built on a microservices architecture designed to promote modularity, scalability, and service independence. The framework relies on an infrastructure that abstracts away cross-cutting technical concerns, enabling domain experts to focus on the functional contributions of digital twins tailored to their specific use cases, whether in energy management, thermal comfort, air quality, or other operational needs. The proposed approach is grounded in the observation and analysis of various digital twin developments within the built environment, highlighting current practices and key challenges. The framework was developed, tested, and explored in the context of a multifunctional room at ÉTS. It is structured around two main pillars : the modular software architecture and the DevOps infrastructure supporting continuous development, integration, and deployment. Finally, the thesis discusses the challenges encountered and outlines future directions for enhancing the framework’s effectiveness and expanding its applicability.

Date	28 Apr 2025
Original language	French
Awarding Institution	École de technologie supérieure
Supervisor	Francis Bordeleau (Supervisor) & Erik Andrew Poirier (Co-supervisor)