Situated on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, Gran Telescopio Canarias, or GRANTECAN is the largest optical telescope of the world, where scientists observe the sky to further our knowledge of the universe. Astrophysicist and GRANTECAN Director Romano Corradi (also a TouchDesigner user) has been steering the digital transformation of GRANTECAN.

Building a functional virtual replica or “digital twin” of the telescope enabled real data to be fed into, processed and analyzed by the digital twin to inform the facility’s actual operation, maintenance, and development while providing another layer of safety to the operational staff. 

For this undertaking Romano elected to work with TouchDesigner “knowing its versatility to treat nearly any kind of data, wide interoperability, and its capability to provide real-time rendered 3D models”, and y=f(x) was brought in to lend their inimitable skills and creativity to bring the digital twin to life.