Authors:
Dorit Kaufmann
;
Tobias Osterloh
and
Jürgen Rossmann
Affiliation:
Institute for Man-Machine Interaction at RWTH Aachen University, Ahornstrasse 55, 52074 Aachen, Germany
Keyword(s):
Finite Element Analysis (FEA), Digital Twin (DT), Holistic Simulation Framework.
Abstract:
Computational simulations are nowadays crucial for the development of any complex mechatronic system. This holds especially true when it comes to robots acting in a highly dynamic environment, such as robots used as mobile machinery in forestry. The ever changing loads acting on these robots result from different weather conditions, ground stability, leverage forces of falling trees during cutting etc. Thus, the structural layout of the robot is rather sophisticated. Nevertheless, it is usually done once in the beginning of the design process and the dynamic loads can only be estimated, leading to huge safety margins. Regarding the ecological consequences every operation in forestry involves, it is of uttermost importance not only to do a neat structural design, but also to computationally analyse the mobile machinery directly in its actual environment. This work proposes a Digital Twin (DT) based approach to structural mechanics. Every feature of the environment (every tree, the soi
l etc.) as well as the robot itself can be represented by a DT. An existing Rigid Body Dynamics (RBD) is used to record all acting forces and momentums during an operation. They serve as input for a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) thus enabling a holistic simulation framework.
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