Modeling & Validation of a Digital Twin Tracked Vehicle

Digital twin technology has become impactful in Industry 4.0 as it enables engineers to design, simulate, and analyze complex systems and products. As a result of the synergy between physical and virtual realms, innovation in the “real twin” or actual product is more effectively fostered. The availability of verified computer models that describe the target system is important for realistic simulations that provide operating behaviors that can be leveraged for future design studies or predictive maintenance algorithms. In this paper, a digital twin is created for an offroad tracked vehicle that can operate in either autonomous or remote-control modes. Mathematical models are presented and implemented to describe the twin track and vehicle chassis governing dynamics. These components are interfaced through the nonlinear suspension elements and distributed bogies. The assembled digital twin’s performance was investigated using test data collected from the Clemson University Deep Orange 13/14 tracked vehicles. The prototype vehicle completed a series of operating scenarios with both on-board data collection and video monitoring to document the performance. Similar scenarios were emulated in the digital twin virtual environment. Representative numerical and field results will be collectively presented to demonstrate the performance of the digital twin in estimating the real twin behavior. This virtual tool, with coupling option to/from the physical system, establishes a foundation for predictive maintenance and next generation vehicle design studies.