Digital Twin Based Lightweighting of Robot Unmanned Ground Vehicles

Battery powered outdoor robot Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV) should have minimal mass for designed payload capacity to facilitate their movement on rough terrain and increase their autonomy. On the other hand, stiffness and strength of their mechanical components should be sufficient to sustain operational loads. The paper presents the case study of robot UGV lightweighting based on UGV digital twin data. The process of creation of robot UGV digital twin is described, as well as the type and quantity of data acquired from robot sensors. Based on the data from the digital twin of the robot about operational loads, the worst operational load cases were identified and the structural analysis of the robot chassis for noted load cases was performed. The results of the analysis were used in the topology optimization of the robot UGV mechanical components with a goal to satisfy design requirements and reduce the robot mass. By application of noted procedure the mass reduction of approximately 17 % was achieved.