DITCH – Digital Twin Technologies for Cleaner Off-Highway Machinery

Putting a real powertrain inside a virtual excavator

DITCH is a collaborative feasibility project exploring how real-time Digital Twin technologies can accelerate the development of cleaner and more efficient off-highway machinery.

The concept connects real propulsion hardware to a real-time virtual excavator and working environment, allowing engineers to investigate powertrain behaviour under representative machine operating conditions without requiring every development iteration to be carried out on a complete physical machine.

The project brings together IAAPS at the University of Bath, JCB and Dariusz Pioro Digital Engineering Ltd, using Siemens Simcenter Amesim and Mevea to investigate a Driver- and Powertrain-in-the-Loop approach.

Project at a glance

Sector

Off-highway machinery and advanced powertrains

Project type

UKCAAR Feasibility Sprint

Academic partner

IAAPS, University of Bath

Industry partners

JCB and Dariusz Pioro Digital Engineering Ltd

Key technologies

Digital Twin, real-time simulation, co-simulation, Driver-and Powertrain-in-the-Loop

Simulation tools

Simcenter Amesim and Mevea

Application

Cleaner and more efficient off-highway powertrain development 

The challenge

Off-highway machines operate in highly variable and demanding conditions. At the same time, manufacturers are developing new powertrain technologies including hybrid, electric, hydrogen and other low-emission solutions.

Testing these technologies on complete physical machines can be expensive, time-consuming and difficult to repeat consistently.

The question

Can a real propulsion system be connected to a virtual machine and working environment to create a realistic, real-time test environment?

DITCH investigates this question through a Driver- and Powertrain-in-the-Loop demonstrator.

My contribution

My role focused on developing the simulation architecture and real-time Digital Twin environment required to connect the physical propulsion system with a virtual off-highway machine.

The work brought together:

• Model-Based Systems Engineering

• Multi-domain dynamic simulation

• Real-time simulation

• Co-simulation

• Physical and virtual system integration

From real hardware to a virtual excavator

A key element was the development and integration of a detailed excavator and working-environment model.

The model needed to capture the relevant machine dynamics while remaining computationally efficient enough for real-time execution.

The challenge was therefore not simply to develop an individual simulation model, but to integrate different engineering models, simulation environments and physical hardware into a single closed-loop system.

This included the integration of Siemens Simcenter Amesim and Mevea within the overall Driver- and Powertrain-in-the-Loop architecture.

Why it matters

The DITCH approach provides a controlled and repeatable environment for investigating future off-highway powertrains.

It enables engineers to:

Explore earlier
Investigate new powertrain concepts before committing to complete physical prototypes.

Test more realistically
Expose real propulsion hardware to representative machine operating conditions.

Test more efficiently
Reduce the need to repeat every development iteration on a complete physical machine.

Understand the complete system
Investigate interactions between the powertrain, machine dynamics and operator behaviour.

Target physical testing
Use simulation to identify the most valuable scenarios for subsequent physical validation.

Complementing — not replacing — physical testing

The objective is not to eliminate physical testing.

Instead, the Digital Twin provides an additional development environment where concepts can be explored, system behaviour understood and physical testing focused where it provides the greatest value.

Exploring a Digital Twin or real-time simulation application?

I can help you determine what should be modelled, what needs to run in real time, and how physical hardware can be integrated into the simulation environment.

Let's discuss your engineering challenge.