Developing an Experimentable Digital Twin of a Novel Forestry Machine: Application, Experiences, and Benefits

Abstract

The forestry sector in central Europe aims for a fully mechanized wood harvest. This goal is currently restricted by the limited reach of forest harvesters on the market and legislative specifications on the distance between skid trails. As a consortium of industry and academia, we are developing a novel forestry machine that is designed to fell and skid trees in the inter-field between skid trails and which is equipped with a lightweight boom for an extended reach; to date, felling in the inter-field is not reachable for harvesters and is done in manual labor. As a key risk, overturning the whole forestry vehicle prevents a transfer of current harvester designs to an extended reach. To avoid overturning, we apply a consequent lightweight design for the boom of the new forestry machine. The development of the forestry vehicle will be supported by a versatile use of Experimentable Digital Twins (EDT), which are one promising concept to push the idea of Digital Twins into practice. The EDT allows for interaction in a pure virtual or in a hybrid environment. The tasks of EDT in the context of the new forestry machine will include a virtual prototype in the development phase, a driver assistance system in the operational phase, and a central hub for a strain-based monitoring system in the operational phase. This contribution gives an insight into our present work on the EDT of the novel forestry machine, emphasizing the load monitoring system of the lightweight boom. On a conceptual level, we present the load monitoring system, addressing the challenges specific to this application. We outline the proposed strain sensor distribution and describe the interaction with the EDT.