Digital-Twin enabled Transition into Electromobility and Autonomy in Construction Equipment (eTWIN)

Purpose and goal:

This project has demonstrated the capabilities of creating a digital twin of typical mining operations by combining the simulation of the energy consumption and performances of single electrical vehicles with specific productivity requirements and topographic configuration of the overall mining site. This allows the evaluation of the economic and environmental impact of the transition toward electromobility in mining, as well as supports the requirements definition for electrical vehicles.

Expected results and effects:

The result of the project allows engineers designing fully electrical machines to quickly forecast the economic and environmental impacts of the new machines in a reference mining site. This is expected to consistently reduce the development time and the time to market electrical and autonomous vehicles in the construction equipment, while at the same time lowering the environmental impact and delivering a safer workspace by moving away workers from risky environment.

Approach and implementation:

The project encompassed the simulations of electrical haulers based both on real data provided by the partner company and on a fictitious scenario (to avoid IPR during dissemination). Such simulations were coupled with discrete event simulations of an overall mining site (importing topographical information form public online databases). The integration allowed the simulation of the impact of different design modifications on the global site productivity, cost, energy consumption and emissions.