Symbolic multibody models for digital-twin applications

Symbolic generation of multibody systems equations of motion appeared in the 1980s. In addition to their computational advantage over their numerical counterparts, symbolic models can be very easily and straightforwardly interfaced with a wide range of software environments and hardware devices. These two features place this approach in a pole position to participate and intervene in the design of digital twins for systems such as vehicles, manipulators, walking robots or haptic devices.

In this context, the first goal of this paper is to highlight the interest of symbolically generated multibody models – at the root of the ROBOTRAN program – in the form of a standalone set of equations calculating the dynamic model of multibody systems, for use as a computational component within a Digital-Twin-type process. The next goal is to embed realistic and complex multibody models within processes or devices whose functioning requires a synchronized real-time computation – or analysis – of their motion.

An implementation (i) on specific hardware and (ii) on two extremely opposite but revealing applications (namely a railway vehicle and a digital piano) are presented to highlight the usefulness of symbolic models for the development of current and future multibody-based digital twins.