The course aims to provide the necessary skills to understand the potential of using digital twins of mechanical systems to develop algorithms for fault condition identification (diagnostics) and for predicting the system's evolution in response to the presence of faults (prognostics). It provides the tools for developing digital twins and mechanical systems, interfacing them with the corresponding physical system, and developing diagnostics and prognostics algorithms. The course includes practical laboratory exercises, which account for about half of the total hours.

At the end of the course, students will have acquired the necessary skills for developing digital twins of mechanical systems. They will know the techniques underlying the development of algorithms for the prognostics of mechanical systems, which can be developed using their digital twins. Additionally, they will become able to interface mechanical systems with their digital twins using sensors and data acquisition boards. They will have experienced the development of digital twins in some practical examples.

Applied mechanics

Different types of digital twins and the numerical models on which they are based will be analyzed, with a particular focus on applications of lumped parameter functional models. The course then proceeds with an illustration of possible prognostic algorithms, which will also be demonstrated with practical examples. The basic elements for developing numerical models that underpin digital twins will be taught using Matlab, Simulink, and the multibody environment with the Simscape tool. The methods of interfacing numerical models with physical systems will be illustrated, also with practical examples, with particular attention to sensors and data acquisition and conversion chains. Finally, several practical cases in different contexts will be presented, considering robotics, motion transmission, and a fluid system, with practical exercises involving the use of experimental equipment available at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering laboratories. The course includes 21 hours of classroom lectures and 39 hours of laboratory exercises. • Possible types of DT; use of DT; application examples; difference between DT and models (3 hours) • Characteristics of functional DTs used for the prognostics of mechanical systems; real-time and off-line DTs; modeling defects in mechanical systems (3 hours) • Principles of prognostics for mechanical systems (6 hours) • Tools for developing models underlying DTs: Modeling in Simulink environment (3 hours); Multibody modeling (9 hours) • HW and SW tools for DT implementation: sensors; data acquisition boards; real-time operating systems (6 hours) Examples of DTs: • Screw drive (9 hours) • Mobile robot (7.5 hours) • Fluid system (7.5 hours) • Harmonic drive reducer (6 hours)

The course will be carried out with the cooperation of researchers who worked on the development of the digital twins showed as use case in the laboratory exercise

The course includes a substantial practical component where students will develop digital twins of systems available in the laboratory and verify their validity using experimental data acquired during the exercises. The experimental activities will specifically involve a robot, a fluid system, and a transmission system with a screw and nut. Students will prepare four short reports about the four laboratory exercise. The report can be produced as an individual or a group report, according to the choice of each student

Slide provided during the course Selected scientific papers

Slides;

Modalità di esame: Prova orale obbligatoria;

Exam: Compulsory oral exam;

... Oral examination will consider tall the topic of the course and it with discussion of reports related to the experimental activities conducted during the exercises. The final score will consider the knowledge of the topics of the course and the quality and understanding of the short reports about exercise

Gli studenti e le studentesse con disabilità o con Disturbi Specifici di Apprendimento (DSA), oltre alla segnalazione tramite procedura informatizzata, sono invitati a comunicare anche direttamente al/la docente titolare dell'insegnamento, con un preavviso non inferiore ad una settimana dall'avvio della sessione d'esame, gli strumenti compensativi concordati con l'Unità Special Needs, al fine di permettere al/la docente la declinazione più idonea in riferimento alla specifica tipologia di esame.