Q&A: How digital twins enhance design and control of off-road autonomy

Digital twins are a rapidly advancing area in engineering, going beyond static models to continuously receive data from the physical world and make predictions that go on to affect that reality. They have applications in areas such as energy systems, manufacturing and medicine. U-M's Automotive Research Center (ARC) uses them to help design, test and control autonomous off-road vehicles that operate in human-led teams.

While the Army supports the ARC Center of Excellence with an eye to projecting military force at a longer distance without soldiers in harm's way, the results could improve autonomous teams ...