Completed Engineering Computing & AI

Virtual Off Road Machine

Funder InnovateUK (part of UKRI)
Recipient organisation Caterpillar UK Holdings Limited
Funding £2.0M
Period Feb 2006 — Apr 2012

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

Caterpillar (CAT) is building a virtual test track for its bulldozers, excavators, and other off-road machines, replacing thousands of physical prototypes with computer models. The European and US non-road machine market sells 700,000 machines annually, worth £37 billion, and the UK employs 58,000 people in the sector with an 85% export ratio. Since 2011, exhaust emissions regulations have demanded over 90% reductions in nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, forcing a drastic increase in vehicle systems complexity. Building and validating the hundreds of machine variants using traditional prototype testing has become economically unattractive. The consortium, led by CAT, has developed and validated a virtual modelling tool for non-road machines. They built representative physical machines to confirm the tool’s accuracy and to serve as technology demonstrators for optimised systems. If successful, this approach could allow manufacturers to validate new emissions-compliant engines, transmissions, and exhaust after-treatment systems entirely in software before cutting metal. That would slash development costs, speed up the introduction of cleaner construction and agricultural equipment, and help maintain the UK’s strong global position in this market—without the expense of building and crashing real prototypes.

View original technical description
The European and US non-road machine market is an inherently complex market due to the huge diversity of machine types for construction, mining, agriculture, forestry and materials handling. The market has sales of 700,000 machines, is worth £37bn/year and is growing at between 4 and 30%/year depending on market segment. This is also a sector where the UK has a very strong global position, employing 58,000 people, with an 85% export ratio. As each type of machine has a unique combination of market drivers and customer needs there is a requirement for a specific optimisation for each type of machine that adds complexity to this market. This market faced a severe step change due to exhaust emissions legislation from 2011 when machines were required to meet stringent limits which demanded >90% reductions in NOx and Particulate (PM) emissions over current levels. This is all driving an unprecedented increase in vehicle systems complexity. Building and validating the thousands of variants of CAT machines using traditional approaches based on prototype testing is economically unattractive. The team proposed a new approach for this market that built on existing expertise, where the majority of systems validation has been done in a virtual environment. In order to achieve this, the consortium lead by CAT, has developed and validated a virtual non-road machine modelling tool and built representative non-road machines in order to validate the modelling tool and provide technology demonstrators of the optimised systems.

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Original classification

Large Project

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