Hear about the development of PEARL, a solar-powered autonomous marine robotics platform that operates on the surface of small bodies of water and in the ocean. PEARL is solar-powered and can dock with autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and provide real-time satellite connectivity through new satellite constellations such as Iridium® NEXT and Starlink. As such, PEARL allows engineers to connect the oceans with space in real time. One of the key challenges, however, is thermal management. The platform experiences thermal extremes during both winter and summer. As a result of past thermal shutdown events, the PEARL team has developed a digital twin for thermal management that allows them to predict temperatures at six different locations within approximately 1% accuracy.
Discover the trade-off between the root mean square error (RMSE) of digital twin models and the complexity of the model itself in terms of the number of parameters that need to be modeled. You will also explore the broader lessons learned for predictive modeling of autonomous systems, which are applicable to other domains.
Olivier de Weck, Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics and Engineering Systems
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Olivier de Weck is the Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics and Engineering Systems and the faculty director of the Engineering Systems Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His main research is in systems engineering with a focus on how complex technological systems are designed and how they evolve over time. Previously, he was senior vice president of technology planning and road mapping at Airbus. Olivier earned degrees in industrial engineering from ETH Zurich and aerospace systems from MIT. He has authored or co-authored over 400 publications for which he has been recognized with 12 best paper awards since 2004. He is a Fellow of INCOSE and a Fellow of AIAA, where he is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets.