Research profile

AI and Simulation-based Engineering

At the chair of machine elements and design, theoretical, numerical and experimental problems in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and multibody system dynamics are researched. Our systems of interest are for example robots, machine tools, hybrid vehicles or airplanes and they form a fundamental part of a mechatronic system. In order to optimally design the interaction of mechanical components with the entire mechatronic system, simulation techniques are used that consider the mechatronic system as a whole. This helps us to solve basic research as well as industrial problems at the next level. The enabler for our advanced approach is the powerful in-house and open-source simulation package Exudyn, which is continuously developed by Prof. Gerstmayr and his team. The C++ software Exudyn is integrated with Python and is available on GitHub and as a Python installer. It allows simple modeling in teaching but also extensive MPI-parallelized parameter variations and machine learning of large multibody models on the mainframe.

For efficient simulation, workstations with up to 3 TFLOPs double precision CPU-power and and several PFLOPs (FP16) GPU-power are available in the working group in addition to the supercomputers of the university. For experimental investigations, extensive measurement equipment for recording accelerations and displacements (Keyence; Vicon) with several measurement amplifiers from HBM is available. A Stäubli TX2-90L and a Fanuc CR-7iA/7L with force-torque flange, among others, can be used to prescribe motion. The focus in robotics is on mobile robots (Kairos Plattfrom with UR5 and LeoBot platform with Franka-Emika-Panda) and cellular robotics for programmable matter.

In bachelor and master theses mechatronic systems are analyzed, simulated and built, which show the technical problems and possibilities of mechatronic systems. Examples include augmented virtual reality, programmable matter and structures, mobile robotics, and artificial intelligence.

Recent findings are continuously published in journals such as Multibody System Dynamics, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Computational and Nonlinear Dynamics or Acta Mechanica.