The Orient Express Racing Team is using the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio of industry software to aid in preparation for the upcoming 37th America’s Cup, and to gain competitive advantage. Founded by sports tech company K-Challenge, the Orient Express Racing Team brings together some of the best French athletes, engineers, technicians, and experts with the aim of winning the world’s most prestigious international sailing competitions, including the America’s Cup. Mastering this ultra-competitive environment is the drive behind the company’s creativity and capacity for innovation.
Working in close collaboration with Siemens Simcenter Engineering Services, the Orient Express Racing Team is gaining an understanding of the real-world performance of the hydraulic flight and aeronautic systems that control sails and rudder/foil flaps actuation. Digital twins of these systems have been built, parameterised and functionally validated, along with dedicated libraries that help ensure the layout and interface are comprehensive and easy to operate in a multi-disciplinary team effort spanning the performance, mechatronic, and hydraulic groups.
Sailing boats have dramatically changed since the arrival of foil technology, enabling them to fly above the water. “Managing two fluids and all the new aerospace flying technologies has become a real challenge as the game is completely changed,” said Stephan Kandler, CEO of the K-Challenge and Orient Express Racing Team. “Digital twins and virtual testing were a major breakthrough to enhance the design of the boats, besides real sailing. Having Siemens on our side was a key element of our strategy in the America’s Cup, but also for other developments in the maritime transport decarbonation.”
“Siemens is incredibly proud to work with K-Challenge and the Orient Express Racing Team to help them in their bid to succeed in the 37th America’s Cup race,” said Jean-Marie Saint-Paul, CEO of Siemens Digital Industries France. “The work achieved through our technical collaboration now and during the forthcoming race shows how the benefits of digital twins of complex systems can leverage the use of real-time data in one of the most competitive sporting environments.”
When the team finds that performance is deviating from expectations, data from the water is taken as reference, and the engineers introduce modifications in the systems model (for example, to find suspected leaks in the hydraulic systems) to try and match simulation results and data – which allows them to target inspection and maintenance more accurately and efficiently.
As the team prepares for the race, there is also the potential to use the same digital twin-based systems model, already prepared for real-time performance, to be exploited for streaming live data from the race to the models, and to compare the response in real time. Additionally, when the boat is not at sea, the systems models are connected to K-Challenge’s virtual reality simulator. Finally, there is also potential to work the control strategy of the control systems and test multiple scenarios virtually before testing in the water.
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