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Trends and Tidbits Continued from page 21 The Digital Future of the Heavy Equipment and Off-Highway Industry On the Industry Forward Podcast, Dale and I spoke with Hendrik Lange, Director of the Heavy Equipment Industry at Siemens Digital Industries Software, about the challenges facing manufacturers of tractors, con- struction equipment, and more. We also discuss some of the ways the digitalization is making its way into the design, manufacturing, and maintenance of modern equipment. By Conor Peick Conor Peick: Hello there and welcome back to the Industry Forward Podcast with Dale Tutt. My name is Conor Peick. In this episode, we are bringing you part three of the discussion that Dale and I had with Hendrik Lange, the VP of Heavy Equipment and Off-Highway Industries at Sie- mens Digital Industries Software. In this part, we continue our discussion of autonomous driving and operation in agricultural set- tings, and then cover the power of digitalization and the digital twin in the development, manufactur- ing, and service of heavy equip- ment and off-highway products. A quick note for today's episode: we had to recapture a couple of Hendrik's answers due to some audio issues during the original recording. So there are a cou- ple of spots where Hendrik will sound a little different, but we hope you enjoy the episode none- theless. Without further ado, here is part three of our discussion with Hendrik. Hendrik, as we've been talking about autonomous vehicles and the unique requirements of applying autonomous technology to the agricultural space, could you dive a bit more into how the application of the digital twin and digitalization can help companies in their development and design of these autonomous vehicles that can move around a field inde- pendently and operate robotics or locate weeds or other spots that need manipulation or treatment? Dale Tutt: When applying autonomous technology to the heavy equipment industry, it means partially or fully replacing a skilled operator. The operator's brain, experience, and ability to interact with the environment need to be replaced by technolo- gy. This requires specific sen- sors, sensor fusion, and control algorithms. Developing, verify- ing, and validating autonomous equipment in the virtual world requires a sensor digital twin to compute what the machine will see, considering the working conditions encountered by the sensors. This includes specific heavy equipment sensors for crop or health detection and a machine digital twin with multi-physics, multi-domain simulation focusing on vehicle dynamics and hydro- mechanical actuation for auton- omous driving and operations. An open platform with real-time capability is needed to support all phases of control algorithm development, along with an environment modeling platform with high flexibility to cover all industrial application cases. This is a very difficult problem, and without a controlled model-based systems engineering approach, companies will struggle to verify and validate all functionality in the virtual world, affecting devel- opment time, quality, and safety. Conor Peick: Switching gears a bit, Hendrik, I'm curious about where agricultural companies are on average in this process of digital transformation. Are these manufacturers looking to digita- lization to help them overcome challenges and achieve goals like service-based, autonomous farming? Hendrik Lange: The heavy equipment industry is undergoing a transformation. OEMs and their suppliers understand they need to reinvent themselves to develop highly connected smart equip- ment and systems that are more complex than previous products. This involves not just design but also manufacturing and servicing, enabling new business models sustainably. To accomplish this shift, they must exploit emerging digital technologies. OEMs lever- age business strategies that prior- itize sustainability and implement a digital enterprise to drive all their processes. They understand it's not about being digital for the sake of it but delivering solutions that connect the digital and real worlds. This journey involves Story continued on pg 24 IDA Universal Aug - Sept 2025 23