Integrated Development of a Visualized Modeling and Simulation Platform for Multi-domain Systems

Currently almost no stand-alone engineering software is able to accomplish tasks of visualized modeling and simulation for multi-domain systems occurred in the design process of complex mechatronic products. Even cooperative approaches based on loosely coupled tools encounter various limits such as less automated design process and restricted precision of physical models. This paper proposes and establishes a multi-domain modeling and simulation software platform called Vimola which is based on Modelica language and supports both mathematical modeling and modular modeling. Several types of communication techniques such as COM, shared memory, and CORBA are employed to accomplish data sharing and data synchronization between Vimola, open source Modelica compiler, and a commercial 3D visualization program called Visual Components. Thus it is possible to realize both 2D and 3D visualization of the dynamic simulation results of complex mechatronic products. This work is a fruitful attempt to flexible integration of functions including visualized multi-domain modeling of complex mechatronic products, visualization of simulation data, and visualization of 3D multi-body systems, etc.