From cars and mobile phones to computers and furniture, most of today's products are created virtually on a computer before they are actually produced. In the context of the Functional DMU (Digital Mock-Up) project, researchers from four Fraunhofer Institutes are adding new functionalities to digital product development. While computer-supported test models have become part of everyday production activities, not all process chain components can be simulated. Close cooperation between mechanics, electronics and software development is particularly important. In addition to the work of IGD researchers, experts from the Design Automation Division at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems FOKUS and the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF have also contributed to the project.
Together, they have developed a Functional DMU framework that can integrate the mechatronic properties of individual components into the simulation, and can also evaluate them. The framework combines a variety of different commercial simulators, such as SimPack, Matlab/Simulink and Dymola. Here, it is particularly important that the behavior of individual components be visualized in real time. There are now demonstrators that show how Functional DMU works. One of these is the virtual power window, which will be on display at the joint Fraunhofer booth at the Hannover Messe. The next project on the scientists' agenda is the simulation of a steering test rig. Here, again, mechanical, electrical and software components work interactively.
More information:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080416111607.htm
More information:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080416111607.htm