Using Modelica for Interactive Simulations of Technical Systems in a Virtual Reality Environment

Abstract

Simulation has become an essential tool in the development of construction machinery. In addi- tion to the validation of technical features, the as- sessment of man-machine interaction has become more important within complex working environ- ments. In cases where most attention is paid to the human as the operator, simulations have to fulfil special requirements. Allowing the user to interact with the system implies the need for real time simulation as well as flexible hardware in- tegration and a powerful visualisation. There- fore a modular software framework called SAR- TURIS3 has been developed meeting all these re- quirements. In order to support flexible multi- domain modelling the Modelica language is being used. This paper presents SARTURIS and its ap- plications, focusing on the integration of Model- ica based on OpenModelica using the example of a wheel loader. Since OpenModelica is not yet able to deal with the Modelica Multibody library, a Python-based tool called PyMbs has been devel- oped. It allows comfortable description of multi- body systems and export to Modelica code as well as other formats.