SIMULATION OF MODULAR MECHATRONIC SYSTEMS WITH APPLICATION TO VEHICLEDYNAMICS

The example of articulated vehicles is used to introduce a new simulat ion concept. Modules found by functional decomposition of an engineeri ng system can be encapsulated by an input-output representation. They are then interconnected by the system inputs and outputs, or, in the c ase of mechanical systems, by constraints using joints. It is shown th at the resulting mechanical DAE structure can effciently be solved by a projection method. A multirate integration is proposed for efficient simulation of systems with different time scales. The simulator NEWMO S is introduced supporting all the features described. Simulation runs show that the multirate scheme is essential to achieve a stable integ ration of the articulated vehicles problem.