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Modeling Language Integrates Multiple Domains
The MathWorks demonstrates Simscape language at Convergence
Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor -- Design News, October 21, 2008
The MathWorks said Monday it has rolled out a new modeling language that enables engineers to develop complex systems that require interdisciplinary interaction between electronic, mechanical, and hydraulic domains. The new language is notable because it could help engineering teams to more easily develop advanced systems, such as hybrid vehicles and fuel cells, which require that interdisciplinary interaction.
"Traditionally, people have come out with simulation packages that are highly specific to one domain," says Jon Friedman, manager of aerospace, defense and automotive marketing for The MathWorks. "This language provides the context and vocabulary for the different disciplines to talk to one another."
The new Simscape language, as it is known, was demonstrated here at the Convergence 2008 transportation electronics conference in Detroit, MI on Monday. The language, based on the MATLAB language, is built atop The MathWorks' Simulink environment. The MathWorks says Simscape is important for the automotive engineers at this conference because it can be extended by end users and partners to create and share reusable models, thereby raising team efficiencies. With the shared physical models, design teams reportedly can simulate system behavior more accurately and develop more robust control strategies.
"In the past, if you had an electronics model and you plugged it into a mechanical model, you would have needed a translator to make them work together," Friedman says. "With Simscape, you have an all-in-one modeling package."
Friedman says Simscape enables engineers to capture proposed technologies in the new Simscape-Simulink environment.
"If you're GM and you're trying to develop the next-generation Volt, and you want to describe your next-generation battery, you can use this to model your own intellectual property," Friedman says. "You don't have to wait for next year's hardware to be available and you don't have go back to the vendors to model next-year's battery."
