Using 1D & 3D Simulation for Mechatronic System Design

Products and processes have become increasingly complex to meet demands on performance, reliability, and cost. As a result, simulation has become a key component to successfully designing and delivering these products to market. Mechatronics--also known as smart or cyber-physical systems—is a marriage of machine to sensors, actuators, and computing power to achieve the system goals which cannot be achieved by a purely mechanical system alone. The Model-Based Development (MBD) process leverages simulation models and can improve the design and delivery while supporting complex products like mechatronics systems. Using Altair's suite of tools and partner products, the simulation process from requirements management to functional system analysis, cascading down to component design can be achieved for a Model-Based Development approach. This paper will highlight two of these tools as a part of MBD during the design phase for plant modeling and controls synthesis: solidThinking Activate for 1D system simulation, and MotionSolve for 3D multibody system simulation. As a case study, a 1D simulation model of an active suspension system is explored at different stages of vehicle development including integration with 3D models via co-simulation. Keywords—1D, 3D, solidThinking Activate, HyperWorks MotionSolve, system simulation, ModelBased Development, Modelica, linear quadratic regulator, LQR, co-simulation, Altair Partner Alliance, Functional Mock-up Interface, CarSim, XLDyn, requirements management, active suspension, mechatronics, cyberphysical systems