Development of a visualized modeling and simulation environment for multi-domain physical systems

This article introduces the development of a software environment for both Visualized modeling and simulation of mechatronic multi-domain systems. The environment utilises Modelica language to model multi-domain systems and uses an open source Modelica compiler called OpenModelica compiler to obtain executable files for simulation. Basically the environment resembles a commercial simulation programme called Dymola in which there is a proprietary Modelica compiler. Additional ideas from other commercial products are adopted and integrated into the environment to establish a more general framework. Based on such a framework, it is demonstrated how academic researchers can develop integrated software for simulation and analysis of complex mechatronic systems without much dependence on commercial products. Major features of the environment include tree browsers of Modelica libraries, Modelica text editor and 2-D diagram editor, simulation output data plotting windows, flexible interconnections to external 3D visualization software, and custom scripts for design of experiments.