AUTOSIM is a computer language designed to automatically generate computationally efficient simulation programs for mechanical systems composed of multiple rigid bodies. AUTOSIM was developed to generate equations for models of vehicles and vehicle components. The AUTOSIM software reflects the philosophy that it is important to be able to deal with all possible models that engineers might feel are appropriate for a given purpose. Three features that simplify the development of vehicle models are: (1) The computer algebra in AUTOSIM supports basis-free vector expressions, inviting the analyst to use directions not fixed in a rigid body; (2) AUTOSIM is fully extendable; and (3) in many cases, springs, tires, et cetera, are described by semi-empirical models that are hand-coded in subroutines. Although AUTOSIM is useful for most multibody system applications, it may be a unique software solution when (I) ground vehicle models are of interest, and/or (II) computation speed is critical, as in real-time, hardware-in-the-loop-applications.
Samenvatting