Virtual Systems Engineering

Course objective: To study methods for design and analysis of virtual systems

What is a virtual system ?

A virtual system is an approximation of a real system

Usually composed of a model simulated on a computer

It is accurate enough so that it can interact with the outside world in a realistic manner

A virtual system can be used as a virtual prototype in place of a physical prototype for training and testing purposes

Motivation for Virtual Systems

There is great need for virtual prototyping in industry as systems become more complex and design cycles shorten

Embedded systems that combine CPU, hardware and software are especially difficult to debug

Mistakes caught during prototyping are easier and much less costly to fix

Virtual prototypes are usually easier and less costly (especially copies) to develop than physical prototypes

Virtual prototypes can be tested for extreme operating conditions and are useful for training purposes

Classification of Virtual Systems

Non-real-time: Virtual Prototype

No real-time interaction with the environment

Modeling, simulation, dynamics

Finite Element Method (FEM)

Computational Fluid Mechanics (CFD)

Advanced visualization and animation

Special effects in movies

Real-time:

Virtual Reality (Virtual Environment)

Real-time interaction with one or more people

Flight simulator, car simulator, power plant simulator

Medical training simulators, telerobotics

Realistic video games

Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) Simulation

Real-time interaction with hardware

Normally simulation must be updated much faster than VR

Stability is very important so equipment is not damaged

Useful for debugging embedded and control systems

Why Study Virtual Systems Engineering ?

Virtual systems are highly challenging and combine several different disciplines (Mech Eng, Elec Eng, CS)

Real-time virtual systems are dynamic systems that require stability and performance of many feedback loops

Time delays are very common

Modeling of complex systems is challenging

There is often a tradeoff between complexity and accuracy

Real-time programming

3D Graphics and user interaction

Real-time networking

3D Graphics

Need to make visually realistic virtual systems

Emphasis on real-time graphics:

This includes shading and textured surfaces

We will use Direct3D (DirectX) graphics functions

Main D3D graphics primitives are:

Lists of points, lines, triangles,and textured triangles

Complex surfaces can be constructed by combining primitive objects