A virtual environment simulator for mechanical system dynamics with online interactive control

Virtual prototyping is an effective tool in the development of mechanical product. Physically accurate simulation of multi-body mechanical system enables designers to investigate, explore, and experience the performance and behavior of an evolving product and thus reduce the number of physical prototypes needed. For the sake of better support for designers to manipulate the simulation, we have developed a dynamic simulation package of mechanical system, which provides an interactive control during the simulation process. The package incorporates physical behaviors and dynamic interactions by dynamics based modeling approach in multi-body mechanical system. In the package, user’s actions (e.g., loading a model, picking and dragging objects, steering objects during simulation process, etc.) are based on an ATN task management, and a multi-modal interface is provided which supports 2D desktop devices and 3D VR devices. The main contribution of the simulator is providing supports that allow users’ interactive manipulation in the simulation loop. During the simulation process, users can modify the constraints between components, apply force/torque to interested components and change the parameters of forces/torques. The simulator automatically updates the dynamic model of the mechanical system in real time, and then continuously simulates the behavior of the model under the current condition in the loop. An example of dynamic simulation of a vehicle is implemented and the simulation result is compared to that of ADAMS to verify the correctness and accuracy of the simulator. With the real-time interaction, solution and visualization of simulation model, the package affords better support for designers to participate in the simulation interactively and effectively.