Reconfigurable modelling for drivetrain real-time simulation

Abstract

Abstract

This article discusses a body of ongoing work that seeks to reduce the time and effort required to create, reconfigure, and parameterize physically based models that are to be used as part of a model-based design (‘MBD’) process.

Initially a new modular approach for system model creation is presented. The method facilitates rapid creation of simulation models to be used within an MBD process making use of application-specific submodels. It is shown that through the use of the submodels created using Simulink configurable subsystems, the number of degrees of freedom and thus fidelity of a model may be altered by a simple parameter change.

The work continues, beyond the introduction of a number of plug-and-simulate drivetrain submodels, to investigate a means by which a model's parameters may be reduced to an absolute minimum. An algorithm capable of identifying parameters of potentially low significance to an output of interest is shown in the form of the parameter elimination and model evaluation algorithm (‘PEMEA’). Simulation results that make use of the PEMEA suggest that a number of parameters may be eliminated. The parameter eliminations, conducted in situ in Simulink models, are shown to have minimum effect on the model outputs-of-interest and marginally decrease the computational overhead of the model.