An Integrated, Modular Simulation System for Education ... - Cal Poly

Lessons LearnedBuilding a simulation system requires more than a simulation cab and somesoftware. To be useful the system must be easy to setup and use, and be verifiable andmaintainable by people other than the original programmer. To create better simulations,changes to the code are continually required and flexibility in the combinations ofhardware and software is a must.Parallel CapabilitiesParallel computing is the strategy used to gain large increases in computingpower. The nature of simulation of aircraft provides tasks that can be easily separated andrun in parallel. The components required to create a basic parallel computing systemusing personal computers have existed for a while. Custom software combined with theSimulink/RTW programs and a Ethernet network running TCP/IP protocol provide themeans to rapidly set up and run a parallel computing system.Open Code - MaintainabilityThe key to software that is maintainable is code that is common and welldocumented. C is a programming language that is familiar and powerful without beingcomplex. Students exposed to Fortran have little difficulty maintaining c code. Since thereal time workshop system requires the original source code to auto code the Simulinkdiagram, despite the fact that Simulink uses dynamically linked libraries to execute theprogram, the source is available to researchers requiring alterations of the functions. Thedocumentation is available in four places: help files supplied as .m functions with the S-functions, a hardcopy kept with the PhEagle hardware, the comments in the source codeand a html document on Spiegle.83