René von Dombrowski

Virtual development environment for fluid power mechatronic systems

In this paper the results of the German state-funded research project “Fluidtronic”, that deals with a virtual development environment for fluid technical mechatronic systems, is presented. Firstly the conventional development process of a fluid technical mechatronic system is introduced. The conventional development process typically takes a long time because design failures are often only identified during the plant commissioning. Secondly the new virtual development environment, which is worked out in the “Fluidtronic” project is presented. It shows how both the system performance can be optimized and also how the commissioning time can be reduced extensively, if the interactions between mechanical, electrical and fluid power parts are tested at an early point of time in the development process. Optimizations in the development process are realized with the help of new and improved simulation models as well as soft- and hardware in the loop simulations.Copyright