Univ. of Windsor Veh. Dyn. simulation software

[WilO]

Hi all,

This link has been making its way around; I received it in an email this am.....
http://137.207.14.230/vdc/index.html

The online sims appear to have some issue, at least running on nearly every browser I've used. There is, however, an open source sim. written in Octave that may be of interest.

Enjoy.

Wil

[Lycoming]

I don't see any mentions of source code on there. Now It may be that because it is now exam time, I'm pretty much dead inside, so if I am just being daft, could you direct me in the direction of the aforementioned source code?

[Crucial_Xtreme]

I don't see any mentions of source code on there. Now It may be that because it is now exam time, I'm pretty much dead inside, so if I am just being daft, could you direct me in the direction of the aforementioned source code?

+1

[DaveW]

Good to see a Unversity doing what a university is supposed to do, including presenting a navigational challenge in its web site.

The code, in Matlabese, may be found by selecting this, navigating down to "Software/"eoM"/Releases" and selecting the relevant document. This is the lastest release, apparently. The code may be found in various ".m" files.

It is probably worth noting, however, that "eom" generates, rather than solves, equations of motion. I presume that Octave has a implementation of "rk45" to do the latter...

[Lycoming]

no source code for the online sims then? only for the kinematics software?

[mep]

I don't really get how to use that stuff.
These online simulations just show a screen telling " proceding" and I guess those downloaded .m files are not supposed for matlab??
At least they are not doing anything.

[Jersey Tom]

Bear in mind that all of these things are just tools. Just like the toolbox in your garage, some tools have simple functions, some are complex. For some jobs a simple hand file is the best choice, for other jobs you may need a $500,000 CNC machining center. No tool is perfect in a global sense - it all depends on the job. And then even among the hand files and CNC's, some are better than others.

Just trying to make the point, it's best before diving in to have a good idea of what all these things are and how they fit into the design, analysis, or learning process.

[DaveW]

- When all else fails, read the instructions.

"The output is written into the file out- put/report.pdf. It will contain the various matrices that result, along with a graphic illustrating the topology of the system, an eigen analysis, the standard first order form, the input code listing, and some frequency response curves, if there are input and out- puts defined. The eigen modes are also demonstrated using an animation, stored in X3d format in the output/x3d folder."

It would appear that "eom" does more than the simply generating the equations of motion, but results are all expressed in the frequency domain.

[Greg Locock]

If you are looking for a more traditional simulation then this webpage will be of some interest

http://www.dimnp.unipi.it/guiggiani-m/meccveic.htm

And of course there's always

http://www.bosch-motorsport.de/content/ ... l/2980.htm

Both carSim and LapSim are capable of useful work, and are a bit less daunting than eom. CarSim in particular is a very useful program for general open loop simulations, with a nice balance of detail and abstraction. LapSim is a bit more specialised but also easy to use.

I haven't actually got eom to work to my satisfaction yet due to installation hell with Octave.