The Analysis of existing Modeling & Simulating software

摘要：This paper is intended to give a broad introduction of all the existing Modeling & Simulating software， and introduce what features a simulation software should have， like platform， programming approaches， programming languages， API functions， ROS services， ROS publisher types， ROS subscriber types， extendable， physics engines， ray-tracer， kinematics solver， Mesh， octree and point cloud interference detection， minimum distance calculation， Path / motion planning， Vision sensors， Realistic proximity sensors， Built-in custom user interfaces， etc.

關键词：建模 软件 模拟 引擎

中图分类号：TP319 文献标识码：B

The Analysis of existing Modeling & Simulating software

HE Shiqi

（Electrical and Electronic Engineering Collage， Shanghai University of Engineer Science， Songjiang Shanghai 201620， China）

ABSTRACT：This paper is intended to give a broad introduction of all the existing Modeling & Simulating software， and introduce what features a simulation software should have， like platform， programming approaches， programming languages， API functions， ROS services， ROS publisher types， ROS subscriber types， extendable， physics engines， ray-tracer， kinematics solver， Mesh， octree and point cloud interference detection， minimum distance calculation， Path / motion planning， Vision sensors， Realistic proximity sensors， Built-in custom user interfaces， etc.

KEYWORDS：simulation， modeling， computer software

1 绪论

The paper is intended to give a broad introduction of all the existing Modeling & Simulating software. Let`s start with modeling software first， the modeling software which is mostly used in the world is CAD type， which includes Solidworks， CATIA and others. These software focus on accurate mechanical modeling， are used for Production and Factory Planning. And for the modeling software， one kind is the simulation analysis software such as FEM`s ANSYS， which focuses on the accurate stress， material and temperature analysis， another type is the Multi-body dynamics software， such as Coppelia robotics`s V-rep， ADAMS from MSC， and Recurdyn from Korean company FunctionBay， which focus on the dynamics simulation based on physics engine..

2 对于建模和模拟软件的对比分析

Before comparing all these software， I would like to talk about what physics engine is. It is the mathematical algorithms which based on Newtonian mechanics that provides an approximate simulation of certain physical systems， such as rigid body dynamics， soft body dynamics， and fluid dynamics， though this method， people can simulate a real world. CAD software can only provide simple physic simulation， besides modeling， when we try to simulate the collision of two balls， balls rebound after hitting each other， but as you can see， it can`t calculate the force conduction， it can`t calculate the heat generated， it can`t calculate the mess and the material of ball， and ANSYS， ADAMS， V-rep and such software are used to solve these problems.

3 对于部分模拟软件的比较与分析

For ADAMS，Recurdyn or ANSYS， these software`s advantage is that， the mathematical algorithms of the physics engines developed by the companies of these software are really accurate and targeted. For example， in the field of tire analytics， FEM`s software is the big brother， because the simulation of rubber material is not only related to the deformation， but also temperature change. However， these software have many disadvantages.

Starting with the price， the price of Recurdyn`s professional version is about thirty thousand euros， you have to pay for it every year， and if you need extra toolbox， you have to pay extra money every month. ADAMS is even more expensive， cause it`s the leader in the field of Multi-body dynamics. Relatively， V-REP`s price is much cheaper that the others， five thousand euros， the further cost is also quiet proper.

Next， is the difficulty in learning these software is really high. If you dont attend any course， it`s hard for you to figure out how to use these things. You either go for collage trainings or business trainings. Many collages in China are not certificated in teaching how to use these software， because even professors cant figure out， you can`t catch up with the practical usage in the certain field after you graduate and go to work. Business trainings will cost you a lot of money， except for companies like ContinentalAG which need to invest a lot into the research of tiers， not many companies would like to put so much money and time into training.

And， when it comes to programming， though the mathematical algorithms of physics engine are accurate， they are not open source， so to some extent， this restricts the possibility of expansion by the developers.

4 對于模拟软件所应有的功能的总结分析

6 Programming Approaches： Simulator and simulations are fully customizable， with 6 programming approaches that are mutually compatible and that can even work hand-in-hand. 7 fully supported programming languages. an embedded script （i.e. customizing a simulation （i.e. a scene or models） via scripting）： this method， which consists in writing Lua scripts， is very easy and flexible， with guaranteed compatibility with every other default V-REP installations （as long as customized Lua-commands are not used， or are used with distributed plugins）. This method allows customizing a particular simulation， a simulation scene， and to a certain extent the simulator itself. This is the easiest and most used programming approach.

参考文献：

[1] V-Rep Co. http：//www.coppeliarobotics.com/helpFiles/index.html. V-Rep User manual.2013[Z].

作者简介：

何是錡（1995-），男，上海市人，本科生，主要研究领域为计算机电气应用.