Virtual Prototyping Vehicle Electrical System Management Design Tool

Complex engineered systems such as tactical vehicles and advanced weapon systems involve a broad spectrum of technologies and interactive subsystems that must work synergistically in order to achieve mission goals. Due to the interdependencies between subsystems that comprise the overall system, it is becoming increasingly important to establish a flexible virtual prototyping design and analysis infrastructure that empowers program engineers, managers and/or system integrators to rapidly evaluate design alternatives and competitive technologies and architectures, and to optimize the overall system design. The primary objective of the Phase I effort is to establish the viability of such an infrastructure for electric power/propulsion systems in hybrid-electric vehicles. It is envisioned that a successful virtual prototyping environment will include an extensive heterogeneous models/methods library and a flexible easy-to-use interface that allows rapid configuration of component models, which could be implemented using different simulation languages on a distributed computer network. If the Phase I effort is successful, the Phase II will focus upon the development of this infrastructure and, ultimately, its implementation at TACOM. Although this research will focus on electric power and propulsion systems for tactical vehicles, this prototyping environment will have widespread applications including commercial and/or military terrestrial vehicles, ships, and aircraft.