Workshop on the Virtual Test Bed (VTB)

 

Friday, September 3rd, 2004

Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering,

University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

 

9.30am – 4.30pm (provisional times)

 

Workshop Description

 

The Virtual Test Bed is intended for large-scale multi-technical dynamic system studies. Users can import dynamic models from a variety of environments and can also do interesting things like couple  finite-element models  with lumped-element dynamic models. It has been developed with funding from the US Office of Naval Research (ONR) but it is by no means limited to marine applications. It has certainly been used for power electronics system studies in connection with electrical drives for ships and for some electrical power systems studies.

 

More details of VTB are available via the University of South Carolina website http://vtb.engr.sc.edu.

 

This workshop will focus on use of the Virtual Test Bed (VTB) in an interdisciplinary design environment, with emphasis on the practical stages of defining a system and studying the dynamic behavior of the defined system. Each participant will build an example application that may encompass a wide range of components across many engineering disciplines including power electronics, controls, electric machines, mechanical power trains, electrochemical power sources, fluid and gaseous fuel feeds, and thermal management. If time and audience participation permit, we will cover some of the more advanced functionality including definition of visualization components, linking dynamic system models to visualization models, and scripting scenarios. Time and equipment constraints will prevent demonstrations of other more advanced capabilities, such as the VTB RealTime environment for hardware-in-the-loop operation, but the availability of these advanced features will be described.

 

Equipment Requirements

Hardware Requirements

 

Participants are encouraged to bring the most-capable notebook computer that they have in order to personally experience the full range of VTB capabilities. Minimum requirements are Windows 2000, or XP operating system, 64 MB ram (but bigger is always better and 256MB is recommended). Some input devices on notebook computers (touchpads, sticks, etc) may not be compatible or convenient, so we recommend that you bring a standard 2-button mouse with clickable scroll wheel. To install the software, participants will need a CD reader or a USB port to read from a memory stick. 150 MB free disk space will be needed. We highly recommend that your computer have hardware acceleration for OpenGL graphics (e.g. Geforce2Go graphics card), although it is possible to still use a computer without a hardware graphics accelerator with (much) reduced performance. Most notebook computers produced within the last year or two have suitable graphics capabilities.

Other Requirements

 

Attendees should have administrative rights on their computer that will permit installation of new software.

 

Acrobat Reader software (4.0 or higher) should be pre-installed on your computer

If a participant wishes to define a new component model from a Matlab/Simulink file (not a required part of the workshop participation) they should also have installed Matlab/Simulink, the Matlab RealTime workshop toolbox, and a C++ compiler.

Presentations

 

Sharon Beerman-Curtin/Terry Ericsen – U.S. Office of Naval Research. “An Introduction to the Virtual Test Bed”

 

Roger Dougal – University of South Carolina, “Overview of the Virtual Test Bed as an interdiscipinary engineering design tool”

 

Antonello Monti – University of South Carolina, “VTB Application Examples,  including power electronics, motor drives, and ship systems.

 

Roy Crosby – California State University at Chico,

 

Sahan Gamage, University of Cambridge,

Hands On Tutorial Activities

 

Installation of VTB on participant’s own computer

 

Constructing and running a system model, using component models from the standard library

Using the Schematic editor to define a system from available components

Defining hierarchical subsystems

Setting simulation parameters

Specifying outputs

Using graphical data windows in the visualization environment

 

Defining your own new models

Using the interactive User Defined Device

Compiling models from UDD (requires a C++ compiler)

Using interactive models from other environments (e.g. Simulink, requires Matlab/Simulink installation on user’s computer)

Compiling models from other environments (e.g. Matlab, requires Matlab Real Time Workshop and C++ compiler)

 

Advanced use of the visualization environment

Working with 3-D visualization models

 

Using the Scripting capability

 

Individual system design problems.

 

 

 

 

COST

 

This workshop is being supported by the US Office of Naval Research. It is a non-profit event timed to take place just before the AED2004 Conference on Advanced Engineering Design (www.aed2004.co.uk) which will be in Glasgow during the period 5th-8th September 2004. Costs for attendance at the Workshop have been kept as low as possible and will, to some extent, depend on the numbers participating. Participation will be limited to a maximum of about 30 to ensure individual tutorial attention. Current estimates of the registration fee are of the order of £25 per person or less including teas/coffees and a sandwich/buffet lunch. The fee level will be determined finally once the level of interest has been established.

 

*** Preliminary Registration***

 

If you are interested in attending the Workshop please respond by  e-mail as soon as possible (and no later than 31st July 2004) to Professor David Murray-Smith (d.murray-smith@elec.gla.ac.uk) indicating your interest in this event. Further information will then be sent to you.