Virtual Systems Engineering

1. Virtual Systems Engineering Course objective: To study methods for design and analysis of virtual systems What is a virtual system ? A virtual system is an approximation of a real system Usually composed of a model simulated on a computer It is accurate enough so that it can interact with the outside world in a realistic manner A virtual system can be used as a virtual prototype in place of a physical prototype for training and testing purposes

2. Motivation for Virtual Systems There is great need for virtual prototyping in industry as systems become more complex and design cycles shorten Embedded systems that combine CPU, hardware and software are especially difficult to debug Mistakes caught during prototyping are easier and much less costly to fix Virtual prototypes are usually easier and less costly (especially copies) to develop than physical prototypes Virtual prototypes can be tested for extreme operating conditions and are useful for training purposes

3. Classification of Virtual Systems Non-real-time: Virtual Prototype No real-time interaction with the environment Modeling, simulation, dynamics Finite Element Method (FEM) Computational Fluid Mechanics (CFD) Advanced visualization and animation Special effects in movies

4. Real-time: Virtual Reality (Virtual Environment) Real-time interaction with one or more people Flight simulator, car simulator, power plant simulator Medical training simulators, telerobotics Realistic video games Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) Simulation Real-time interaction with hardware Normally simulation must be updated much faster than VR Stability is very important so equipment is not damaged Useful for debugging embedded and control systems

5. Why Study Virtual Systems Engineering ? Virtual systems are highly challenging and combine several different disciplines (Mech Eng, Elec Eng, CS) Real-time virtual systems are dynamic systems that require stability and performance of many feedback loops Time delays are very common Modeling of complex systems is challenging There is often a tradeoff between complexity and accuracy Real-time programming 3D Graphics and user interaction Real-time networking

6. 3D Graphics Need to make visually realistic virtual systems Emphasis on real-time graphics: This includes shading and textured surfaces We will use Direct3D (DirectX) graphics functions Main D3D graphics primitives are: Lists of points, lines, triangles,and textured triangles Complex surfaces can be constructed by combining primitive objects