Archive notice: This article was originally published on May 23, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
According to pressetext, the safety and reliability of real systems are two key goals of a virtual-reality project undertaken by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institutes for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE) and for Factory Operation and Automation (IFF). Virtual 3D models of embedded systems—for example in automotive engineering—are intended to help engineers grasp complex parameters visually and facilitate development. This could enable engineers in particular to optimise system safety.
“Distributed embedded systems are often safety-critical and at the same time so complex that risks and appropriate corrective measures can be difficult to identify,” explains Peter Liggesmeyer, director of Fraunhofer IESE, outlining the project’s motivation. It is intended to provide a remedy by allowing a virtual representation of systems and their abstract properties.$$$$
Instead of having to perform complicated, not very illustrative calculations, engineers could then see the effects of changes in individual parameters directly in the 3D model. “Complex calculations have to take place in the background,” Frank Seelisch of IESE emphasises to pressetext. An engineer would only have to define these once, then could use the VR model much more easily than before to compare how different designs affect the system and optimise it accordingly.
Scientists are working with concrete application scenarios in the project. These include automotive engineering—a focus at IESE—and factory and production planning. In Kaiserslautern, IESE researchers concentrate particularly on the software components of embedded systems, while the focus in Magdeburg at IFF is on mechanical and electrical-engineering components. Seelisch says that representing truly all types of components of a complex system in one comprehensive VR model will probably not be achieved within the two-and-a-half-year project.
“That is, and must be, the long-term goal,” the scientist stresses. Interfaces between different types of components, such as mechanics and electronics, are often critical to the safety and reliability of systems.
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