Virtually Test Construction Machinery | Validating Machine-Environment-Interactions in SimulationX

The Bauen 4.0 research project aimed at developing a digital 5G construction test site on which sustainable, productive machines intelligently interact with their environment. ESI was part of the biggest group in the consortium, which focused on automated and connected mobile machines. This group developed solutions for automation, assistance functions, remote control, environment recognition, and vertical integration.

One specific aspect the group looked into was the development of functionalities to represent the interactions of the machines with the environment sufficiently in the system simulation software SimulationX.

Part of the environment is all the details of the surroundings, which can be detected by sensors – the ground surface with slopes and holes, but also obstacles, other vehicles, construction site workers, or else. This information could be an input to an assistance function. For example, a sensor could detect a construction site worker passing by, or another obstacle, and trigger an emergency brake. To solve this task efficiently, the research team coupled the system simulation software SimulationX to the 3D engine ‘Unity’ via DDS (data distribution service) as the communication middleware. They used Unity since it offers a lot more options to model the surroundings, including other objects and their surface properties, and sensors. And they used DDS since they had in mind to include other software tools in the future, e.g., external controllers. In the end, the team had a SimulationX wheel loader driving on the uneven ground through a virtual Unity terrain.

This video shows the results of the funded research project Bauen 4.0 which are related to the coupling of SimulationX and Unity. The results were created in cooperation with Technical University Dresden, endowed chair of Construction Machines. The goal was to enable SimulationX models and Unity scenes to communicate with each other, by communication means which could be extended to include other partners.

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