Abstract
This paper presents a general approach for achieving real-time man-in-the-loop simulation for multibody dynamic systems. Emerging real-time dynamics simulation technologies are exploited to develop a low-cost network based simulator as an interactive design workstation with a human operator in the control loop. An efficient recursive dynamic formulation is used to create multibody dynamics models. A parallel processing algorithm is developed based on the recursive dynamics formulation and implemented on a multiprocessor computer to achieve real-time simulation. As a real-time integration algorithm, third-order Adams-Bashforth method is used. The integration stepsize is estimated from the eigenvalue analysis of the equations of motion. High speed computer graphics techniques provide realistic visual display for the simulator. A backhoe simulation is implemented as an example to demonstrate the feasibility of man-in-the-loop simulation on the low-cost simulator.
