This research project deals with modeling of manufacturing systems, discrete event simulation, data structures and algorithms for parallel simulation computation and visualization. The objective is the synchronized analysis and 3D visualization of parallel discrete event simulation runs. In which models can be created and modified interactively during runtime. This project is sponsored by the Germena Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG)

Project description

The key idea of this project is to enable simulation to be used as a planning and evaluation tool in the context of Systems Engineering. Simulation shall be used in early planning phases and not only as an instrument for verification and visualization at the end of the conception phase.

A software tool ought to be implemented that interlinks distributed simulations with distributed visualization. Parallel-executed simulation replications are visualized and evaluated in one software application. A large number of simulation runs are executed in parallel to recognize the influence of random distributed variables on the model behavior. A group of simulation runs is called a test. In one test single simulations runs are only differing in the seeds of their random variables. Tests are differing in model structure and parameterization. The set of all tests builds the simulation experiment. The developed software tool shall aggregate the simulation runs of one test and displays the results in a 3D visualization. In this visualization the user is enabled to detect and evaluate differences and model behavior easily.

During runtime of the simulation experiment, the user can modify the models of one test by changing model parameters or by inserting or deleting model elements. Before integrating the user changes, a test is cloned and so its simulation runs, thus the original model and its parameterization are preserved. By cloning, a new test with the same amount of simulation runs as the original is created. Repeated modifying and cloning leads to a huge number of parallel-executed simulations. Consequences of the changes can be easily analyzed by direct comparison of several tests. By aggregating state variables and the visualization of the simulation runs in tests the performance of model specifications can be evaluated. The aggregation also features the statistical analysis of state variables during runtime. By preserving the models while changing the models, a continuous evaluation of model alternatives is possible.

Research Group Meyer auf der Heide

• Matthias Fischer (Project Manager),
• Michael Kortenjan,
• Jens Krokowski,
• Friedhelm Meyer auf der Heide (Projekt Manager),
• Tim Süß

Research Group Dangelmaier

• Mark Aufenanger,
• Wilhelm Dangelmaier (Project Manager),
• Daniel Huber,
• Christoph Laroque,
• Nando Rügener

Publications from this Project