PowerDEVS : A DEVS – Based Environment for Hybrid System Modeling and Simulation

This paper introduces a new general purpose software tool for DEVS modeling and simulation oriented to the simulation of hybrid systems. The environment –called PowerDEVS– allows defining atomic DEVS models in C++ language which can be then graphically coupled in hierarchical block diagrams to create more complex systems. Both, atomic and coupled models, can be organized in libraries which facilitate the reusability features. The environment automatically translates the graphically coupled models into a C++ code which executes the simulation. A remarkable feature of PowerDEVS is the possibility of performing the simulations in real time, which permits the design and automatic implementation of synchronous and asynchronous digital controllers. Besides describing the main features of the software, the article also illustrates its use with some examples which show its simplicity and efficience.