Hardware in the loop simulation of production systems dynamics

Constantly growing competitive pressure forces machine and plant manufacturers to find new innovative ways to reduce the development costs as well as to increase the quality. In order to achieve these goals, simulation tools are used in many phases of the development process. An integrated simulation of the system “production plant” requires not only the dynamic behavior of the production system but also the consideration of the applied control technology. For this purpose, especially the coupled simulation between real control system and virtual machine became widely accepted in recent years. This paper will give an overview of the current state of the art of hardware-in-the-loop simulation of production systems dynamics at the ISW.