B&R and Maplesoft Partner to Accelerate Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation

B&R and Maplesoft have announced a partnership that will bring together the products of both companies to reduce the computing time, effort and costs of hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) simulation.

The ability to design the right machine or system model plays a critical role in simulation-based development. At the same time, defining all the dynamic characteristics of a machine can be extremely time-consuming. ?Physical modeling tools such as MapleSimTM from MaplesoftTM provide optimal support while considerably reducing the time and work required,? explains Philipp Wallner, Global Technology Director at B&R.

Thanks to the open architecture of Automation Studio, B&R's programming and development software, physical models created in MapleSimTM can be easily transferred to B&R's hardware controller in just a few steps. The result is a hardware-in-the-loop simulation that emulates the behavior of the machine in real time, in a completely safe test environment.

?With MapleSim, Automation Studio users can quickly develop highly accurate models of plant control systems, analyze the dynamics and then generate extremely optimized real-time code for the plant,? explains Dr. Laurent Bernardin, Vice President of Research and Development at Maplesoft. ?By adding a cost-effective and easy-to-use physical modeling phase to automation processes,

engineers will be able to increase the number of virtual tests before hardware is involved. This is a way to eliminate costly design errors once and for all.?

The close collaboration between the two companies ensures optimal integration into Automation Studio, a clear and comprehensive process automation tool with long-term user support.