A Multi-Layer Architecture for near Real-Time Collaboration during Distributed Modeling and Simulation of Cyberphysical Systems

We present a Web-based multi-layer architecture and implementation to enable near real-time collaboration within partially-distributed engineering teams in this paper. Our architecture named Distributed Modeling and Simulation (DisMoSim) enables collaborative 3D modeling and simulation of complex cyberphysical systems (CPS) across different servers, offices, lab spaces, or organizations. More specifically, DisMoSim creates networks of DisMoSim nodes that communicate using Web protocols with little or no perceptible delay. Each node provides different CPS services, e.g., user interface nodes provide collaborative 3D modeling; computational nodes provide simulations of multi-body dynamics or kinematics; storage nodes allow persisting and sharing models and simulation results; hardware-in-the-loop nodes connect physical testing workbenches to provide real-world sensor measurements as simulation input; software-in-the-loop nodes provide control signals to simulate hardware controllers. In the following, we derive a set of design goals and propose our DisMoSim architecture. We illustrate how we used our multi-layer conceptual architecture to implement a variety of CPS services for an example scenario. By this, we demonstrate the practicability and versatility of our approach and conclude by discussing limitations and future work.