Extending Co-Simulation to the Real-Time Domain

Typical co-simulation platforms cannot handle co-simulations under hard real-time conditions. The most important issue is the coupling of simulation tools together with real-time systems. To solve this problem a real-time coupling mechanism has to be developed which ensures the required hard real-time conditions. This coupling technology has to solve additional problems compared to non-real-time coupling mechanisms. First the most important aspect is a time-correct coupling with the involved real-time systems. Another important task is to keep the round trip time between the coupled systems as small as possible. This is relevant for stability aspects of the coupled simulation. Furthermore sensor signals of such real-time systems are typically corrupted by noise so the real-time coupling technology must be able to handle these noisy coupling signals. In conclusion, the development of the real-time coupling technology, which is able to handle the mentioned problems, is the key to perform a correct real-time co-simulation.