International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 20-23, 2003 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Test and training ranges have sought the holy grail of large-scale range interconnectivity for many years. The ability to test at any range and transmit the information to the engineers at the home base and control the mission without sending the entire test team to a remote location improves the test schedules, reduces the cost of testing and improves the testing capabilities. New opportunities of interconnecting ranges are changing the business of open air range testing and the resulting capabilities. Two predominant opportunities will be discussed in this paper. First, is taking advantage of the fiber glut that the US is currently experiencing along with opportunities for government-acquired assets to service the testing community. This approach provides the government the ability to fiber-optically create a virtual test range and provide full interconnectivity of all data. Second is to take advantage of the existing networks such as the Defense Research Engineering Network (DREN) to make efficient on-demand type connectivity where, otherwise, it would be cost prohibitive.

ITC/USA 2009 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Fifth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 26-29, 2009 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Following-up on an ITC 2006 paper, "From RF to bits with Synthetic Beamforming", we follow the development and fielding of a Digital Beamforming (DBF) Antenna. This antenna, built for an airborne Telemetry application, supports 10 individual polarization-diverse beams and immediately converts RF to IF at the antenna element through a suite of LNBs. The IF is then digitized and all subsequent processing is performed through an array of 200+ FPGAs, including DBF, optimal combining, demodulation, and IF upconversion. We present our Model-Based Design approach, which allowed us to develop and test the system incrementally and rapidly, particularly during the transition from factory testing to flight operations, where several unexpected problems were discovered. Our software tool set enabled us to dissect the System behavior via post-mission replay, and our detailed simulations were instrumental in developing mitigation quickly. The System-level impacts and root causes of some of these issues are also discussed. We believe the flexibility of DBF and the modular software architecture were key in quickly mitigating many of these unforeseen real-world issues without hardware modification.

As the size, complexity, and functionality of systems we need to model and simulate con-tinue to increase, benefits such as interoperability and reusability enabled by distributed discrete-event simulation are becoming extremely important in many disciplines, not only military but also many engineering disciplines such as distributed manufacturing, supply chain management, and enterprise engineering, etc. In this dissertation we propose a distributed simulation framework for the development of modeling and the simulation of complex systems. The framework is based on the interoperability of a simulation system enabled by distributed simulation and the gateways which enable Com-mercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) simulation packages to interconnect to the distributed simulation engine. In the case study of modeling Virtual Test Bed (VTB), the framework has been designed as a distributed simulation to facilitate the integrated execution of different simulations, (shuttle process model, Monte Carlo model, Delay and Scrub Model) each of which is addressing differ-ent mission components as well as other non-simulation applications (Weather Expert System and Virtual Range). Although these models were developed independently and at various times, the original purposes have been seamlessly integrated, and interact with each other through Run-time Infrastructure (RTI) to simulate shuttle launch related processes. This study found that with the framework the defining properties of complex systems - interaction and emergence – are realized and that the software life cycle models (including the spiral model and prototyping) can be used as metaphors to manage the complexity of modeling and simulation of the system. The system of systems (a complex system is intrinsically a "system of systems") continuously evolves to accomplish its goals, during the evolution subsystems co-ordinate with one another and adapt with environmental factors such as policies, requirements, and objectives. In the case study we first demonstrate how the legacy models developed in COTS simulation languages/packages and non-simulation tools can be integrated to address a compli-cated system of systems. We then describe the techniques that can be used to display the state of remote federates in a local federate in the High Level Architecture (HLA) based distributed simulation using COTS simulation packages.

As the world is evolving faster and technology gets cheaper and more powerful, simulations are proving to be more and more beneficial. Simulations allow for faster development with less lead time between iterations which means that product versions can be released more often and at less cost. The automotive industry is heavily affected by emission legislation and environmental politics. The development of more environmentally friendly engines forces the rate of development to speed up. Simulations allow the industry to keep up with the increasing requests for more complex systems. For software development, it speeds up the process significantly. Although real-life testing in engine test cells and test cars still sets the foundation for and validates the results of the simulations, simulations can drastically decrease the amount needed. Less unnecessary real-life testing with bugs in the software causing wasted time and cost. In the meantime, more iterations can be tested in a smaller time frame, making the actual real-life testing more valuable and giving. The aim of this thesis is to develop a method to convert an accurate but relatively slow simulation model of the airflow through an engine, into a faster-running format preparing it to run in close to Real-Time and with a fixed timestep. Then exporting the converted model as a functional mock-up unit, FMU, a standardised entity, part of the Functional Mock-up Interface standard. The FMU was to be used in Software in Loop, SiL, simulations using it in cooperation with Matlab Simulink and Synopsys Silver. The SiL environment is then to be used to develop and test calibration software for the engine in question.

The advance of technology is thought to help ease the myriad tasks that are usually involved in operating equipment. Training and testing in modern times have been replacing with simulation technologies that mimic the actual live operations and testing. Many successful stories of flight simulation come from military fighter aircraft and commercial pilot programs. The possibilities of safety in saving lives, economic incentive in reducing the operational cost and reducing the carbon footprint via simulation makes simulation worth looking into. These considerations quickly boosted the transfer from live training operations to virtual and simulation, as were easily adopted in the history of flight training and testing. Although, there has been a lack of application, the benefits of the computer based simulation as a modeling and simulation (M&S) tool can be applied to the commercial driver license (CDL) for the trucking industry. Nevertheless, this is an uphill battle to convince CDL administrators to integrate modern technology into the CDL program instead of using the traditional daily business of manual testing. This is because the cost of trucking industry live operations is still relatively affordable; individuals and companies are reluctant to adopt the use of the modeling and simulation driving or testing system. Fortunately, cost is not the only variable to consider for the training and testing administrators and their management. There is a need to expand the use of technology to support live operations. The safety of the student, trainer, and tester should be taken into account. The availability of training or testing scenarios is also an influencing factor. Ultimately, the most important factor is driving safety on the American road. The relationship of accidents with driver license fraud has led the Federal Department of Transportation to want to reduce fraud in third-party Commercial Driver License (CDL) administration. Although it is not a perfect solution that can fix all, the utilization of simulation technologies for driving assessment could be a solution to help reduce fraud if it is applied correctly. The Department of Transportation (DOT) authorized the states independent authority to administrate the local CDL including the use of the Third-Party Tester (TPT). As a result, some criminal activities prompted the Federal investigation to recommend changes and to fund the states to take action to stay in compliance with the Federal regulation. This is the opportunity for the state CDL administrator to explore the use of M&S to support its mission. Recall, those arguments for the use of the M&S is the thought of safety in saving lives, economic incentive in reducing the operational cost, and reducing the carbon footprint via using simulation. This makes simulation a viable resource. This paper will report the research study of using the computer based testing modeling and simulation tools to replace or augment the current state examiner as means of assessing the CDL TPT proficiency in basic backing skills. This pilot study of this system has several aspects to address. The scenarios must be relevant to test the knowledge of the TPT by using closely comparable scenarios to the current manual testing method. The scenario-based simulation should incorporate randomness to provide a greater sense of reality. In addition, the reconfigurable built-in random behavior scenarios provide the administrator greater control of behaviors and allow the administrator to be able to select among the random scenarios. Finally, the paper will present the data sampling from relevant participants of the CDL TPT and methodology applied. The analysis of data presents in this research study will be valuable for the State and Federal CDL administrator to consider the pros and cons of applying or adding a computer based simulation to their current testing methodology.

This thesis explores the application of the Virtual Test Bed (VTB) and its real-time extension, VTB-RT, for protective relay modeling, simulation, and testing. An instantaneous overcurrent relay model was developed in VTB for a transmission line protection. The same relay model was built in Matlab/Simulink for validation purposes. Both models were tested for various fault conditions on a radial power system and results were compared. Moreover, a low cost real-time Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) simulation platform was implemented for relay model testing using VTB-RT and public domain software packages such as Real-Time Application Interface (RTAI), Comedi, and Comedilib, and notebook computer hardware. The applicability of VTB-RT was verified through an open-loop simulation and a HIL simulation of a simple dynamic system using dSPACE as the control hardware and NI DAQCard-6062E as the input/output interface. Simulation results are presented showing the effectiveness of the VTB-RT platform for model testing.

Autonomous driving is one of the key technologies for increasing road safetyand reducing traffic volumes. Therefore, science and industry are workingtogether on new innovative solutions in this field of technology. One importantcomponent in this context is the approval and testing of new solution concepts,with special focus on the ones for urban environments. Not only because ofthe high diversity of traffic situations, but also because of the close contactbetween vulnerable road users (VRU) and automated vehicles.In the course of this work, a novel approach for testing automated drivingfunctions and vehicle systems in urban environments is presented. The goal isto create a safe and valid environment in which the automated vehicle and theVRU can meet and interact. The basis is a highly realistic virtual model of acity center. The physical behavior of the vehicle and VRU is recorded usingmeasurement technology and transferred to the virtual city model.Based on representative urban traffic scenarios, the functionality of the urbantest field is investigated from various points of view. Thereby, the focus is onreal-time capability and the quality of interaction between the vehicle and theVRU.The investigations show that both the real-time capability and the interactionpossibilities could be demonstrated. Further, the developed methodologies aresuitable for real time applications. / CityInMotion