Co-simulation of a mechatronic system using Gensys and Simulink

The design of mechatronic systems for rail vehicles requires the implementation of modern software tools. Nowadays, it is common to use co-simulation for the creation of mechatronic models. This approach is usually based on the combination of two types of software – multi-body simulation packages for mechanical models and tools for simulation of electric, control systems, etc. The existing commercial codes (SIMPACK, VI-RAIL, VAMPIRE, UM) provide different approaches for co-simulation; however, they have a lot in common. The one thing that makes them very similar is the use of Simulink for co-simulation. In this paper, we propose a description of the client interface in Simulink for co-simulation with Gensys. The evolution of the proposed approach has been performed by means of a simulation of a simplified traction control system for a hauling locomotive running on straight track conditions.