Nos Clients

Aisin Corporation, a brake system and transmission supplier based in Japan, has selected CarSim RT-LAB for hardware-in-the-loop testing of ECUs for major vehicle control systems. In comparison with the proprietary system that CarSim RT-LAB replaced, the new real-time dynamic vehicle simulator offers improved flexibility and performance at a lower cost. Based on standard PC hardware and commercial I/O interfaces, CarSim RT-LAB integrates a rich set of features designed for vehicle model development, simulation control, and parameter tuning.

Cummins has adopted RT-LAB, Opal-RT's deployable Rapid Control Prototyping system, as the in-vehicle development system for delivery to their customers. RT-LAB software is installed on commercial-off-the-shelf PC/104 hardware.

Commissioned by Ford Research Laboratory to find a solution to prevent the loss of precision that occurs in engine simulations when instantaneous events (such as ignition sparks) occur between fixed-time steps, Opal-RT has developed a blockset to improve the accuracy and speed of real-time simulations. With RT-EVENTS' innovative mathematical techniques, exact event timing is captured within the fixed-time step integration necessary for real time simulation. RT-EVENTS enables the implementation of control algorithms with dynamically adjusted sample times and the coupling of discrete and continuous systems.

In addition to the reduction in lost time obtained with RT-EVENTS, Ford Research Laboratory is further accelerating their engine simulations with RT-LAB's parallel-computing feature, running the models on a XEON server equipped with eight 700MHz processors.

GM's Advanced Technology Vehicles Division is using RT-LAB for various advanced automotive development projects. The client started with a two target industrial rack mount system, and as the project progressed GM was able to adapt to increased computation loads by simply adding a third target node. For example, GM Advanced Technology Vehicles will be using RT-LAB in the development of the inverter motors required for their ambitious task. Sample speeds are between 50 and 100 s and Opal-RT is providing technology such as Firewire inter-processor communication in order to allow hard real-time communication between the front and rear motor simulators.

Peugeot is using RT-LAB as a new rapid control prototyping platform for the development of their next-generation engine control and dynamic systems.

Sauer-Danfoss successfully implemented an RT-LAB HilBox on a Series 90 pump. This is the initial testing for the transmission of the intelligent systems vehicle and is the first demonstration of this technology in North America. "RT-LAB is rapidly becoming a powerful enabling tool for our engineers, who can quickly create Simulink and Stateflow models and port them to real time hardware. The combination of hardware and software is reasonably priced, fast, and most importantly, reliable. RT-LAB, coupled with excellent product support, has helped us to put high-level model-based design tools in the hands of technical experts who aren't necessarily programmers." - Dennis Burns, Technology Development Engineer, Sauer-Danfoss

The Visteon Chassis Controls Group purchased a three target RT-LAB Engineering Simulator in order to devise new control design tools to be used to build and test chassis related control systems for automotive applications.

GETS Off Highway Vehicles (OHV) have just taken delivery of a fully integrated RT-LAB Engineering Simulator that will be used to model the primary drive for a heavy-duty electrical vehicle for off-highway applications. Using high fidelity models developed by Opal-RT, the simulator models a single Induction Motor (IM) drive, supplied by parallel inverters, complete with signal conditioning for hardware-in-the-loop testing.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is currently running a very complex robotic training system using RT-LAB. The 6-node Opal-RT system is used to simulate the robot controller and the end manipulator of the robotic arm, with contact-force measurement at 1 ms sampling rates. Key requirements were openness, flexibility, scalability, re-usability, and minimal maintenance needs.The RT-LAB system was investigated and demonstrated at the satisfaction of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) inspectors, SPAR (the manufacturer of the International Space Station robotic arm, now called MDRobotics) and CAE (provider of the virtual reality system and dynamic model of the space station). A Complete Integration Solution: from a SIMULINK Block Diagram to OPAL-RT Distributed Real-Time Systemin no Time.

"RT-LAB allowed us to run a complex space-robot controller in real-time. Its distributed capabilities were essential in acheiving real-time performance, while its flexibility and open architecture helped maximizing efficiency of the design team." - Jean-Claude Piedboeuf, Deputy Director Spacecraft Engineering, CSA

Pratt &Whitney is using a VME version of RT-LAB as the real-time control platform for locomotive applications of its gas-turbine engines. The final step in this project, which included the development of drivers for I/O and RS-422 communications, saw RT-LAB in use in the actual turbine-controller in the production locomotive.

The Department of National Defence Canada has given Opal-RT the mandate to develop simulation technologies that will enhance their Warfare simulation capabilities and subsequently deliver systems, which integrate the developed technologies. Examples of the technologies requested are the support of multiple-processor boards for distributed processing, support of Gigabit technologies, fast simulations with NT and more. All technologies developed under this contract are owned by Opal-RT Technologies and are or will be commercialized.

Brazilian aircraft manufacturer for commercial and defense markets, Embraer of So Paulo has signed a multi-phase agreement with Opal-RT for the Implementation of a Modeling and Simulation Capability based on RT-LAB. Opal-RT's Aerospace Modeling and Simulation Division will provide services, which have the expertise to develop aircraft control systems and certify aircraft models. Phase 1 of the agreement was for Flight Dynamics Modeling and Simulation, including ten RT-LAB licenses.

Mechtronix Systems, a key player in the world market for flight training devices, uses RT-LAB as a rapid control prototyping system for internal development of an electrical force feedback system and other flight simulator applications.

University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) is currently developing an attitude controller in the context of the MOST satellite program. The satellite will be used as a in-orbit telescope, which will provide capabilities currently not available with the Hubble telescope. RT-LAB is used for the development of the attitude controller itself. Another project with UTIAS involves the delivery of the simulation engine for a complete satellite simulator. The system is a 16 node PC-based simulator and allows several configurations, which vary depending on the application simulated. Simulations are conducted in two different laboratories linked with a high-speed fibre-optic CLan link on Giganet to allow interaction between the simulations.

"The University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies carries out teaching and research in the areas of aircraft simulation and avionic control systems. We chose an RT-LAB Real-Time Simulator from Opal-RT for our lab because of its power, flexibility and affordability.

We need to do some highly complex simulations, so we need the RT-LAB system's sixteen parallel processors to crunch through massive off-line parameter sweeps.

When we are not running large-scale models, we reconfigure the individual processors for a multitude of uses, from driving multiple simultaneous hardware-in-the-loop experiments to running the user-interface of our flight simulator.

Best of all, the systems use of commercial-of-the shelf components helped keep down our purchase price and assure an upgrade path.

Dr. Hugh Liu, Professor, University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS)

Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology IPK in Berlin has chosen an RT-LAB dual-processor distributed system with FireWire networking to research tele-robotic control manipulation, related to medical applications including surgical operation using robots in a virtual-reality simulation environment.

At Clarkson University, an RT-LAB system composed of a command station and two real-time targets is used to teach robotics, control, and simulation. A typical project involves controlling a shaker with base and building structure (3 levels made of aluminum with sheet metal sides) while recording accelerations and displacements of the various levels.

RT-LAB is used for robotics control and real-time simulation applications by the Electrical Engineering Department of the École Polytechnique de Montréal.

"When we started the project, we weren't sure what computation power was going to be required and we didn't want a platform that would not achieve the performance we needed. RT-LAB's distributed processing assured us that this would not happen. Furthermore, compared to other control projects under development in our laboratory, RT-LAB has allowed us to develop the controllers and user interface much quicker than implementing hand-written codes." - Dr. Vladimir Polotski, Project Supervisor, École Polytechnique

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in collaboration with Columbia University has chosen RT-LAB as their control solution for their Levitated Dipole eXperiment (LDX). LDX is a novel experiment designed to explore the physics of plasma confinement in a magnetic dipole field. It involves levitating a 1/2 tonne superconducting magnet at 2 meters over the ground for periods of over 10 hours. LDX is a collaboration between Columbia University's Dept. of Applied Physics and the MIT Plasma Science & Fusion Center and is funded by the Department of Energy's Office of Fusion Energy. RT-LAB's reliability, low cost and flexibility were the reasons the experimental physicists cited in explaining their selection.

This is another application involving vibration analysis. In this project, adaptive damping system research is performed by NC A&T for NASAs Ace Autonomous Control Engineering department. The goal is to reduce vibrations of missile launch platforms, which in many cases may damage expensive equipment. They have purchased a two-node system from Opal-RT to perform the tests and controller for the dampening system. There is also ongoing research in robust, adaptive nonlinear control with applications in the spacecraft naval systems, robotics, and power systems.

The University of Alabama in Huntsville has recently purchased a two-node RT-LAB system for a micro-gravity vibration test bench. The test bench consists of a horizontal pusher mechanism that will induce vibrations on objects on electromagnetic bearings. The purpose of this project is to analyze the reaction of objects in a zero gravity environment. NASA employees will be performing the tests for the International Space Station project on the University's premises.

The University of Michigan has acquired RT-LAB to provide mechanical engineering students access to the latest in deployable Rapid Control Prototyping systems in their new Mechatronics Lab. The Lab will be fully equipped with RT-LAB stations to be used both for undergraduate simulation and control courses as well as for postgraduate embedded and real-time systems courses.

An interesting and fun use of RT-LAB recently came to our attention from a group of engineering students at the University of Michigan. Using RT-LAB Engineering Simulators, they have developed an electromechanical experiment, called Chaockey, that pits the player against a computer-controlled goalkeeper on an air hockey table.

To quote their web site: "Chaockey is a single player game with interactive computer feedback. The challenge of the game is for the human player (offense) to navigate a physical object into a goal while being hindered by a computer controlled obstacle (defense). The game's structure consists of three main subsystems: a sensing system, an information processor, and an active response system."

Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO) purchased a real-time simulation system from Opal-RT in order to achieve the required performances of their Satellite Image Real-Time Analysis Project. After evaluating many systems from different vendors, UQO chose the real-time simulation system that offered performance, openness, and scalability for their project. The system included Opal-RT's state of the art software RT-LAB with the shared memory option to be used on a distributed 8 Xeon processor computational system.

Université de Sherbrooke has purchased a 12-workstation virtual laboratory system in which students will be able to obtain remote access through an Internet connection. This project is a collaboration of several Canadian and European Universities who will share each other's laboratory experiments through the real-time networking technology provided by RT-LAB. Both low-end and high-end applications will be controlled and simulated using identical hardware and software configurations. The project is another demonstration of RT-LAB's versatility and openness.

University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) is currently developing an attitude controller in the context of the MOST satellite program. The satellite will be used as a in-orbit telescope, which will provide capabilities currently not available with the Hubble telescope. RT-LAB is used for the development of the attitude controller itself. Another project with UTIAS involves the delivery of the simulation engine for a complete satellite simulator. The system is a 16 node PC-based simulator and allows several configurations, which vary depending on the application simulated. Simulations are conducted in two different laboratories linked with a high-speed fibre-optic CLan link on Giganet to allow interaction between the simulations.

"The University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies carries out teaching and research in the areas of aircraft simulation and avionic control systems. We chose an RT-LAB Real-Time Simulator from Opal-RT for our lab because of its power, flexibility and affordability.

We need to do some highly complex simulations, so we need the RT-LAB system's sixteen parallel processors to crunch through massive off-line parameter sweeps.

When we are not running large-scale models, we reconfigure the individual processors for a multitude of uses, from driving multiple simultaneous hardware-in-the-loop experiments to running the user-interface of our flight simulator.

Best of all, the systems use of commercial-of-the shelf components helped keep down our purchase price and assure an upgrade path.

Dr. Hugh Liu, Professor, University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS)

Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi is one of the seven IITs and was created in 1961 as an institute of national importance. It is a deemed university and awards degrees at the Bachelor, Master and Doctoral levels. Currently, it has 23 Departments and Research Centres. The Department of Electrical Engineering is one of the largest departments in IIT Delhi, and has a distinguished faculty, all holding Ph.D. degrees from renowned institutes in India and abroad. This Department offers two B.Tech. programmes and six M.Tech. programmes in Communications, Computer Technology, Control and Instrumentation, Integrated Electronics and Circuits, Power Systems and Power Electronics, Electrical Machines and Drives. In addition, the Department offers two interdisciplinary M.Tech. Programmes, one in VLSI Design, Tools and Technology and the other in Opto-electronics and Optical Communication. RT-Lab is being used in laboratory for work in Power Electronics, Power Quality, Electrical Machines and Drives.

ABB Canada, in conjunction with Hydro-Québec's CITEQ (Centre d'innovation sur le transport d'énergie du Québec), has used RT-LAB for power-system control applications.

GETS Off Highway Vehicles (OHV) have just taken delivery of a fully integrated RT-LAB Engineering Simulator that will be used to model the primary drive for a heavy-duty electrical vehicle for off-highway applications. Using high fidelity models developed by Opal-RT, the simulator models a single Induction Motor (IM) drive, supplied by parallel inverters, complete with signal conditioning for hardware-in-the-loop testing.

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation is using RT-LAB for various advanced development projects.

BHEL manufactures over 180 products under 30 major product groups and caters to core sectors of the Indian Economy viz., Power Generation & Transmission, Industry, Transportation, Telecommunication, Renewable Energy, etc. The wide network of BHEL's 14 manufacturing divisions, four Power Sector regional centres, over 100 project sites, eight service centres and 18 regional offices, enables the Company to promptly serve its customers and provide them with suitable products, systems and services -- efficiently and at competitive prices. The high level of quality & reliability of its products is due to the emphasis on design, engineering and manufacturing to international standards by acquiring and adapting some of the best technologies from leading companies in the world, together with technologies developed in its own R&D centres.

BHEL Electronics Division has placed order to procure eMEGAsim, our Real Time Digital Power Electronics Simulator for the simulation of Power Electronic Systems comprising of Traction Drives and HVDC Systems. Their contract with Opal-RT covers supply of Hardware & Software, installation, commissioning at EDN-Bangalore, training of BHEL Engineers, service during warranty of real-time design and simulation of circuits and systems in Power Electronics and Power Systems and also enable Hardware-in-loop testing.