Waterloo, Canada, 14 September 2011: Maplesoft™ today announced the MapleSim™ Driveline Component Library is a collection of components for driveline modeling applications. Built with the involvement of several transmission manufacturers, this MapleSim add-on covers all stages in the powertrain, from the engine to the differential, wheels, and road loads, as well as vehicle dynamics.

New component libraries and enhanced modeling environment reduce development time for more applications

Record-breaking solvers for differential equations one of many new advances in Maple 15

B&R and Maplesoft announced a partnership that will bring together products from both companies to save time, effort and cost for hardware-in-the-loop simulations.

A project using MapleSim physical modelling software, at the University of Manchester, is helping to perfect the process of humanoid walking in robots. One of the challenges facing the Manchester team, lead by Dr Martin Brown and Dr Gustavo Medrano-Cerda, is visualising experiments quickly and effectively, to avoid slowing down the process and to ensure that experimentation is valid and relevant.

The Automation, Robotics and Mechatronics (ARM) Lab (http://mechatronics.eng.buffalo.edu) is a research laboratory in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at the School of Engineering & Applied Sciences in The State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo. The lab combines an in-depth understanding of mathematical theory with experimental validation to develop a new generation of smart mechanical and mechatronic systems. Their work includes projects in haptic devices for surgical simulations, musculoskeletal simulation to refine human-machine interactions, cooperative payload transport by robot collectives, and omnidirectional wheeled robots. Several of their research projects have directly resulted in the creation of commercially available devices that are then used by labs around the world for education and further research.

New version of Maplesoft’s testing and assessment tool provides greater insight into student performance

Following the completion of the DeltaBot, a robot based on an innovative cable-actuated delta-style design, Dr. Khajepour received a surprising number of requests from industry for its use. Based on this commercial demand Dr. Khajepour established AEMK Systems (www.AEMKSystems.com), a company specializing in the design and distribution of high-speed, cable and vision-based robotics systems for use in a variety of industrial applications. The DeltaBot is capable of over 120 pick-and-place cycles per minute and handling up to 20 kg.

In recent years, the demand for hybrid-electric and fully electric vehicles has increased enormously. The development of such vehicles is a significantly more complex task than designing conventional cars because they incorporate many different engineering domains into a single system. At the same time, competitive pressures are forcing auto manufacturers to come up with new designs faster than ever before. The industry is turning to math-based physical modeling techniques which allow engineers to accurately describe the behavior of the components that comprise the system and the physical constraints on the system. These model equations are then used to develop, test, and refine designs very quickly, and without the expense and time required to build physical prototypes.