Object Controller Digital Twin for Hardware-Free Rail Testing
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Solution Overview
Problem
The high research and development costs, long development period, and resource conflicts in creating object controllers for rail transport systems due to their complex hardware requirements and limited laboratory resources hinder efficient development and testing.
Innovation Solution
An object controller digital twin system is developed, comprising a system running layer, environment construction layer, test layer, and analysis layer, which simulate the object controller's operations on a host computer, allowing for hardware and software verification without physical hardware, and support multiple communication protocols.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If object controller uses customized mother board with embedded software, then control functionality and reliability are improved, but research and development costs and customization period increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a digital twin system that copies the physical object controller's hardware architecture, file system, and runtime environment into a virtualized platform. This virtual copy enables development, testing, and verification activities to proceed in parallel with hardware manufacturing, significantly reducing the customization period while maintaining control reliability through comprehensive pre-verification.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by establishing the digital twin environment before the physical hardware is ready. Developers can write, compile, and test embedded software in the virtualized environment ahead of time, and even perform fault injection testing to verify safety mechanisms before the actual controller is assembled, thereby shortening the overall customization timeline.
2Reliability
If hardware design problem is detected, then system reliability is improved, but correction time increases due to long development period
Solution Approach 1:
The digital twin system enables preliminary detection of hardware design problems through virtualized testing and fault injection before physical prototypes are built. By simulating various failure modes and testing error handling mechanisms in the virtual environment, design flaws can be identified and corrected during the design phase rather than during later testing or deployment, significantly reducing correction time.
3Reliability
If complex experimental environment is built to verify application scenarios, then verification completeness is improved, but hardware resources and laboratory space increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent virtualizes the experimental environment by copying the necessary hardware interfaces, communication protocols, and external device behaviors into the digital twin system. This virtual environment can simulate multiple application scenarios simultaneously without requiring physical duplication of lab equipment, reducing hardware resource consumption while maintaining verification completeness through comprehensive scenario simulation.
Solution Approach 2:
The digital twin platform provides a universal virtualized environment that can simulate multiple different application scenarios and external devices through software configuration rather than physical hardware changes. A single digital twin infrastructure can serve multiple verification purposes, eliminating the need for separate physical test beds for each scenario and reducing overall hardware resource requirements.
4Adaptability or versatility
If multiple real environments are built for development and testing, then scenario coverage is improved, but resource conflict increases due to limited laboratory space
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates virtual copies of multiple deployment environments within the digital twin platform, allowing developers to test the same software across different simulated configurations simultaneously. This eliminates the need for multiple physical lab environments and enables parallel development activities without resource conflicts, improving both scenario coverage and development efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
An object controller digital twin system includes a system running layer, an environment construction layer, a test layer and an analysis layer. The system running layer is used for simulating a running state of the digital twin object controller; the environment construction layer is used for implementing the construction of a system running environment; the test layer is used for transferring a test instruction to the system running layer so as to perform a simulation test in the system running layer; and the analysis layer receives test returned data transferred by the test layer, and performs fault cause analysis and recording on fault-related data in the test returned data. By simulating the running state of the object controller on a host computer, the object controller digital twin system enables embedded development work to no longer rely on customized hardware.