Title: Chrono::Vehicle: template-based ground vehicle modelling and simulation

Authors: Radu Serban; Michael Taylor; Dan Negrut; Alessandro Tasora

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA ' Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Parma, 43100, Parma, Italy

Abstract: Chrono::Vehicle is a module of the open-source multi-physics simulation package Chrono, aimed at modelling, simulation, and visualisation of wheeled and tracked ground vehicle multi-body systems. Its software architecture and design was dictated by the desire to provide an expeditious and user friendly mechanism for assembling complex vehicle models, while leveraging the underlying Chrono modelling and simulation capabilities, allowing seamless interfacing to other optional Chrono modules (e.g., its granular dynamics and fluid-solid interaction (FSI) capabilities), and providing a modular and expressive API to facilitate its use in third-party applications. Vehicle models are specified as a hierarchy of subsystems, each of which is an instantiation of a predefined subsystem template. Written in C++, Chrono::Vehicle is offered as a middleware library. In this paper, we provide an overview of the Chrono::Vehicle software design philosophy, its main capabilities and features, describe the types of ground vehicle mobility simulations it enables, and outline several directions of future development and planned extensions.

Keywords: Chrono; vehicle modelling; template-based design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVP.2019.097096

International Journal of Vehicle Performance, 2019 Vol.5 No.1, pp.18 - 39

Received: 08 Aug 2017
Accepted: 19 Oct 2017
Published online: 19 Dec 2018 *

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