Fast multi-core co-simulation of Cyber-Physical Systems: Application to internal combustion engines

• Published in: Simulation modelling practice and theory Vol. 47; no. September; pp. 79 - 91
• Main Authors: Ben Khaled, Abir, Ben Gaid, Mongi, Pernet, Nicolas, Simon, Daniel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.09.2014; Elsevier
• Subjects: Computer Science; Cyber-Physical System; Distributed simulation; Engineering Sciences; Hybrid dynamical system; Model decomposition; Modeling and Simulation; Multi-core scheduling; Numerical integration; Other; Cyber-Physical System; Numerical integration; Multi-core scheduling; Distributed simulation; Hybrid dynamical system; Model decomposition
• ISSN: 1569-190X; 1878-1462
• DOI: 10.1016/j.simpat.2014.05.002

•Model partitioning allows for decoupling, parallelization and fast co-simulation.•A scheduling algorithm reduces simulation errors of parallelization.•Significant speed-up while keeping numerical integration accuracy under control.•Parallel solution of Cyber-Physical Systems relying on FMI specification. The design process of complex Cyber-Physical Systems often relies on co-simulations of the system, involving the interaction of several simulated models of sub-systems. However, reaching real-time simulations is currently prevented by prohibitive CPU times using the single-threaded existing simulation tools. This paper investigates the problem of the efficient parallel co-simulation of hybrid dynamical systems. It introduces a finely-grained co-simulation method enabling numerical integration speed-ups. It is obtained using a partition across the model into loosely coupled sub-systems with sparse communication between modules. The proposed scheme leads to schedule a large number of operations with a wide range of execution times. A suitable off-line scheduling algorithm, based on the input/output dynamics of the models, is proposed to minimize the simulation errors induced by the parallel execution. This scheme is finally tested using the phenomenological model of a combustion engine issued from the Functional Mockup Interface framework. Compared with the sequential case, it shows significant speed-ups while keeping the numerical integration accuracy under control.