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.

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

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.

Models with discrete events can run over 100 times faster in MapleSim 4.5. The latest release includes enhanced support for Modelica^®, an open standard for describing physical models and components that forms the basis of many components in MapleSim. With MapleSim 4.5, engineers can now access new collections of components using the Modelica import feature, seamlessly including third-party Modelica libraries and their own custom Modelica components in their MapleSim models.

Maple 14 Grid Computing Toolbox offers built-in integration with Windows^® HPC Server 2008 R2 and enables distributed computing using Maple, the primary tool for engineers to solve complex mathematical problems and create rich technical documents.