Presentation of Simulation Centers

Simulation in Magdeburg

Simulation News Europe 1997

Organizations

Simulation in Magdeburg - this is not a private subject of a single institute or department. Simulation is the subject of scientific and tool for practical work at least in

the Institut für Simulation und Graphik (ISG) at the Universität Magdeburg
the Institut für Fördertechnik, Stahlbau und Logistik (IFSL) at the Universität Magdeburg,
the Fraunhofer Institut für Fabrikbetrieb und Automatisierung (IFF) Magdeburg and
the Institut für Automation und Kommunikation (IFAK) Magdeburg/Barleben.

Simulation History

Simulation in Magdeburg has a historical background which goes back to the 60ies. The first analogue computer was installed in the late 60ies and used for continuous modeling and simulation (R. Hohmann). An electro-mechanical simulator for material flow systems was installed in the early 70ies (D. Ziems) and the first lecture on discrete event simulation using was held at that time, too (P. Lorenz).
Simulation tools and applications have been subject of diploma theses since the 70ies and of Ph.D. theses since the 80ies. Subject of research and development have been a FORTRAN based GPSS simulator SIMFOR (R. Knocke), and a continuous system simulator SIM-SKR (R.Hohmann) for minicomputers, a Pascal based simulator SIMPC for PCs (Th. Schulze), simulation of DBMS (A. Winkler and V. Toleva), interaction with simulators (F. Preuss), decision table techniques for modeling control strategies (H. Herper), real time applications (R. Koeppe) and simulation environments (V. Hinz).
A Students' Simulation Lab founded in 1985 has been involved in a series of practical simulation and animation projects and services, most of them in manufacturing and warehouse systems simulation.

In 1990 the Institut für Simulation und Graphik on the Fakultät für Informatik was established, which is indication of a strong interest in all fields of combining simulation, computer graphics and image processing.

In 1992 the Fraunhofer IFF was founded. Its Department for Planning and Logistics uses simulation and VR methods for optimization of production and service processes (E. Blümel).

Teaching Simulation

Since 1990, the ISG offers a special curriculum "Simulation and Graphics" for Computer Science students, which includes five courses in simulation and one course in animation. In the courses the students are introduced to discrete and continuous simulation and simulators, mathematical and methodical foundations of simulation, simulator architecture and construction and to simulator applications.

Research Projects and Fields of Interest

Opening up new application areas (e.g. traffic, manufacturing, emergency handling, and safety systems) for multi-purpose microscopic process models and for HLA based federations,
Detailed modeling of workers in manufacturing systems,
Integration of simulation into different environments, including new instruments of data acquisition and new tools for the hardware-in-the-loop simulation,
Layout- and data-based generation of simulation and animation models,
Concepts and prototypes for Web supported teaching and studying simulation and animation,
Design, implementation and evaluation of simulator and animator prototypes,
Tools and methods for parallel simulation,
Comparison of simulator speeds and efficiency,
Simulation and visualization services based on all kinds of tools.

Simulation Conferences

Every year in March the ISG, IFSL and IFF organize an ASIM and SCS supported conference on simulation and graphics related topics.

Simulation and Animation in the W3

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