Demonstrating the Generation of Bond Graphs From 3D Assemblies

The bond graph method provides a generic and simple way to compute differential equations and dynamic responses for complex mechatronic systems. This paper will illustrate the process of automatically generating bond graphs from 3D CAD assemblies of gear-trains. Using appropriate CAD application programming interfaces (APIs), information on parts and mates within an existing assembly is extracted. The extracted information is stored as an identity graph, which also stores all geometry and mass related information of every part. Grammar rules are then used to transform the identity graph to a system graph, which is then converted to bond graph using an existing bond graph generation program. The paper will discuss the process, challenges and planned future work.