SIMULTUS for education
Flexible approach to learning and remote work.
Simultus aims to facilitate the learning process of programming control systems and modeling of mechatronic systems. Working with our program is very similar to working with a real device. The possibility of building practically any model of an educational workstation, and assigning students with individual tasks which they can perform on their computers even at home, means that the teaching process can be very flexibly adapted to the stage of education and the students’ advancement level, as well as the profile of the school or university. Simultus allows you to learn how to program devices that cannot be installed in a workshop due to their size, price or health and safety regulations. The use of our software means you can have – virtually - any number of educational workstations in your laboratory.
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v2More effective classes.
3D visualization of the device and the ability to immediately check the effect of your work makes the teaching process much more effective and interesting. This approach also inspires students to experiment, which - in the case of standard workstations - is usually impossible due to the possibility of damaging them.
While learning to program on real objects, the program built by students must be thoroughly checked by the teacher. This takes up a large portion of the time spent in the lab. In Simlutus’ case, students don’t have to ask the teacher to check if the control system built by them is correct. They can just run the program and test it themselves. This allows students and teachers to spend more time testing different concepts. Work can also be performed remotely. Classes may consist of starting the control system on a simulation model, and then transferring it to a real workstation.
From the simplest to the most complex mechatronic systems.
Due to its nature, Simultus can be used at many stages of education. Ready models of educational workstations (which can be downloaded from our website - link below) can be used for the initial learning of PLC programming. In such cases, students can start the simulation mode of the workstation model without interfering with the construction of the model itself. The students’ task is to focus on the utility program and programming the PLC itself. The program of the controller, as well as the degree of complexity of the workstation (the number of digital inputs / outputs / signals), can be adapted to the level of advancement of the students’ education.
Download free, ready-to-use learning workstations.
How to launch a ready-made educational workstation? watch video (8:05 min.)
Simultus for education - watch the WEBINAR video from 16.07.2020
Demonstration of a simple education workstation operation - watch video
At the next stage of learning, students can modify the already existing workstations, or create new ones invented completely by themselves. Systems modeling is also taught at this stage. There’s almost no limit to the degree of their complexity - from the simplest sequential systems to complex multi-axis control systems, including industrial arm and mobile robots with simple and inverse kinematics tasks. Ready 3D models are available on manufacturers' websites, via generators, or can be created using many CAD programs (also free ones like FreeCAD). We have gathered several sources of 3D models in the [3D CAD drawings] section.
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v2Developing your imagination.
Simultus allows you to import any 3D models of devices created in CAD programs. Several hundred function blocks with logical and mathematical operations, counters, timers, and many other functions, allow you to build a model of virtually any device. This allows students to use Simultus to try out many of their ideas. The database of elements that can be used in the model is not limited to a definitive number of ready-made parts. The ability to connect Simultus with a gamepad further increases the functionality of the program.
Learning on programs used in the industry.
It is very important that Simultus and the PLC tool program are the same tools that students will be able to use in their professional work in the future.
Learning to teamwork.
Simultus can be useful in educating specialists in many fields - not only automation engineers can use it. Simultus is useful in education in accordance with the idea of mechatronic design, in which not only the devices, but also the methodology of project management is important. The project team can be divided into specialists in various fields, such as constructors, programmers, and automation specialists. Tasks can be distributed among members of a team that aims to build a single device. This approach forces students to plan tasks, coordinate individual stages, organize information exchange and learn the ability to cooperate as a team.
Thesis in virtual reality.
Very often, diploma theses end at the device design stage. With using Simultus, you can go a step further and make the device in virtual reality, trying out most of the design concepts and eliminating the errors that most often appear in engineering practice at this stage.
Demonstration of industrial equipment operation.
Films showing the operation of various devices are very often used during classes. Such multimedia presentations can be extended with a demonstration of devices operation in Simultus’ virtual reality.
Dynamical systems modeling
The advantage of using Simultus in modeling dynamical systems is the possibility of visualizing these systems behavior. Thanks to this, students not only operate on numerical values and graphs, but also see how the modeled object behaves in real time. (read more about modeling dynamical systems)
We invite you to familiarize yourself with Simultus course in the form of videos (link)
For educational purposes, we prepared two versions of Simultus:
Simultus EDU:
Free version available. Allows you to create simple simulation models, very useful at the initial stage of learning programming and modeling.
Simultus EDU Plus:
Version with extended capabilities that allows for simulations of more complex control systems.