hilsim 0.1.2

A Hardware-in-the-Loop / Software-in-the-Loop simulation framework

hilsim

A Python package for rapid hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) and software-in-the-loop (SITL) simulation, designed for software/hardware prototyping, testing, and development.

Installation

pip install hilsim

Quick Start

See the examples folder for a host of configuration files, sensors, and actuators. hilsim has two commands to aid the developer:

• hilsim create <project_name>: This automatically generates the project scaffolding in the current directory under <project_name>
• hilsim run: This runs the project (i.e. builds all of the devices and runs the main function). It must be ran from the root directory of the project.

How It Works

hilsim generates a project structure where the developer has four main tasks:

1. fill out configuration files
2. Writes basic drivers for sensors based on a template.
3. Describe the physics/behavior of actuators (anything that changes the state of the world), also based on a template.
4. Write the main logic.

A simple run command then simulates the entire system. Switching the "sim" keyword for either a sensor, device, or actuator allows the user to rapidly switch between simulating a component and deploying the actual hardware. No need to worry about any middleware or fatal exceptions in the background.

Features

• Data recording.
• User defined event driven log file management with a built-in detailed message logging system.
• Standardized serial protocol with built-in recovery.
• High-level i2c bus interactions with built-in recovery.
• Simulate latency between the host and peripheral device communication and actual hardware deployment.
• Simulate sensor errors/failures.
• Simulate noise and drift in sensors.
• Simulate host-peripheral device communication failures.
• Simulate hardware failures.
• Background dynamics simulation. Background dynamics run on a high-speed background thread (on the ms level) which sensors may routinely pull from, mirroring the continuous nature of system dynamics and separating them from the discrete nature of sensor reads.

Current Limitations

Currently, the "supported" i2c_bus wraps the board and busio libraries, allowing hilsim to accommodate a wide range of readily-available/cheap sensors from manufacturers like Adafruit. A future release will include support for the smbus library, allowing the the use of custom sensors / i2c devices at a lower level.

Roadmap

• Add detailed examples and walkthroughs.
• Support for the smbus library.
• Rapid power cycling / software cycling integration. The current release flags errors that the developer can accommodate in main, but does not have the capability to rapidly integrate software cycling or power cycling.
• SPI support
• Virtual serial ports with socat, ideal for testing microcontroller code alongside the host.