Establishing and simulating a virtual experimental platform for a separately excited dc motor based on Simulink and Unity3D

Simulink is well-established electrical simulation software widely used in teaching. However, it is limited to providing data and cannot depict the real motion effects of actual motors. To address this problem, this paper establishes a mathematical simulation system in Simulink and a 3D virtual simulation system in Unity3D for a separately excited DC motor based on a digital twin. In view of the complexity of inter-system data transmission, a cross-platform modular data interaction method based on the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is proposed. Communication modules that can independently receive and send data are designed in different systems to ensure that the two systems interact smoothly. Through the motor simulation experiment, the virtual platform shows good real-time accuracy. The 3D virtual simulation system can input data to the Simulink motor model and receive calculation results from the model in real time. The platform loads these results into the 3D motor model to visualize the corresponding motion effects. Users can customize Simulink models to suit their specific requirements and use the data communication system to display the corresponding operating effects through the virtual 3D system. The platform utilizes the 3D model to reproduce the running state of the motor and to present the experimental results more intuitively and three-dimensionally. It overcomes the limitations of time and equipment.