[Imager Theses and Major Essays] [Imager] [UBC Computer Science]


Imager

Robert J. Walker

Integrating Simulation and Animation Software through a Generic Computational Engine


Degree:  M.Sc.
Type:  thesis
Year:  1996
Supervisor: David R. Forsey
Electronic:  [PDF], 493009 bytes
Hardcopy: 136 pages

Abstract

There continue to be a proliferation of simulation/animation software packages. These packages typically are not designed to communicate in a general fashion with others, or if they do, often require tight restrictions on the conceptual designs of their partners typically in terms of temporal management. Attempting to combine and coordinate such disparate packages leads to the requirement of a system for the manipulation, configuration, and synchronization of communication between them. The form of such a communication system is naturally described in terms of a graph; thus, the need for a means to utilize some sort of graph or network as a computational engine arises. A particular formulation of coloured Petri nets (CPNs) is seen to be an effective vehicle to this end; in addition, a system built out of CPNs has the ability to be directly analyzed, since that is what CPNs were originally devised for. This work demonstrates an efficient implementation method which also leads to additional, desirable features such as permitting a hierarchical construction language.

@MastersThesis{Walker1996,
	author = {Robert J. Walker, M.Sc},
	title = {Integrating Simulation and Animation Software through a Generic Computational Engine},
	school = {UBC},
	year = {1996},
	supervisor = {David R. Forsey},
}