SCIENCE

NATICK, MA -- The MathWorks, Inc., a leading supplier of technical computing software for engineers and scientists, announced the availability of Virtual Reality Toolbox 2.0. Virtual Reality Toolbox 2.0 is 3-D animation software that adds virtual reality visualization and simulation to MATLAB and Simulink. This new animated view of system simulations gives engineers an unprecedented look at their dynamic models, while helping to demonstrate complex designs to their entire team. To date, design engineers have been unable to directly manipulate animated models of complex physical systems at their desktops without a considerable investment of time and money. Virtual Reality Toolbox 2.0 provides the visualization tools customers require to better display and explain the behavior exhibited by their complete system. The Toolbox connects MATLAB and Simulink with a VRML-enabled browser that lets users display a virtual 3-D representation of the modeled system. Since the rendering is done by a browser, engineers can view and interact with simulated virtual worlds on remote computers running MATLAB and Simulink, enabling true global access. To provide a complete working environment, Virtual Reality Toolbox 2.0 includes a VRML plug-in for Web browsers and a VRML authoring tool for creating and customizing virtual reality worlds. "Based on the combined capabilities of MATLAB and Simulink, the Virtual Reality Toolbox is a natural extension of this technical computing environment," said Valerie Lyons, Simulation & Modeling Manager at The MathWorks. "Virtual Reality Toolbox 2.0 enables users to create and run sophisticated, interactive 3-D animations quickly and efficiently. The built-in VRML editor makes it easy to create new scenes or quickly link existing VRML scenes to a Simulink model." Josef Rupprecht, development engineer, Corporate Research and Development Chassis Systems at Robert Bosch GmbH in Germany is one of the earliest users of Virtual Reality Toolbox. "We work with Virtual Reality Toolbox because of its open philosophy and easy to use interface. Connecting MATLAB and Simulink with VRML allows us to get a realistic animation in a short time," said Rupprecht. "We develop control algorithms for vehicle dynamics control with MATLAB and Simulink. To do this, we use a car model built in a Multi Body System program and afterwards the symbolic-code of the model is included in a Simulink s-function. An animation of the simulation results using Virtual Reality Toolbox is necessary to get a complete understanding of the car behavior." Virtual Reality Toolbox 2.0 is available immediately and runs on Windows operating systems. North American commercial pricing for this toolbox starts at US $1,000 for a single-user PC license. This product has EDU pricing, which students can purchase in conjunction with their university. For more information visit www.mathworks.com