About Multi-Sim

Multi-Sim is an engineering flight simulation with a multitude of uses. Its purpose is to provide a flexible, easy to use surrogate for a real aerospace vehicle.

The simulation operates over a network interface as an Internet server. Any program can connect to it, send the simulation commands and fly the simulated vehicle. The controlling program can reside on the same computer as the simulation or on any other computer, desktop or embedded, as long as it has a network connection and a TCP/IP stack. The network interface makes the simulation extremely versatile, since it operates as a stand-alone program and has a standardized interface. It has as many uses as there are programs written to connect to it.

Multi-Sim can model a wide variety of vehicles using user-selected data files, so you don't need to purchase a separate copy for each vehicle you'd like to simulate. Each copy comes with a collection of representative data files. Often, one of these vehicles will make a good surrogate for your vehicle. If you have aerodynamic and mass-properties data for your particular vehicle, you can create your own data file for it.

We've designed Multi-Sim to accurately reproduce the motion and dynamics of aerospace vehicles. It's also designed to simulate the dynamic auxiliary systems found on-board those vehicles, like actuator servos (both electrical or hydraulic), gimbals, landing gear and flaps. To complete the illusion of a real vehicle, Multi-Sim also models the vehicle's sensors, like IMUs, Inertial Navigation Systems, Global Positioning System receivers and air-data and altitude sensors, including their statistical errors. Often, simulating an exact suite of sensors and actuators for a particular vehicle requires a custom release. We've written the Multi-Sim code base with that in mind. Custom versions of the system that simulate your specific vehicle in detail are our specialty.

Multi-Sim is extremely fast. It commonly runs at over 1,000 times real-time; its speed is usually limited by the throughput of the network connection, rather than the processing of its math models. If you're working on multiple-aircraft problems, like simulating real airspace or controlling swarms of airplanes, you can run multiple instances of the system on a single computer.

In the very near future, we'll be offering a selection of standard releases, each supporting different scenarios (flat-Earth, round-Earth, exo-atmospheric, etc.). For now, feel free to download our free demo version. It includes free client programs that are great for teaching stability and control and aircraft flight dynamics. The client program source code is included, to give you a start on writing your own clients.

Want to know more and see some details? Get a feel for the simulation and how you can use it by downloading the Demo Version User's Manual.

Multi-Sim was created to allow you to interact with your vehicle, with ease and transparency. If you're learning about your vehicle's dynamics and behavior, it provides real-world insights on your desktop. If you're creating control systems, it brings the real-world into your lab, so that you can be certain your system will work before you fly it on a real vehicle. The result is fast, easy development and confidence in your system. That's what Multi-Sim provides.