Alternative Software Platforms for the Concurrent Engineering Lab at TU Darmstadt, a Concurrent Engineering Facility for Multidisciplinary Applications

<p>Within the framework of the cooperation agreement “Memorandum of Collaboration” between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Technical University of Darmstadt (TUDa) the "ESALab@TU Darmstadt" initiative was established where concurrent engineering has been one of the key topics and led to the build-up of the Concurrent Engineering Lab (CELab) at TU Darmstadt, focusing on conceptual design of complex technical systems.<br> This paper presents the result of a comparative assessment of alternative software platforms for the specific requirements of the CELab. It describes the findings of the research as well as the analysis and selection of the software platforms. The most optimal solution resulting from the evaluation was implemented in the CELab in order to validate the software platform based on a pilot use case. The results of this validation and optimisation approaches to the software platform are discussed as well.</p&gt