Ensuring both electrical performance and effective thermal management in large-scale battery packs is a critical challenge for next-generation electric mobility and energy storage systems. Current modeling approaches often rely on rigid configurations or computationally expensive CFD simulations, limiting their use in early design stages. This work introduces a modular, compositional framework that enables the dynamic construction of battery packs of arbitrary size, where each cell is modeled individually with coupled electrical and thermal dynamics. The framework integrates a configurable liquid cooling system supporting multiple layouts and coolant types, allowing rapid evaluation of thermal management strategies under diverse operating conditions. By combining scalability, flexibility, and high computational efficiency, the proposed approach accelerates design iterations, reduces prototyping costs, and supports the development of safer and more reliable battery systems for real-world applications.

Batteries are a central component of many complex systems, including mobile devices, sensors, electric vehicles, etc. Keeping the battery working in normal conditions avoids dangerous hazards for the user or the system itself and helps extend the device’s life. The battery temperature is one of the most delicate aspects of these devices since some dangerous scenarios, like thermal runaway, could occur due to variable conditions. This paper uses a battery model of an electric vehicle from the automotive area as a case study to simulate the thermal response to normal usage. Then, thermal fault scenarios are modeled within equivalent circuital device descriptions and analyzed regarding state-of-charge, temperature, and voltage output. The findings presented offer a valuable starting point for improving the design phase of the batteries in multiple fields by testing fault scenarios already during simulation.

Industrial control systems need to be highly reliable and precise at all times to ensure operational efficiency and prevent costly downtime. Early fault detection is crucial and is partially realized by runtime monitoring components. A correct-by-construction approach based on contract specifications allows early intervention in case of potential faults. In this paper, we suggest to combine the time-sensitive behavioral contracts with a multi-domain system model specifically designed for fault injection to improve the model as well as the contract specification at design time. This allows for early detection of potential faults and a more reliable system specification based on the analyzed behavior. We successfully realized a co-simulation environment comprising a fault-injection tool and contract-based monitors. We discussed the proposed approach using the example of a DC motor highlighting the benefits and potential enhancements of this systematic methodology.

Creating a virtual model of a real system brings several advantages before its effective fabrication, especially in the design phases. Simulating a system is helpful for determining whether and what improvements need to be brought to the prototype or for testing changes given by the presence of faults. In this context exploiting the features of a gaming engine created mainly for video game purposes for simulating physical prototypes could reveal new research perspectives. Advanced rendering capabilities, physical simulation, and accuracy in describing different materials obtainable make this environment very attractive even beyond the gaming world. Another key feature that can be obtained with these simulators is the combination of accurately modeled physical properties and graphical rendering of physical behaviors. Together, they generate a visualization that is physically accurate and graphically realistic. For this reason, this article examines the development of behavioral models inside the Unreal Engine gaming environment, mainly based on the C++ language. The models created will be used for design analysis, performance monitoring, and improvement research. The model chosen as a case study is a digital twin of a DC Motor simulated in normal operating conditions and in the presence of faults.

Under the pressure of the Industry 4.0 revolution, and now with the European Chips Act, smart systems are becoming omnipresent in all industrial sectors, e.g., automotive and aerospace. Such systems contain digital and analog components belonging to several physical domains, e.g., electrical and mechanical. To ensure robustness, the whole system must be validated as early as possible in the development cycle, by taking into account all such domains, as recommended by the ISO 26262 standard in the case, e.g., of automotive systems. Unfortunately, validation techniques, including fault injection and simulation are not as advanced on the analog side as the digital counterpart: i) they are not fully standardized ii) they are highly domain-dependent, and iii) they are performed separately from the digital flow. This article proposes to improve the design of smart systems by generating faulty scenarios through analog fault injection across several physical domains. By exploiting these faulty scenarios, it is possible to improve the robustness of the analog part and, at the same time, to improve the quality of the digital part that controls the system functionality. A multi-domain case study containing a microcontroller and a three-axis accelerometer is presented to demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach in many industrial contexts.

The safety of aircraft heavily depends on the in-tegrity of the Landing Gear System (LGS). However, gathering real-world fault data to support effective Prognostic and Health Management (PHM) practices presents significant challenges. This work proposes a novel methodology for generating synthetic fault data using a multi-physics Simscape model of a landing gear deployment/retraction mechanism. The model incorporates specialized fault blocks designed to replicate various hydraulic failure modes, aiming to broaden the pool of fault data covering the most common failures. This approach promises to enhance maintenance strategies and facilitate the development of hybrid Model-Based and Data-Driven solutions. Ultimately, the results of this study will be used to understand the physics within the landing gear better and gather the necessary data to create an effective Digital Twin for predictive maintenance.

Smart systems contain digital and analog components of several physical domains, e.g., electrical and mechanical During the design phase, the fault injection, which checks the system functionality following the guidelines of ISO standard 26262, enhances the system’s robustness. Unfortunately, fault injection and simulation on the analog side are i) not fully standardized compared to their digital counterparts, ii) highly domain-dependent, and iii) performed separately from the digital. This article proposes to improve the design of smart systems by generating faulty scenarios through analog fault injection across several physical domains. By exploiting these faulty scenarios it is possible to improve the robustness of the analog part and simultaneously improve the quality of the digital part that controls the system functionality.

Over the last decade, the industrial world has been involved in a massive revolution guided by the adoption of digital technologies. In this context, complex systems like cyber-physical systems play a fundamental role since they were designed and realized by composing heterogeneous components. The combined simulation of the behavioral models of these components allows to reproduce the nominal behavior of the real system. Similarly, a smart system is a device that integrates heterogeneous components but in a miniaturized form factor. The development of smart or cyber-physical systems, in combination with faulty behaviors modeled for the different physical domains composing the system, enables to support advanced functional safety assessment at the system level. A methodology to create and inject multi-domain fault models in the analog side of these systems has been proposed by exploiting the physical analogy between the electrical and mechanical domains to infer a new mechanical fault taxonomy. Thus, standard electrical fault models are injected into the electrical part, while the derived mechanical fault models are injected directly into the mechanical part. The entire flow has been applied to two case studies: a direct current motor connected with a gear train, and a three-axis accelerometer.

In this paper, we present the project “VIR2EM: VIrtualization and Remotization for Resilient and Efficient Manufacturing” by providing details on its research themes and its scientific and technological output. The project, centered on virtualization and remotization in the industrial sector, was promoted by Regione Veneto in Italy, and it has seen the participation and collaboration of 3 universities, 1 public research entity, and 10 companies composed of end users of digital solutions and high knowledge-intensive service providers. The project aims to develop and use tools for the virtualization of processes, systems, resources, and remoting of operations in order to: (1) maximize the efficiency of manufacturing systems under normal operating conditions; (2) maintain operations in case of emergency situations; (3) facilitate the restart of operations downstream of emergency situations by ensuring flexibility and predictive capability. Each theoretical proposal has been validated in distinct industrial facilities by constructing ten different prototypes.

Constructing a holistic digital twin of a system composed of multiple physical domains is crucial for various tasks. In particular, when the simulation is extended with faults, it becomes a very important resource to achieve robust functional safety analysis. This article proposes a new methodology to build non-electrical fault models for the thermal domain. Such thermal faults are defined through an electrical circuit representing the thermal behavior of the system, known as the Cauer network, based on the physical analogies between the two domains. Including this thermal representation in a multi-domain system allows to simulate the interconnections between different physical domains, thus achieving a more realistic system behavior and evaluating the mutual impact of different domains (e.g., mechanical, electrical and thermal). The entire methodology is applied to a complex case of study implemented by using Verilog-AMS as a proof of concept.

There are several languages for modeling a Cyber-Physical System (CPS). One of them is Verilog-AMS, which allows representing a system belonging to the electrical and mechanical physical domains in a single model through different disciplines. A framework for the automatic fault injection in the electrical and mechanical domains is proposed in this context. In particular, starting from a mechanical system, it is possible to represent it as an electrical circuit by exploiting the physical analogies. In the electrical domain, fault modeling and injection techniques are more advanced than in other physical domains. Extending the analogies to fault models makes it possible to apply the electrical fault models in the equivalent circuit to the mechanical system. These yields mechanical-level faulty behaviors, which can be injected into the mechanical domain, resulting in mechanical (physical) faults, depending on the component. It is finally shown an example of execution of this flow through a model of an electric motor, in which mechanical faults are injected. Simultaneously, the equivalent electrical faults are injected into the equivalent electrical circuit.