{"id":4041,"date":"2014-08-11T13:51:26","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T18:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/seth\/?p=4041"},"modified":"2016-02-18T10:59:12","modified_gmt":"2016-02-18T15:59:12","slug":"the-hyperloop-journey-year-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/2014\/08\/11\/the-hyperloop-journey-year-1\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hyperloop Journey &#8211; Year 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In honor of the first anniversary of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.teslamotors.com\/blog\/hyperloop\">Elon Musk's announcement<\/a>, this week, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mathworks.com\/matlabcentral\/fileexchange\/authors\/399849\">Matt Brauer<\/a> takes a look back at the evolution of our discussions on the Hyperloop transportation concept. To keep it interesting, we\u2019re offering a dynamic vision of a Hyperloop trip from Southern California to the Bay Area.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><strong>A Look into the Future?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>We\u2019ve been publically developing a Simulink model of the Hyperloop for some time now. We recently looked into using MATLAB interfaces to visualize that journey in GoogleEarth.  To create a virtual cockpit, we constructed a MATLAB figure combining GoogleEarth windows and several other native graphics capabilities. We think the resulting <a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/n1csKKXuBrU\">video<\/a> is pretty cool.<\/p>\r\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n1csKKXuBrU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br><a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/n1csKKXuBrU\">http:\/\/youtu.be\/n1csKKXuBrU<\/a><\/p>\r\n \r\n<p>To understand how we arrived at this vision of the future, here\u2019s a look back at our past Hyperloop posts.<p>\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Getting Started<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>We started out with a <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/seth\/2013\/10\/30\/dont-engineer-hyperloop-in-a-vaccuum\/\">conversational post<\/a> about Elon Musk\u2019s concept and outlining some of the interesting technical points. This post was criticized for not brining any value to the discussion. I guess we were simulating trolling.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>To get things moving, we <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/seth\/2013\/11\/07\/hyperloop-model-architecture-we-want-your-feedback\/\">introduced different approaches to architecting a simulation model<\/a> for such a system. Guy suggested splitting the model into a plant (physical elements) and a controller (functional software) as in conventional model-based design. I proposed a more distributed architecture with several functional components, each containing its own plant and controller (image below). Guy\u2019s proposal included subsystem variants while mine leveraged model reference.<\/p>\r\n \r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/images\/seth\/2013Q3\/systemArchitecture_full.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/images\/seth\/2013Q3\/systemArchitecture.png\" alt=\"Top Level of Hyperloop model\"><br><em>click to enlarge<\/em><\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Initial dynamic analysis<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Last November, we published a <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/seth\/2013\/11\/22\/hyperloop-not-so-fast\/\">two-dimensional analysis of the Hyperloop\u2019s proposed route<\/a>. We used the original proposal\u2019s design constraints for curve radius to see how the track could be laid out over the California terrain.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The results highlighted the difficulties in maintaining tolerable g-levels for passengers while traveling at such high speeds along existing infrastructure. However, the analysis did not include several important factors; elevation and banking. Elevation promised to make route planning more difficult, while the effects of banking the vehicle in the tube would help reduce the g-forces and potentially improve the route.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/images\/seth\/2014Q3\/238-880exchange.png\" alt=\"The I238 and I880 Interchange with anticipated Hyperloop route\"><br\/><em>Anticipated hyperloop route (yellow) to avoid excessive g-forces (Image created using <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/earth\/\">Google Earth<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Promoting Collaboration<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>For Valentine\u2019s Day, we used <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/seth\/2014\/02\/12\/everyone-loves-a-package-especially-a-hyperloop-simulation\/\">Simulink Projects to package<\/a> a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mathworks.com\/matlabcentral\/fileexchange\/44878-hyperloop-model--systems-architecture-\">Simulink model on the MATLAB File Exchange<\/a> that contained elements of each of our architectural approaches. My partitioning remained but now utilized Guy\u2019s idea of using subsystem variants.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>In April, R2014a was released with Simulink Projects supporting Git as a version control system. So, we quickly jumped on the bandwagon and placed an <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/mabrauer\/hyperloop_sl\">updated Hyperloop model on GitHub<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Improved dynamics<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>In May, we <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/seth\/2014\/05\/07\/optimizing-the-hyperloop-trajectory\/\">investigated the elevation profile of the route<\/a>. We used optimization techniques to find the best combination of pillars and tunnels to meet cost and comfort demands.  There were some great improvement suggestions in the comments of this post that we\u2019ve yet to implement.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Last month, we enhanced the model to include the effects of banking within the tube. We blogged about a <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/seth\/2014\/06\/10\/banking-on-the-hyperloop\/\">simple approach in SimMechanics<\/a> to model those dynamics.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/images\/seth\/2014Q2\/PendularMotionSimMechanics_color.png\" alt=\"Hyperloop Banking Model in SimMechanics\"><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Roll your own!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>In keeping with our collaborative mindset, the necessary models and m-scripts to generate this video are now available on the <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/mabrauer\/hyperloop_sl\">GitHub submission<\/a>. <\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The project has even been set up to support new routes. Load your own KML file and see how the Hyperloop looks in your neighborhood.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"overview-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/files\/feature_image\/hyperloopJourney.png\" class=\"img-responsive attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/div><p>In honor of the first anniversary of Elon Musk's announcement, this week, Matt Brauer takes a look back at the evolution of our discussions on the Hyperloop transportation concept. To keep it... <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/2014\/08\/11\/the-hyperloop-journey-year-1\/\">read more >><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":4057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34,71,65,24],"tags":[348],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4041"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4041"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5113,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4041\/revisions\/5113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}