DshellCommon software has been developed for specifying and executing generic multibody system simulations. This innovation helps the user create and execute simulations for mechanisms, vehicles, spacecraft, or other systems by making it easier to write simulation “run scripts” for systems that vary from simple (a few lines) to very complex (many lines that spell out each part of the system in detail). DshellCommon is a layer of software over the original Darts/Dshell multibody dynamics and modeling software. Darts is the multibody simulation code (implemented as Darts, Darts++, and Ndarts), and Dshell is the framework that supports models of various types (such as wheel actuators, lighting, etc.) that interact with the multibody system. Dshell also manages numerical integration and simulation of the full multibody systems, along with all included Dshell models. DshellCommon provides software classes and utilities that simplify the creation of basic or complex system simulations along with necessary environments such as terrain, atmosphere, etc. For more information, please check the following website: http://dartslab.jpl.nasa.gov/ 

This work was done by Jonathan M. Cameron, Calvin Kuo, Steven Myint, J. Balaram, and Abhinandan Jain of Caltech; Scott M. Nemeth and Ronald R. Frye of United Space Alliance, LLC; Daniel Ramirez of Lockheed Martin Co.; and Carl Merry of Sierra Nevada Co. for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

This software is available for commercial licensing. Please contact Dan Broderick at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Refer to NPO-48916.