Modern CAD/CAE allows supporting the process of design and construction at many stages, from concept development through specific engineering calculations to the creation of design documentation. In the case of constructing mechanisms, the kinematic and dynamic analysis of the proposed system is an important step in the introduced process. The paper presents an example of the kinematic and dynamic analysis of the Stewart platform using Siemens NX software [1, 2]. The conducted investigation has allowed determining the geometric characteristics of the mechanism of the Stewart platform as well as the geometric parameters of actuators and their location. A dynamic analysis of the platform helped with establishing the required motor forces for realizing the moves with the maximum speed and acceleration. This allowed the initial selection of the parameters of electric motors. Traffic analysis was also performed for investigating collisions between the parts of the hexapod and between the hexapod and its environment.

The study outlines the geometric analysis of motions executed by the Stewart platform and operated in the environment of a simulator for driving learning to be used by disabled people. The analysis was carried out on the basis of results obtained from the resolved kinematic problem for the inversed platform.

The paper presents the implementations of the control algorithm of a virtual system (Stewart platform) in the CAD/CAE system (Siemens NX) and in the NI LabVIEW supervisory and control system. The combination of both systems enables the virtual simulation and presentation of the results in relation to the chosen in the work virtual model of the Stewart platform. The virtual model of the Stewart platform with the imposed constraints and mobility limitations was built in the Siemens NX CAD/CAE system. Each of the modeled elements is based on the real components of the car simulator prepared for the persons with mobility impairments. The chosen model of a Stewart platform is a system with six degrees of freedom that is often used to build various types of simulators (e.g. flight, car). Using the NI LabVIEW software, a mathematical model of the Stewart platform was built and inverse kinematics task was implemented in relation to the model of the platform. The created mathematical model that describes the behavior of the Stewart platform was used to determine the inputs to the control system of platform actuators.

This work presents ideas for a passenger car driving simulator for teaching the disabled. The functional structure, design assumptions, and the concept and operation of the proposed simulator are presented.

The paper presents the method of describing the conception of a future technical mean basing on the method of functional features. In order to determine the attributes which should characterize the functional features for the description of the conception of a technical mean it has been analyzed the different stages of the design-constructional-manufacturing process. Basing on the review of literature it was supposed the structure of the design-constructional-manufacturing process which includes the following stages: the need determination, designing, constructing, manufacturing and exploitation. In the process of designing-constructing-manufacturing one can distinguish models associated with each of its stages, and namely: the model related to designing (a conception), the model related to constructing (a construction), the model related to planning, the model related to manufacturing. The most important from mentioned models, in the terms of description of the conception of a technical mean, is the model related to the designing sub-process. It was assumed that the model related to the designing sub-process should include such information as: the structure of the system of a future technical mean (system of conjugations and transformations relationships), the design solutions of components of a technical system associated with the transformations relations, the design solutions of connections between components of s technical system mapping the established conjugations relationships between elements.