In the design of software components that should represent physical hardware components, it is important to create software components that can be connected to each other in a way, resembling the assembly of hardware components in a laboratory setting. The methodology of object-oriented modeling of physical systems was developed for this purpose [1].
Of course it is impossible for a software component to represent a physical hardware component in all of its facets. Restrictions in its usability are not only necessary, but even desirable, in order to keep the computing efforts associated with simulating the software component within limits.
Bond graphs are particularly well suited for the object-oriented modeling of flexible physical system components, as the interfaces of bond graphs toward the outside are always power flows that can be coupled to each other easily and safely without causing unwanted side effects.
The aim of this project was to demonstrate, how bond graph models of physical components can be hierarchically coupled for the purpose of constructing models of complex physical systems that hitherto had been described by poorly structured and badly maintainable software systems [2]. As an example, a gyroscopically stabilized platform was chosen, as it is used for instance in the seeker system of a smart missile [3,4].