Fact Sheet: Functional Mockup Interface (FMI)

General

Short Description/ Transmitted Information	- FMI defines an API (Application Programming Interface) and a data file format - FMI specification is freely available under a CC-BY-SA (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International) license, header file is under BSD license
Application Scope	- Describe system behaviour of physics, mechatronics, and software - Describe causal physical and signal relations
Maturity	Productive Usage
Goals	- Standardized exchange format for behaviour models - Multi-physics co-simulation - Verification-oriented
Penetration	- Internal cross-domain processes - External collaboration processes
Visibility	Approx. 80%
Promoting Bodies	VDA, prostep ivip, JSAE Japan Soc., Modelica Association
Type	Modelica Standard, prostep ivip Recommendation
IT Standard Classification	- Interoperability Standard - Integration Standard
Data Format	- Text Format (ASCII/XML) - Binary Format - Compressed (Container-Data)
Relations to other standards	SSP
Overlap with other standards	none

Many web information resources, e.g. https://fmi-standard.org

The only standard for exchange of simulation models and co-simulation
Needed for interdisciplinary multi-physics and software Simulation (virtual and mixed verification)

FMI is based on the ITEA modelisar project which achieved 2012 the ITEA award in silver
FMI was supported in 2014 by approximately 60 tools and is currently supported by 141 tools (as of Feb. 2020)
FMI is further developed and standardized by the Modelica Association Project FMI

FMI can be used for model exchange and for co-simulation (if implemented by the tool)
FMI Cross Check Rules for quality improvement of tool implementation
Well-defined development process for further FMI versions (by the Modelica Association Project FMI)
Best practice guide for FMI users (developed by the prostep ivip SmartSE project)
Endorsed in prostep ivip SmartSE Recommendation V2 (PSI 11 – Smart Systems Engineering - Simulation Model Exchange; avaliable at www.prostep.org)
Industrial standard, in industrial use
Supported by at least 141 CAE tools (authoring tools, co-simulation platforms, optimization tools, HiL, SiL platforms)
Process improvements (templates, guidelines, best practices, contributions to FMI 3.0)

Further improvement of usability and applications range by new features
Extension of FMI cross check from single to connected FMUs in a way that this is consistent with the Modelica Association Project SSP (System Structure and Parameterization of Components for Virtual System Design)

In the context of MBSE FMI is required for behaviour and software behaviour modeling

Development efforts need to be split among several FMI versions, slowing down overall adoption rate of the standard
Users keep using older versions of the standard; therefore tool vendors have no incentive to implement newer versions for export
Releases of non-backward compatible versions cause transition overhead for users, slowing down the adoption of new releases
A simulation model using multiple FMU’s from different IT tools may not leverage the full FMI capabilities if one (or more) IT tool(s) do not support all capabilities of the FMI specification. This can lead to unexpected simulation results.