TRACE

Toolchain for Reusable, Auditable Co-Engineering

Teams building hydrogen buses, hydrogen trains, and battery-electric HGVs typically use separate tools for modelling, controls, testing, data analysis, and cost reporting. These tools do not connect. Evidence gets lost between teams. Problems appear late, during integration, when they are expensive to fix. And once vehicles are deployed, operators often have limited insight into how assets are actually performing.

What TRACE does

TRACE (Toolchain for Reusable, Auditable Co-Engineering) connects multiphysics models, test data, and engineering decisions in one auditable workflow, using open standards (Modelica and the FMI standard) so it works alongside tools teams already use rather than replacing them. Physics-informed AI surrogates built into TRACE can also monitor assets in service, flagging faults and supporting maintenance planning. It addresses both sides of the problem: the design and validation phase, and the in-service phase.

Maturity

The core TRACE toolchain is proven in automotive and battery contexts. We are now adapting it for zero-emission transport for the first time, building transport-specific model libraries for hydrogen and battery-electric applications and validating them against real operating data.

Why we do this

Mechara was one of twelve UK companies selected for the Global Business Innovation Programme Hydrogen in Transport Germany 2025, where we engaged with hydrogen transport manufacturers and research institutes including DLR and HyCentA. Stakeholder discussions confirmed strong demand for exactly this kind of integrated engineering toolchain across hydrogen buses, trains, HGVs, maritime, and aerospace.

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