What Is Technology Readiness Level?

Technology readiness levels (TRLs) are used to assess the maturity of a particular technology. TRL is a nine-point scale system from TRL 1, which denotes the fundamental idea, to TRL 9, which denotes proven field operation. An overview of the TRL scale is shown in the figure below. A TRL number is assigned once the technology accomplishes the specifications of that TRL.

Engineers and scientists use TRL because:

• It measures the maturity of a technology at a given point of time in the technology development cycle.
• It provides guidance in further developing the maturity of a technology.
• It provides a framework for technology transfer with industry-academia collaboration.

Model-Based Design using MATLAB^®, Simulink^®, and Stateflow^® supports technology development stages from early-stage feasibility through in-service operation as defined by TRLs.

Using Model-Based Design in the technology development process offers the following benefits:

• Model-based system engineering helps capture and validate system-level requirements and architecture.
• Physical system modeling and simulation supports physical system design.
• A model-based testing framework enables verification, validation, and testing of design models against industry standards.
• Hardware-in-the-loop testing with real-time simulation allows quick experimental validation of design models.
• Automatic code generation onto embedded CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, ASICs, and SoC targets platforms enable rapid transition from design to prototype to deployment.
• Parallel computing enables scaling computational resources for exploring the design space and speeding model testing.
• Cloud computing allows teams to collaborate on design ideas.