MATLAB and Simulink for Electric Drives and Industrial Automation Components

Development of Embedded Software, Optimization of Operations and Prediction of Machine Failures

As industrial automation components (electric drives, sensors, etc.) are getting more sophisticated, engineers use MATLAB and Simulink to design control algorithms and to analyze and simulate signals. Engineers can also deploy validated functionality on the components using IEC 61131-3, VHDL®, Verilog®, and C and C++ code generation.

This approach enables engineers to build automation equipment optimized for performance, efficiency, and uptime.

Electric Drives

MATLAB and Simulink enable engineers to design control algorithms and supervisory logic for electric drives (e.g., servo drives, variable frequency drives, frequency controllers, etc.). Simscape Electrical provides component libraries for modeling and simulating different motor and inverter types at different levels of fidelity. Motor Control Blockset provides control algorithms optimized for generating efficient embedded code. 

Using Simulink Real-Time and Speedgoat hardware, engineers perform rapid control prototyping (RCP) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation. They can also deploy validated functionality for production use through C or HDL code generation.

The ACOPOS Blockset for Simulink.

Hydraulic and Pneumatic Actuators

Using MATLAB and Simulink, engineers can design control algorithms and supervisory logic for hydraulic actuators. Simscape Fluids provides component libraries for modeling and simulating fluid and pneumatic systems, including pumps, valves, pipelines, and heat exchangers.

hydraulic actuator

Using MATLAB and Simulink for Industrial Automation Components Development and Validation

“It would not have been realistic for our small team to meet a six-month deadline without Model-Based Design. If we had had to do it all in C, we wouldn’t even have started the project. The rapid analysis, visualization, and controller design we did in MATLAB and Simulink made the project possible.”

Dr. Engelbert Gruenbacher, B&R Industrial Automation