Rapid Control Prototyping with Simulink Real-Time

Let's talk about rapid controlled prototyping or RCP in short. I want to give you an introduction to RCP, and explain how it can help you to expedite controls innovation. I'm also going to show you how to Speedgoat hardware and Simulink Real-Time are enabling and simplifying our CP adoption. Engineers and scientists around the globe develop smart and robust control strategies.

Testing these controls can be time consuming and expensive, though. To bring innovative controls to life, you need to effectively test and optimize your designs and iterate when needed. RCP is popular because it enables you to do just that faster and better. Let's see how. RCP is a model-based design engineering practice. It refers to the process of rapidly deploying and running early stage controllers on flexible, yet powerful prototyping hardware, instead of on the final embedded target.

Your controls run on a real-time target hardware and against real systems, and not only in pure desktop simulation. This benefits you in many ways. You can test earlier and prove that your designs work in real world dynamics. It lets you explore and find optimal trade-offs without being constrained by hardware and real-time trivialities. You also achieve better results faster by cutting lengthy and error-prone testing tasks using automatic code generation and test automation.

When adopting RCP, your design iterations happen in minutes instead of weeks because you develop an instrument your real time simulation from within one environment. This is key to remain competitive in dynamic markets. But how exactly are Speedgoat and MathWorks enabling ICP Adoption? You will work in a unified ecosystem for both desktop simulation and real-time testing of your controls. You don't have to leave Simulink nor familiarize yourself with extra tools. Switching back and forth is seamless and will shield you from interoperability issues.

Let's see how it works. You start by extending your controller model with I/O and protocol driver blocks from Simulink real-time and the speed code library. At a simple click of a button, Simulink real-time automatically builds a real-time application from your model, downloads it, and runs it on the Speedgoat target computer. Finally, you can use the host capabilities offered by Simulink Real-Time to control instrument and monitor your real time application. For instance, you can easily monitor and lock signals, fine tune parameters during runtime, or even instrument your real-time application with MATLAB and Simulink user interface components.

Let's check some of the hardware related enablers that will support you a great deal in your RCP projects. For instance, when you are prototyping your control strategies, connectivity shouldn't be a hurdle for you. Speedgoat supports key protocols from all industries. More than 200 I/O modules are available and ensure that your workflows remain uninterrupted. Our main aim is to provide you with a stress free I/O configuration experience. All I/O and hardware are represented by Simulink blocks. Placing them in your model and configuring them is as straightforward as it can be.

You need to change your controller I/O capabilities? Not a problem. You can do this from Simulink without swapping physical hardware. Sometimes your project requirements change. No worries. You can update and expand your system with additional I/O. Also keep in mind we strive at satisfying your needs, so, yes, customizing is totally an option. Perhaps you are planning to integrate your controller in a complex test rack. We've got you covered by offering fully customized rack solutions.

We'll make sure you have easy access to all signals via our breakout panels. We'll integrate power supplies, actuators, inverters, and any kind of power electronics. As well as project specific PCBs for signal routing and conditioning. Does your controller require higher performance? Also not a problem. With Simulink Real-Time, you can run multi-thread, real-time applications in powerful Speedgoat multicore CPUs. Or perhaps you would like to verify a distributed control architecture with interconnected controllers and I/O. Are you dealing with high dynamic and fast switching control systems? Not a problem. You can run both. Your Simulink controls and high speed I/O on our programmable FPGA's with microsecond resolution. We have perfected the relation between real hardware and model based design tools by MathWorks, so you can easily bring new ideas to life and focus on driving controls innovation. Thanks for watching.