Building Blocks
Samir Khan
Product Specialist
Building system models for simulating in Simulink can be a time-consuming, error-prone process - some users say that up to 80% of project time is taking up by that task. Now there's a solution - and one that uses the full power of Maple software!
The creators of our favourite high-end mathematical software package, Maple,
have just come up with the answer to many an engineer’s prayer. New
BlockBuilder™ for Simulink® is a mathematical modelling environment
that offers automated export to Simulink. With this new package, Simulink
users can save time and dramatically reduce the risk of error in the model-based
design of dynamic systems. Projects that might have taken days to complete
can now be turned around in a matter of hours.
A typical design and development
process will involve a great deal of time and effort in conceptual design,
plant characterisation, creating and validating models of the controller
and plant model. Only then can you use Simulink to run a simulation and produce
a software prototype.
Doing all that by hand
is time-consuming and expensive, and prone to errors especially when you’re
transcribing notes, jottings and back-of-the-envelope calculations to your
PC. With BlockBuilder for Simulink, however, you’re
using probably the most advanced off-the-shelf mathematical solving software
available. All of Maple 10’s functionality, and its much friendlier
interface, is at your fingertips, so you save time, eliminate errors and
enhance your Simulink models. It’s a self-documenting system too, so
you capture all the knowledge automatically and transparently, which makes
it easy to share and reuse your work for future projects.
BlockBuilder for Simulink
not only lets you create high-fidelity physical models
and analytical algorithms from mathematical first principles, it also converts
them directly into blocks that you can incorporate and execute in Simulink.
These blocks fully encapsulate the analysis, manipulations, transformations,
code generation, verification and documentation - it’s all there when
you take them into Simulink. The result is unmatched power, flexibility and
visibility into the design cycle.
With BlockBuilder, you can create multiple model representations.
It supports transfer function, differential and difference equations, state
space, pole/gain/zero models. Both linear and nonlinear models are supported,
as are both discrete (z) and continuous (s) models. The software automatically
creates C-code S-Functions for fast execution in Simulink - and you can
create MATLAB code S-Functions for interpreted use too.
If you’re already
using Simulink, and you’re tasked with designing
and developing engineering systems for industrial applications such as
automotive, aerospace, robotics, power generation, control systems, defence,
communications or biomechanical - or indeed, if you’re teaching
engineering design – an
investment in BlockBuilder is likely to bring you a very significant and
quick return. You’ll produce better models, faster – what more
could you ask for?
Simulink isn’t the only software for dynamic system
simulation. If your organisation isn’t committed to Simulink, or if
you’re looking
at the software options available, VisSim is well worth considering – it’s
got a lot of very satisfied, long-term users all over the world!
Like Simulink,
VisSim uses a highly intuitive block diagram approach to build a simulation.
It produces tight, readable code which is easy and quick to modify, and
it’s
very easy to learn and use too. It incorporates special Maple interface blocks
so you can read and write scalar and matrix data to the Maple workspace, and
work with Maple data and scripts. |
