Industrial Automation Machinery

Manufacturers of the equipment used for production, testing and power generation applications face with challenges to develop embedded applications integrated into mechanics, electronics, control, signal processing systems. Forward looking companies gravitate towards Model-Based Design to re-identify the system-level design realization methods.

Model-Based Design allows industrial equipment manufacturers to create features capable of running as Simulink model types, which provides various engineering groups with clear design insight.

Exchanging models enables early verification of the focus of development process, and the spheres of influence by providing the opportunity to change models from design to hardware before investing in prototypes. Machinery manufacturers, then, leverage the code generation technology to eliminate errors and re-working time, link their codes to design, and allow software engineers to focus on software architecture.

Power Transformation and Control Equipment

Power transformation and arrangement are key technologies in the automation and transportation. The apps include electronic drivers for engine control, voltage regulation, and power inverters. The advancements in the solid-state power electronics have provided engineers with the means to develop equipment capable of modulating higher power ranges than ever before. Such devices are critical to ensure low power consumption, more electricity efficiency, and advanced power transfer.

Enabling engineers to model power electronics and electricity, as well as control and signal processing algorithms, Model-Based Design helps reducing the efforts needed to design such components. Desktop and real-time simulation allow testing in multiple working conditions, which is typically risky or expensive to do on real hardware. Automated code generation reduces the efforts needed for embedded code applications, and helps ensuring the calculation efficiency.

Industrial Robotics and Manufacturing Equipment

For industrial manufacturing equipment, increasing performance and reducing costs is crucial. Approaches focusing on reducing the machinery weight generally affect the strength of machinery and capability of accurate controlling. Additionally, as machinery gets more sophisticated and more axis of movement is provided, the integration and optimization analyses of electricity, mechanics, and control systems gets delayed further, usually until a complete prototype is obtained. If any problem is detected at this stage, the project may be delayed for months, and re-creation and re-testing costs may negatively impact the budget.

Model-Based Design allows engineers to develop mechatronic system-level simulation to evaluate and optimize the dynamic interaction between electricity, mechanics, and control systems and their effects on the embedded software. By using MATLAB and Simulink’s code generation feature, developers can create real-time simulations to test embedded control or signal processing software.

Process Automation Systems and Industrial Equipment of Control

Flexible and accurate process automation systems are critical to ensure profitability of processing and manufacturing operations. System designers usually rely on simulation to verify their solutions before moving to application.

Modern control systems (i.e., DCS) offers advanced control and monitoring functionality. Multivariate control, PID control, MathWorks software for fuzzy-logic and neural networks provide automation system designers with a flexible desktop prototyping environment and help them to develop these modern applications. Testing these applications on the field against processes models representing working conditions without using MATLAB and Simulink may be expensive or unsafe. Both MATLAB and Simulink offer ANSI/ISO compliant C code generation ability to eliminate manual translation errors and facilitate distribution of DCS. By using OPC Toolbox™ and connecting with their process simulations running in MATLAB or Simulink, developers can verify the performance of their applications running in DCS.

Equipment of Energy Generation and Transmission

Concerns about environmental pollution and the declining availability of fossil fuels are prompting power generation equipment manufacturers to invest in innovative technologies such as wind power and solar power generation. These technologies bring new levels of complexity for generation and transmission equipment suppliers. The traditional power grid is rapidly evolving into a smart grid between users and providers. It places more burden on equipment suppliers to develop innovative systems based on high-power electronics to ensure the reliability of the power grid and control the safe operation of the equipment.

Model-Based Design allows equipment manufacturers to develop the necessary control and signal processing algorithms to meet increasing global power demand in a safe and reliable manner by helping with the modelling and simulating in the fields of electricity, electromechanics, chemistry and others. From leading wind turbine developers to ultra-high voltage transmission equipment manufacturers, engineers are turning to MathWorks to design and test embedded systems and to develop supporting software for their applications.