Saturday, March 06, 2010:
The MathWorks, a leading mathematical computing software developer, announced yesterday, a code generation software that can generate IEC 61131 structured text for industrial control systems.
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“Simulink PLC Coder is an important development from The MathWorks as industrial automation is one of the competitive areas. The companies in industrial automation and control system design seek ways to innovate systems which are error-free and development time is minimum,” expresses Tony Lennon, industrial automation and machinery industry manager at The MathWorks, while talking to EFYTimes.
Simulink PLC Coder is an add-on software on the basic Simulink framework that enables you to automatically generate source code in structured text from the models build using Simulink tools, Stateflow charts and embedded MATLAB code. The structured text generated using PLC Coder can be downloaded on a programmable logic controller (PLC) using vendor's integrated development environment (IDE).
Simulink PLC Coder will save a lot of time that is otherwise spent in hand-written structured text. It claims to reduce the development time to up to 50 per cent by controlling the errors in early stages of the design. It will enable hardware independent control strategy for validation and testing and reduce the testing costs, claims the company.
Designers who have worked on Simulink before can comfortably use Simulink PLC Coder, according to Lennon. For others, there are field applications engineers and technical support engineers to help them use the system, he elaborates.
Simulink PLC Coder package includes code generation engines and links to different PLC IDEs like RSLogix, Beckhoff, DNR, CoDeSys from 3S etc.
“The MathWorks carries over 15 years of experience in code generation. So code generation technology is not new, it's only the language. Simulink PLC Coder works on the same engine as C programming language” expresses Lennon.
Simulink PLC Coder and Model-based design
Simulink PLC Coder generating automatic codes is an integral part of Model-based design. It eliminates the errors found in hand-written code thereby reducing overall development and validation time. The MathWorks' Simulink tools can be used to configure system models.
Model-based design helps the designers in deciding the components for their control systems. “From the same simulation model you can generate C code as well as structured text and make a decision whether you want to use a microcontroller or a PLC depending on performance parameters”, explains Lennon. You can test the performance for PLCs for all different vendors supported by the tool.
Industrial automation and control system design involves complex system designs. A study from Aberdeen group shows that identifying problematic areas in the design usually happens at almost the hardware stage, when you have the physical prototype and have invested lots of time and money, comments Lennon. Model-based systems help users to do a lot of real time testing on simulated systems. “When you take the model-based path, you do a lot of testing on your desktop system, so all the minor design flaws are removed till final validation and deployment”, he explains.
As system requirements come from different domains, it creates an inability to understand the impact of a design change across disciplines. “Model-based design helps in validating performance in such situations by providing you immediate performance analysis on its simulated system”, he elaborates.
"With complex control systems, testing and projecting the performance becomes difficult as you have to formulate test cases in all possible scenarios. In simulations, mathematical computations are used to create thousands of test vectors that can be tested on your control system model", shares Lennon.
“In the automotive and aerospace industry, simulation and model-based testing has been used for many years. You can't test an airplane to find a mistake in the design when it crashes”, he says, by way of example. Other areas useful for simulation and modeling-based testing are energy production, data analysis, and wind-turbine industrial equipments.
According to Lennon, PLC Coder allows you to go from the desktop system to real-time system using The MathWorks' tools. “The code generated can be used in actual production machines,” he concludes.
-- Shweta Dhadiwal
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