User`s guide

The Rapid Prototyping Process
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The traditional approach to real-time design and implementation typically
involves multiple teams of engineers, including an algorithm design team,
software design team, hardware design team, and an implementation team.
When the algorithm design team has completed its specifications, the software
design team implements the algorithm in a simulation environment and then
specifies the hardware requirements. The hardware design team then creates
the production hardware. Finally, the implementation team integrates the
hardware into the larger overall system. This approach leads to long
development processes, because the algorithm design engineers do not work
with the actual hardware. The rapid prototyping process combines the
algorithm, software, and hardware design phases, thus eliminating potential
bottlenecks. The process allows engineers to see the results and rapidly iterate
on the design before expensive hardware is developed.
The rapid prototyping process begins in Simulink. First, you develop a model
in Simulink. In control engineering, this involves modeling plant dynamics and
including additional dynamic components that constitute a controller and/or
an observer. In digital signal processing, the model is typically an exploration
of the signal-to-noise ratio and other characteristics of the input signal. You
then simulate your model in Simulink; you can use MATLAB, Simulink, and
toolboxes to aid in the development of algorithms and analysis of the results. If
the results are not satisfactory, you can iterate the modeling/analysis process
until results are acceptable.
Once you have achieved the desired results, you can use the Real-Time
Workshop to generate downloadable C code (for the appropriate portions of the
model). Using Simulink in external mode, you can tune parameters and further
refine your model, again rapidly iterating to achieve required results. At this
stage, the rapid prototyping process is complete. You can begin the final
implementation for production with confidence that the underlying algorithms
work properly in your real-time production system.