MathWorks Release 2016a Control System Toolbox

MathWorks has announced updated apps for the analysis and design of control systems. As part of Release 2016a, Control System Toolbox now offers a Control System Tuner app that allows engineers to automatically tune SISO or MIMO control systems in MATLAB and Simulink.

Controls engineers in industries such as aerospace and defence, automotive, and industrial automation and machinery can use the Control System Tuner app to tune the parameters of fixed architecture MIMO control systems that have tunable elements such as gains, PID controllers or low-order filters. Engineers can specify design requirements such as reference tracking, disturbance rejection and stability margins, and automatically tune control system gains to meet these requirements.

Control System Toolbox also introduces an app to compute and compare reduced-order models. The Model Reducer app helps users to interactively simplify linear time-invariant models while preserving model dynamics important for the application. Engineers can use the Model Reducer app to remove states with low energy contribution, select significant modes and cancel close pole/zero pairs.

R2016a also includes a redesigned Control System Designer app. Engineers can now combine plots such as Bode, root locus and closed-loop step response in one window, and compare multiple controller designs.