Introduction to Matlab – Simulink

& their application in

Control Systems
ENTC 462 - Spring 2007

Introduction

Simulink (Simulation and Link) is an extension of MATLAB by Mathworks Inc. It

works with MATLAB to offer modeling, simulating, and analyzing of dynamical systems
under a graphical user interface (GUI) environment. The construction of a model is
simplified with click-and-drag mouse operations. Simulink includes a comprehensive
block library of toolboxes for both linear and nonlinear analyses. Models are hierarchical,
which allow using both top-down and bottom-up approaches. As Simulink is an integral
part of MATLAB, it is easy to switch back and forth during the analysis process and thus,
the user may take full advantage of features offered in both environments. This tutorial
presents the basic features of Simulink and is focused on control systems.

Getting Started

To start a Simulink session, you'd need to bring up Matlab program first.

From Matlab command window, enter:
>> simulink
Alternately, you may click on the Simulink icon located on the toolbar as shown:

Simulink's library browser window like one shown below will pop up presenting the
block set for model construction.
To see the content of the blockset, click on the "+" sign at the beginning of each toolbox.

To start a model, click on the “NEW FILE” icon as shown in the screenshot above.
Alternately, you may use keystrokes CTRL+N.

A new window will appear on the screen. You will be constructing your model in this
window. Also in this window the constructed model is simulated. A screenshot of a
typical working (model) window is shown below:

To become familiarized with the structure and the environment of Simulink, you are
encouraged to explore the toolboxes and scan their contents. You may not know what
they are all about at first, but perhaps you could catch on the organization of these
toolboxes according to the category. For instant, you may see that the Control System
toolbox consists of the Linear Time Invariant (LTI) system library and the MATLAB
functions can be found under Function and Tables of the Simulink main toolbox. A good
way to learn Simulink (or any computer program in general) is to practice and explore.
Making mistakes is part of the learning curve. So, fear not you should be!

A simple model is used here to introduce some basic features of Simulink. Please follow
the steps below to construct a simple model.

STEP 1: CREATING BLOCKS.

From BLOCK SET CATEGORIES section of the SIMULINK LIBRARY BROWSER

window, click on the "+" sign next to the Simulink group to expand the tree and select
(click on) Sources.

A set of blocks will appear in the BLOCKSET group. Click on the Sine Wave block and
drag it to the workspace window (also known as model window).
Now you have established a source of your model.

NOTE: It is advisable that you save your model at some point early on so that if your PC
crashes you wouldn't loose too much time reconstructing your model.

Save this model under the filename: "simexample1". To save a model, you may click on
the floppy diskette icon . or from FILE menu, select Save or CTRL+S. All Simulink
model file will have an extension ".mdl". Simulink recognizes file with .mdl extension as
a simulation model (similar to how MATLAB recognizes files with the extension .m as
an MFile).

Continue to build your model by adding more components (or blocks) to your model
window. We'll continue to add a Scope from Sinks library, an Integrator block from
Continuous library, and a Mux block from Signal Routing library.

NOTE: If you wish to locate a block knowing its name, you may enter the name in the
SEARCH WINDOW (at Find prompt) and Simulink will bring up the specified block.

To move the blocks around, simply click on it and drag it to a desired location.

Once you've dragged over all necessary blocks, the workspace window should consist of
the following components:

You may remove (delete) a block by simply clicking on it once to turn on the "select
mode" (with four corner boxes) and use the DEL key or keys combination CTRL-X.

STEP 2: MAKING CONNECTIONS

To establish connections between the blocks, move the cursor to the output port
represented by ">" sign on the block. Once placed at a port, the cursor will turn into a
cross "+" enabling you to make connection between blocks.
To make a connection: left-click while holding down the control key (on your keyboard)
and drag from source port to a destination port.

The connected model is shown below.

A sine signal is generated by the Sine Wave block (a source) and is displayed by the
scope. The integrated sine signal is sent to scope for display along with the original signal
from the source via the Mux, whose function is to mutiplex signals in form of scalar,
vector, or matrix into a bus.

STEP 3: RUNNING SIMULATION

You now may run the simulation of the simple system above by clicking on the play
button . Alternately, you may use key sequence CTRL+T, or choose Start submenu
(under Simulation menu).

Double click on the Scope block to display of the scope.

To view/edit the parameters, simply double click on the block of interest.

Simulation of an Equation

In this example we will use Simulink to model an equation. Let's consider

(1)

where the displacement x is a function of time t, frequency w, phase angle phi, and
amplitude A. In this example the values for these parameters are set as follows:

frequency=5 rad/sec; phase=pi/2;A=2.

where the displacement x is a function of time t, frequency w, phase angle phi, and
amplitude A. In this example the values for these parameters are set as follows:
frequency=5 rad/sec; phase=pi/2;A=2.

1. From Simulink library drag the following blocks to the Model Window

Blocks to be dragged to Where located in Simulink library

the model window browser
Ramp Sources
Constant Sources
Gain Math Operation
Sum Math Operation
Product Math Operation
Trigonometry Function Math Operation
Scope Sinks
Mux Signal Routing

2. The next step is to connect these blocks as shown in Figure E1-1.

Figure E1-1
Double click on the blocks and enter the appropriate values as prompted by the pop-up
dialog windows. Note that the cosine function can be selected from the pull-down menu
in the pop-up window. In the arrangement shown above, the input signal (a ramp
function) is to be displayed along with the output (displacement) via the use of the mux
tool as demonstrated earlier in this tutorial. To view the plots, double click on the scope.

3. Make sure all blocks are connected correctly then run the simulation (CTRL+T). You
may need to select the Autoscale button on the scope display window to obtain a
better display of the plots.

You may find the sinusoidal plots to be a bit "jaggy". You may want to improve the
resolution of the displayed plot by redefining the Max Step Side value ("auto" is set a
default value) in Simulation Parameters window (with keystrokes CTRL+E in the model
window). Just for fun, you may want to experiment with different choice of solver.
ODE45 is a default choice. You are encouraged to learn more about the solver methods
by checking out the help files in Matlab command window. For instance, help ODE45
for parameters in non-stiff differential equations.

This example has demonstrated the use of Simulink with built-in mathematical functions
and other supporting toolboxes to simulate an equation.

Mass-Spring-Dashpot System Simulation

Mass-Spring-Dashpot System Simulation

Consider a mass-spring-dashpot system as shown in Figure E2-1.

The mathematical model for this system is described by

(2)

where m is the equivalent mass of the system, c is the damping ratio,

k is the spring stiffness, and f(t) is the forcing function in the x-
direction.

Figure E2-1 In this example I will illustrate how to use Simulink to simulate the
response of this system to unit step input.

STEP 1 In Simulink, create a new model window (CTRL+N) and drag the following
blocks from the Simulink library window:
 Blocks to be dragged to Where located in Simulink library
the model window browser
Step Sources
Gain Math Operation
Sum Math Operation
Integrator Continuous
Scope Sinks
To Workspace Sinks

STEP 2 By re-arranging Eqn 2 to yield an expression for the acceleration term, Eqn
(2) becomes

(3)

Based on Eqn 3, we connect the blocks in the diagram as shown in Figure

E2-2. Use CTRL+F and CTRL+R to flip and rotate the blocks as necessary
(select the block first then execute the key sequence). Note that you can use
CTRL+right mouse button to create branches of the connecting lines. Don't
worry about the parameter values and the signs for these blocks at this point
as we'll take care of this in STEP 3. Just get them connected first.

Figure E2-2

STEP 3 Enter the values of the parameters for each block. In this example, we will
set m = 2.0; c=0.7; k=1. You are encouraged to try different values and
observe the system's response to step input.
 To show that you may obtain different form of output, I included another
block (in addition to the scope block) called "simout". This block can be
found in the Sinks group from the Simulink Library browser. The output
from this block is used in Matlab workspace. To illustrate how this block
works, I will select a name for the output called "simout" as the variable
name in the block's parameter setting (double click on the "simout" block to
bring up the parameter dialog window). In addition, I will need a time array
from the simulation. This can be specified as a parameter in the Simulation
Parameter window (CTRL+E) under the Workspace I/O tab as shown in
Figure E2-3.

Figure E2-3
STEP 4 Run the simulation by clicking on the button (alternately you may use
keyboard command CTRL+T ). The screenshot of the output from the Scope
block is show in Figure E2-3.

Figure E2-3
 That's it! You have successfully modeled and simulated a second-order
under-damped dynamic system. To exam different responses, feel free to
change different values for m, c, and k in the gain blocks.

To see how you can use the output from the "simout" block (by the way, you
may name the block whatever you wish), go to Matlab Command window
and type

>> who

You should receive an echo from Matlab listing the following variables:
"simout" and "time" (and perhaps others variables in the current workspace
memory).

Now, you may create a plot of the system response identical to that shown in
the Scope output. The command for creating this plot is:

>>plot(time,simout);grid

Note that the output format used in the example above is matrix type. The
output sent to workspace can be used for further analysis and storage in ascii
format. Output to workspace allows more options in plot presentation and
further data analysis as the arrays are in ascii format.

The same system in transfer function

STEP 1 In a new Simulink model window, drag the following blocks from the
Simulink library window: Step (from Sources), Transfer Function (from
Continuous), Scope (from Sinks), and Save File to Workspace (from Sinks).

STEP 2 Arrange the blocks as shown in Figure E3-1 below.

 Figure E3-1

NOTE: Block's background color: Right click on the block and select the
color from Background Color menu.

STEP 3 Entering blocks' parameters values.

We'll use the same values for m, c, and k as in Example 2. Double click on
the transfer function to bring up the parameter dialog window and enter the
values for the coefficients in the denominator as shown in Figure E3-2.

Note that the Transfer function block has a default form of first order in the
denominator (s+1). You may specify different order for the numerator and
the denominator by entering the coefficients associated with the
polynomials.

Figure E3-2

Click OK to close the dialog. Double click on the Save Output To A File
 block to open the dialog window as shown in Figure E3-3. In the Filename
box specify the path and the name of the file you wish to save. The saved
file will be in .MAT format (yes, it's in binary format! So don't try to read it).
You will be able to load this file to Matlab workspace later on. Make sure to
remember where you save the file to. In this example, I'll put the file in my
D drive under "temp" directory and name the file "example3out.mat". You
may choose other convenient location on your computer.

In the Variable name box, enter a name of your choice. Here I name the
variable "simout".

Leave other parameters in default settings unless you wish to obtain more
plot points by changing the Sample Time setting.

Figure E3-3

STEP 4 Run the simulation by clicking on the button (alternately you may use
keyboard command CTRL+T). The screenshot of the output from the Scope
block is show in Figure E3-4.
Figure E3-4

Now by comparing Figure E2-3 and Figure E3-4 you will see that the
responses are identical. No surprise here since these figures effectively
represent the same system, only the latter involves fewer number of blocks!

Now close the loop and simulate the closed loop system with unit feedback.
You can get a stable closed loop system by changing the gain of transfer
function if it is not already stable. This is indeed the proportional(P) control.