Description of a Modeling, Simulation, Animation, and Real-Time Control (MoSART) Environment for a Broad Class of Dynamical Systems

This paper describes an interactive modeling, simulation, animation, and real-time control (MoSART) environment that is useful for controls education and research. The described MoSART environment is shown to be useful for analyzing, designing, visualizing, and evaluating control systems for a broad class of dynamical systems which include: a collection of pendulum/robotic systems, aircraft, helicopters, and other six degree-of-freedom systems. The environment - referred to as Control3D-Lab - is based on Microsoft Windows, Visual C++, Direct-3D, and MATLAB/Simulink. The environment can be used as a stand-alone application or together with MATLAB, Simulink, and toolboxes. When used as a standalone application, a friendly graphical user interface permits easy interaction. Users may select (via pull-down menus): systems, dynamical models, control laws, exogenous signals (including joystick inputs) and associated parameters, initial conditions, integration routines and associated parameters. When used with MATLAB, Simulink, and toolboxes, the above nominal features are significantly enhanced. In either case, the interface permits users to access the following (via pulldown menus): animation models, mesh properties, texture and lighting models, system-specific visual indicators, graphics to be displayed, animation/data display/storage rates, simulation control buttons, and extensive documentation. When Simulink is present, users can exploit extensive visualization and 3D animation features through provided and/or user-generated Simulink diagrams. This capability makes the developed environment very extensible with respect to mathematical models and control laws. Additionally, users may readily export simulation data to MATLAB/toolboxes for post-processing and further analysis. The environment also contains a suite of well documented (easy-to-modify) models and control laws that are implemented within the provided Simulink block diagrams. Provided (special) blocks enable animation, joystick inputs, and (near) real-time simulation and animation (when possible). Associated with each block diagram are system-specific, menu-accessed m-files that permit detailed analysis and design. A hardware module permits real-time control of actual hardware experiments. The developed environment is shown to be a valuable tool for enhancing both controls education in a variety of classes as well as research. Examples are presented to illustrate the utility of the environment