Why is Model-Based Design Important in Embedded Systems?
In today's fast-paced market, the demand for compact, customizable, durable, and easily maintainable devices and systems is on the rise. This necessitates the integration of complex microcontrollers, processors, and microchips into these systems. Model-based design (MBD) is crucial in validating and verifying the functionality of these embedded systems, ensuring their seamless operation across different environments. Let's delve into why MBD holds such importance.
Embedded systems are ubiquitous in smart devices, playing a pivotal role in differentiating products based on their features and functionalities. However, the development of these embedded products involves a multitude of processes, including designing the architecture, developing the platform using programming languages and tools, integrating processors, peripherals, and software, and finally, testing compliance and functionality.
As the demand for compact devices grows, the size of processors and microchips continues to shrink, leading to the development of complex control systems. Monitoring the entire embedded control system and application design processes becomes essential for optimizing the overall system design. This is where the model-based design approach proves its effectiveness by allowing engineers to understand the various components of the product, such as commercial microcontrollers, processors, algorithms, and code, through visual prototyping and simulation of models.
MBD facilitates verification and validation through testing in a simulation environment. It encompasses various disciplines, functional behaviors, and cost/performance optimization to take a product from the early concept of design to final validation and verification testing. While many organizations use some form of modeling, not all of them leverage simulation to its full potential for verification benefits. So, why should one adopt model-based design?
Traditional design processes often rely on text-based documents to transfer and handle design information, which can be difficult to understand and subject to interpretation bias. Engineers manually create embedded code and data from these documents, resulting in a time-consuming and error-prone process. Moreover, ensuring the correct implementation of changes becomes challenging.
The market demands embedded products that are highly customizable, maintainable throughout their lifespan, recyclable, and no longer bound by traditional design process models. For embedded control and algorithm designers, modeling has always been an essential part of the design process. Model-based design represents a significant shift in the development of embedded systems.
When implemented effectively, MBD provides a single design platform for optimizing the overall system design. It enables embedded software developers to differentiate between a simulator and a software development tool, allowing them to create simulation models and check the functionality of algorithms before writing the embedded code. System engineers can also employ virtual prototyping to assess whether the entire system (mechanical, electrical, and embedded software) will function as intended, even before the hardware is available for testing.
Model-based design offers several advantages for embedded hardware design companies, including:
1️⃣ Enabling teams to verify the specification of overall system design in a shared simulation environment.
2️⃣ Facilitating the positioning of controller design on programmable logic controller (PLC) hardware.
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3️⃣ Opening up new opportunities for engineering low-power controller products.
Through simulation, engineers can also reuse model-based design to solve different design problems or in subsequent product development projects in embedded systems. However, it's worth noting that only a few players in the embedded industry fully leverage the end-to-end capabilities of MBD.
Common challenges faced by the industry when implementing MBD include changes in organizational workflows, the need for a strategic approach to migrate to model-based design, costs of implementation and knowledge acquisition, and the requirement for new tools, resources, and processes. With proper planning, analysis, and resource allocation, these challenges can be overcome to establish an effective model-based design implementation.
How does model-based design work? The MBD workflow typically follows the V-cycle, which involves the following steps:
1️⃣ Modeling: This step involves creating a mathematical and behavioral representation of the embedded system using a visual method within the MBD framework. It allows for the design of complex control systems, communication systems, and signal processing systems.
2️⃣ Simulation: Continuous testing occurs as algorithms and real-time computational models are created and refined within the MBD framework. Simulation serves as an alternative to building hardware prototypes for testing purposes. Fixed-step solvers and variable-step solvers are commonly used within the simulation environment.
3️⃣ Rapid prototyping: MBD enables rapid prototyping, which is a fast and cost-effective way for engineers to control signal processing, verify designs at an early stage, and evaluate design trade-offs.
4️⃣ Embedded deployment: After rapid prototyping, a detailed software design activity is performed to convert the controller model into a detailed, executable software specification. Embedded code, often highly optimized, is generated from the model and downloaded to the embedded microprocessor or electronic control unit (ECU) during the production software build.
5️⃣ In-the-loop testing: This step involves combining hardware and production code into model-based testing. Dynamic outputs of models are compared with data collected through software-in-the-loop and processor-in-the-loop tests or data measured in the test lab using data inspector or logging tools.