Aerospace and Defense

Engineering Tasks

• Systems Engineering
• Engineering Data Analysis
• Control System Development
• Signal Processing and Communications System Development
• Test and Evaluation

Test and Evaluation

MATLAB® and Simulink® facilitate a complete understanding of aerospace system performance by combining interfaces to test and measurement hardware with analysis, visualization, and modeling capabilities. Engineers use the MATLAB product to make decisions about system behavior, compare actual results with modeled results, and iteratively test, analyze, and modify designs based on results.

Accessing Data and Communicating with Test and Measurement Hardware
The test and measurement capabilities in MATLAB allow you to interface with a wide range of test hardware, including measurement and image acquisition devices and traditional laboratory instruments, such as oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, and function generators. MATLAB provides a single, consistent interface to a variety of devices, regardless of hardware manufacturer, and lets you find anomalies faster, make pinpointed adjustments, and get aircraft or spacecraft back in operation with minimal delay.

Performing Online and Offline Data Analysis
Data collected using MathWorks test and measurement tools can be brought directly into the MATLAB workspace for fast and accurate data analysis, data manipulation, and pre- and post-processing. Data can be displayed while it is being streamed into MATLAB, enabling you to make iterative adjustments to the test setup and on-the-fly analyses. For offline analysis and modeling, analysts use MATLAB to access data from external databases and hardware devices, and then integrate the data with other modeling, test generation, and simulation tasks to validate real-world results.

Telemetry data is easily displayed and analyzed using 2-D and 3-D graphs for post–test-flight analysis. You can bring flight recorder data directly into MATLAB, visualize the parameters, and then perform signal processing and other data analysis techniques. Further data analysis methods for curve fitting and spline reduction can help you draw conclusions from the data through one of many interpolation routines.

Verify Simulations and System Models
Once you have the data collected in MATLAB using MathWorks test and measurement tools, you can then develop and refine your model using Simulink software. With the measured data, you can develop a mathematical or graphical model of your device or system, and then simulate, optimize, and fine-tune system performance. These results can then be directly applied to your actual component or system using automatic code generation techniques for embedded processors.

With MATLAB and Simulink you can:

• Develop and test custom algorithms
• Simulate your model using real-world data
• Refine your model through iterative data collection and analyses
• Verify your design by comparing expected results with actual data
• Create and test software prototypes of your device or system

Create Presentation Quality Reports and Graphics of Results
MATLAB makes it easy to share results with colleagues. With MATLAB and its companion toolboxes, you can:

• Exchange data with ODBC/JDBC compliant databases
• Generate custom reports in multiple output formats, including HTML, RTF, XML, and SGML
• Export your data to Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and Word documents

Learn more about Verification, Validation, and Test in Model-Based Design.