Technical Articles

NASA Langley’s MATLAB based control system fully automates the welding process and produces complex components from a 3D CAD representation.

Septentrio streamlines the DO-178B certification process with MATLAB and Simulink.

Recent enhancements to MATLAB® and Image Processing Toolbox™ dramatically increase image processing speed

TNO's shockwave-damping software helps ensure smooth traffic flow after sudden braking incidents

MATLAB algorithms automate image interpolation (inpainting) using PDEs

A challenging controls project gives many students the skills of seasoned engineers well before they graduate.

MATLAB and Simulink models help Simon Fraser University researchers run and control experiments to determine how sensory input affects walking speed.

Lab sessions and an interactive tutorial enable students to work hands-on with MATLAB soon after learning a new numerical method.

By using Model-Based Design with Simulink, the team created a novel pump design and reduced development time by 50%.

Model-Based Design enables Hugo Petersen to cut costs and reduce development time by a factor of 5 to 10.

CommScope's MATLAB based DPD technology enables wireless base stations to operate efficiently while minimizing spurious amplifier emissions.

Simulink behavioral simulations help Epoch Microelectronics engineers verify that their ADPLL designs meet specifications before committing to hardware.

This article describes how Averna wrote, debugged, and tested core URT algorithms in MATLAB, enabling the team to verify the design before deploying it to an FPGA.

This article describes how IFREMER researchers used MATLAB to develop data processing algorithms, visualize results, and iteratively refine the algorithms.

This article shows how Simulink vehicle simulation models enable engineers to quantitatively determine the optimal tradeoff between the conflicting demands of performance and fuel economy.

This article describes how InterDigital engineers develop dynamic spectrum management technologies based on MATLAB and Simulink to address the growing bandwidth crunch.

This article describes MATLAB implementations of the three algorithms most widely used to compute hundreds or trillions of digits of pi.

Examples show how Model-Based Design enables organizations worldwide to cut development time by 50% or more.

This article highlights recent textbooks on teaching first-year programming and classroom materials for teaching system dynamics.

This article shows how AMIMON used MATLAB to develop technology that enables HDTVs to interface wirelessly to all HD video sources while providing the same quality as a wired connection.

This article shows how to model and simulate a steel rolling mill controller and generate IEC structured text for implementation on a PLC

This article shows how Model-Based Design enabled NASA and partners to work on GN&C algorithm and flight software development concurrently—potentially reducing development time by more than a year.

This article shows how to configure a Simscape model of a pneumatic actuation system for real-time simulation.

This article shows how MATLAB and an innovative "inverted classroom" model help liberal arts students hone their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

This article demonstrates features in Parallel Computing Toolbox that enable you to run your MATLAB code on a GPU by making a few simple changes to the code. We illustrate this approach by solving a second order wave equation using spectral methods.

This article describes two ways to create simple functions as variables without having to store the functions in a file.

This article describes how Polyspace enables Elektrobit to demonstrate more rapidly, more thoroughly, and with less manual review that their automotive software is free of certain run-time errors.

This article explains why tic and toc provide the highest accuracy and most predictable behavior.

UC Berkeley's Center for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research developed a Simulink based component library for building and deploying sophisticated instruments at a fraction of the cost of custom-hardware instruments.

This article describes a University of Pittsburgh and Washington State University course that combines system dynamics and physiology.

In this article, University of Delaware researchers use Simulink simulations to quickly identify the optimal power management strategy for a fuel cell hybrid bus.

Using an adaptive median filter as an example, this article shows how to make a MATLAB algorithm suitable for hardware implementation.

By simulating IC designs before fabrication and automating tests, Fujitsu achieved significant time and cost savings and improved test quality, speed, and reproducibility.

Using an automotive CD player system as an example, this article demonstrates a workflow for verifying system behavior in the presence of communication latencies.

This article shows how advanced mathematical models and simulations enable engineers evaluate renewable power sources, improve energy transmission infrastructure, track markets, and design energy-efficient products.

Cleve Moler demonstrates the MATLAB matrix computation underlying compressed sensing.

Mercedes engineers use a custom calibration tool to extract the highest possible performance from AMG powertrains.

Using WMS to simplify the process of finding geospatial raster data and Mapping Toolbox to analyze the data and create map displays.

A MATLAB based model helps analysts project the future state of the New Zealand economy.

Nujira’s envelope-tracking technology doubles a PA’s efficiency from 30% to 60%.

This freshman seminar gives students practical experience in geological and geophysical research using MATLAB.

This article shows how to determine which variables your Simulink model is using, and where.

This paper presents an easy-to-understand application of formal methods—specifically, model checking--through an example based on the popular game Sudoku.

This article describes how to solve large linear algebra problems by spreading them across multiple machines using distributed arrays and the single program multiple data (SPMD) language construct, available in Parallel Computing Toolbox.

A first-year course teaches basic programming and problem-solving at the same time.

We performed coupled electro-mechanical finite element analysis of an electro-statically actuated micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) device.

Using the bifilar pendulum as an example, this article shows how you can improve mass moments of inertia estimates by solving a more accurate nonlinear model.

Cosimulating digital baseband components in MATLAB® and Simulink® with the analog components in Cadence® Virtuoso® AMS Designer enables Atmel to verify system performance well before committing to silicon.

This excerpt from the second edition of Digital Image Processing Using MATLAB teaches what morphological reconstruction means, illustrates some useful manipulations of binary images.

Using MATLAB®, Capgemini has developed a process for calculating economic capital that takes portfolio concentration into account.

This article demonstrates how to ease the calculation and use of gradients using Symbolic Math Toolbox™.

University of Illinois researchers use advanced statistical methods to explain how changes in climate affect the ecosystem and how human changes to landscape affect the regional climate.

This article describes a control design course at University of Arizona that uses a low-cost portable lab module based on MATLAB, Simulink, and an aeropendulum.

This article demonstrates a workflow that uses built-in functionality in MATLAB® and related products to develop a classification algorithm for an isolated, speaker-dependent speech-recognition system.

This article describes products that integrate MATLAB and Simulink with instrumentation and data acquisition systems.

MATLAB and Simulink users worldwide share code files, links, and technical tips.

MATLAB and Simulink based products give students direct experience in control design, image processing, and other topics.

This article provides brief profiles of 7 customers who use parallel computing to solve computationally intensive problems: Max Planck Institute, EIM Group, Argonne National Laboratory, C-COR, MIT, Univ of London, Univ of Geneva

Outlines the challenges involved in the manual translation from MATLAB to C, demonstrates how to use the Embedded MATLAB subset for automatic translation, and provides best practices for coding your MATLAB algorithm to improve the generated C code.

Student competitions challenge engineers-in-training to tackle the same technical issues—under the same budgetary, time, and resource constraints—as professional engineers.

By enabling C-code generation directly from MATLAB algorithms, the Embedded MATLAB language subset closes the gap between exploration and implementation.

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory is leading a worldwide team whose mission is to develop a prosthetic that enables the wearer to move with the speed, dexterity, and force of a real arm and perceive pressure, force, and temperatu

Model-Based Design enabled IAV to reduce their mass-production ECU development process from three years to just 18 months.

Developed under the guidance of Detroit engineers, a course in embedded control systems introduces seniors and first-year graduate students to industrystandard tools and Model-Based Design.

Cleve Moler discusses solving sudoku puzzles with MATLAB.

Designing audio codec filter in MATLAB and using Filter Design HDL Coder to generate synthesizable RTL code lets Mediatek rapidly evaluate filter architectures, optimize for silicon area, and reduce the RTL code development cycle to less than 2 weeks

Even engineers who are not controls experts can quickly design and tune PID controllers using this simple method.

Professor James L. McClelland, Stanford University,uses MATLAB simulations to explore complex cognitive processes. MATLAB enables them to visualize the networks as they evolve over time and perform simulation and analysis in a single environment.

Using a do-while loop as an example, this article demonstrates how modeling design patterns can be used to generate efficient C code from algorithm models.

Nonlinear mixed-effects modeling provides a good solution for modeling sparse datasets. Using population pharmacokinetics (popPK) data as an example.

To determine whether the wing design of a small passenger aircraft meets strength requirements, we derive analytical models of the loads and bending moments on the wing using the notebook interface in Symbolic Math Toolbox.

Using an aerospace system model as an example, this article describes the parallelization of a controller parameter tuning task using Parallel Computing Toolbox and Simulink Design Optimization.

In a joint effort with MathWorks Consulting Services, Alkermes developed a video capture and analysis procedure that provides information on the physical factors influencing performance of a capsule-based drug inhaler.

In only its third year of competition,The Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e) team placed second in the RoboCup Middle Size League championship, beating teams that had been competing for six years or more, including former world champions.

A BYU professor describes how students in In ECEn 485: Introduction to Digital Communication Theory use MATLAB and Simulink to design and test digital modems and communication systems.

This article describes two ways to use parallel computing to accelerate the solution of computationally expensive optimization problems.

EquuSys used MATLAB to develop an easy-to-use, non-invasive system for identifying and diagnosing equine lameness. The system processes telemetry data to provide objective data on equine biomechanics in the form of charts, 3-D plots, and animation.

Students use MATLAB and Simulink to process lab data and model and simulate open-and closed-loop systems. Simulink and Real-Time Windows Target enable them to connect control design theory with practical implementation.

When Tesla Motors developed the world’s first all-electric product sports car, they used Model-Based Design to model the entire vehicle and its major subsystems, run detailed simulations, analyze performance, and evaluate design trade-offs.

This article shows how engineers who use Simulink and Stateflow within Model-Based Design can integrate state machines and control logic designed with Stateflow with Simulink blocks, subsystems, and components.

Using a fault-tolerant fuel system model as an example, this article describes tools and a workflow for converting models from floating- to fixed-point for production code generation. The approach described uses two tools in Simulink Fixed Point

BMW developed a motion-stereo system that constructs a 3-D model of the area around the car from 2-D images generated by a single side-view camera.

At Virginia Military Institute, undergraduates complete digital signal processing labs and conduct independent research projects with MATLAB and Data Acquisition Toolbox.

Third-party products enable engineers to target Simulink models to a range of real-time platforms. FPGA and DSP developers can generate synthesizable HDL and C code from Simulink models and run their designs on prototyping boards.

Create web views - HTML files generated by Simulink Report Generator™ that are interactive visual replicas of Simulink and Stateflow® models, which can be navigated just as models

This article demonstrates the use of object-oriented techniques in the MATLAB® language to implement a typical technical application. The examples use features available in MATLAB 7.6, part of release 2008a.

This article explains the rational behind some of the design decisions in MATLAB R2008a, including why MATLAB object-oriented features differ in significant ways from other popular object-oriented languages.

Tips and best practices to help you become fluent in MATLAB and achieve your programming goals

PolySpace products use sophisticated math and analysis to prove the absence of run-time errors without the need to compile and run the code.

Free, online book for educators and high-school students looking for material that goes beyond the standard courses.

Article Reprint from The MathWorks News & Notes, 2008: MATLAB based algorithms translate the millions of drive files accumulated by test vehicles into reports on vehicle performance and refueling infrastructure.

Using a typical numerical computing problem as an example, this article describes how to threads and parallel for loops to get code to work well in a multicore system.

New scenario analysis models enable Italy’s leading bank to comply with Basel II requirements by holding capital against losses arising from operational risk.

An integrated framework enables technicians unfamiliar with communications theory to specify an SDR design at a high level of abstraction.

Aerospace, automotive, communications, mechatronics and other organizations solve the challenge of verifying and validating embedded systems comprising software and electronics

MATLAB Central Newsreader Enhancements

Professors describe a lab called “MATLAB meets LEGO Mindstorms,” where more than 300 first-year students at RWTH Aachen University in Germany build and program their own robots.

In this article, we use MATLAB®, Image Processing Toolbox, and MATLAB Builder JA to create HDR Explorer, a Web-based experimental test platform that can be used to quickly evaluate how different HDR algorithms render LDR images.

Using a thermal model of a house as an example, this article describes a methodology for communicating with other devices via TCP/IP using inexpensive external hardware. The real-time system used is xPC Target.

Software systems deployed in safety-critical applications in aerospace and other industries must satisfy rigorous development and verification standards.

This article describes methods for modeling and simulating continuous and hybrid continuous-locking mechanical friction using Simulink, Simscape, SimDriveline, and SimMechanics. It is co-authored by Caterpillar and The MathWorks.

This article discusses how researchers at UC San Francisco and UC Davis analyzed high-resolution microscopy images of cells using MATLAB, Statistics Toolbox and Image Processing Toolbox.

SimEvents extends the Simulink environment for Model-Based Design into the discrete-event simulation domain. In this article, we use SimEvents to analyze resource constraints on three typical systems.

Case Western Reserve University researchers developed a programmable device that sends electrical signals to an implant that activates paralyzed limbs and muscles.

Case Western Reserve University researchers developed a programmable device that sends electrical signals to an implant that activates paralyzed limbs and muscles.

Using pre- and post-operative corneal topography data from a LASIK surgery patient as an example, this article describes the modal analysis of optics data using Zernike functions implemented in MATLAB®.

Use these tools and techniques to create designs that perform as expected over time and are insensitive to changes in manufacturing, operational, or environmental factors.

Analyzing Array-Based Comparative Genomic Hybridization Data

The MATLAB Desktop development environment offers interactive editors, browsers, and other tools to help you create, edit, and manage your data and programs.

As any airline passenger who has experienced moderate turbulence knows, an aircraft is not a rigid structure. In certain circumstances, the complex interaction between the flexible structure and the aerodynamics can produce undesirable effects.

Students at the University of Washington (UW) use MATLAB® and other MathWorks products in one of our most popular courses— EE436: Medical Instrumentation.

Bird strikes are a common threat to aircraft safety. One of the most effective ways to prevent them is to know the likely position of birds in any given location throughout the day.

Using disparate tools and languages to develop analog mixed-signal ICs makes the design process prone to error, time-consuming, and complicated. Model-Based Design addresses these problems by completing all design stages in MATLAB and Simulink.

Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University requires all students to take Computational Methods in Engineering during their freshman year.

In the summer of 2002, flooding in Europe caused billions of Euros in damage. Five years earlier, a 75% drop in the Thai stock market contributed to a 554-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on October 27, 1997.

In August 1969, NASA’s spin-stabilized Applications Technology Satellite 5 (ATS5) began to wobble, sending the spacecraft into an unplanned flat spin and crippling the mission. It was later found that this event was caused by excessive fuel slosh.

Engineers used Model-Based Design and rapid prototyping to build and test a controller before the fuel cell plant was available.

A unique experimental setup enables researchers to analyze avalanche behavior in a controlled laboratory setting.

The proliferation of multicore systems and clusters sets the stage for parallel computing with MATLAB.

Engineering tools and techniques are driving dramatic results in systems biology — from new drugs to biofuels.

Improve memory usage and increase code speed by understanding how MATLAB stores and accesses data.

Seth Popinchalk offers tips and tricks on using diagnostics to improve your Simulink models.

Using MATLAB based fluid dynamics models, engineers simulated the airflow through all 154 kilometers of tunnels and shafts simultaneously.

Descriptions of new third-party products for enhancing MATLAB and Simulink for Video and Image Applications

Using MATLAB graphics and GUI building tools, engineers developed an application for analyzing gain patterns in 3-D and 2-D simultaneously.

MATLAB based Vectorized Test Program Sets enable engineers to apply, measure, and analyze vectors of input and output signals in parallel.

Automated model checks help ensure that standards are correctly implemented in your Simulink model.

Ned Gulley describes using the File Exchange in MATLAB Central to find files quickly.

Every real-world system operates under uncertainty and failure to account for that uncertainty can lead to inaccurate predictions of system behavior.

Many MATLAB users who analyze data, develop and verify algorithms, or create software applications leave the environment to import data from external hardware.  This extra step creates inefficiencies by forcing the user to manually transfer data.

Researchers at the University of Michigan–Dearborn study the feasibility of using plug-in series hybrid technology to extend the range of electric vehicles.

Designing a new or modifying an existing flight vehicle is a complex, time-consuming process that brings both technical and process challenges.

An accurate system model is one that performs as expected and produces the desired results. To achieve this level of accuracy you must have a clear modeling goal.

Engineers use rapid prototyping to advance cochlear implant technology.

Extensive simulations help ensure a flawless first flight for a unique aircraft design.

Using nested functions and online support features.

Use MATLAB and Financial Toolbox to construct realistic, optimal portfolios that are stable over time.

A sample application analyzes worldwide temperature records and creates Excel charts from MATLAB data sets.

A MATLAB based monitoring tool lets hydrologists and ecologists use time series models to collect and interpret groundwater data.

System engineers streamline the workflow with Model-Based Design and a virtual breadboard.

Accelerator physicists at the University of London use multiple simulations and high-throughput computing to test beam-alignment algorithms.

Innovative applications of MathWorks products in the communications and semiconductor industries

Use Model-Based Design to build an executable specification for a WiMAX transmitter channel coder

Dr. Gene Golub has made the singular value decomposition one of the most powerful and widely used tools in modern matrix computation.

All but the simplest rigid-body machines are designed to operate within kinematic constraints that restrict the motion of machine components independently of the forces imposed upon them.

Engineers at BAE seized a rare opportunity to directly compare hand-coding of VHDL with a new approach built upon Model-Based Design.

Engineers and scientists use a variety of approaches to improve or design quality into products.

What colors do these pixel values represent?

SimMechanics and Simulink combine to form an efficient tool for simulating rigid-body mechanical systems, especially in control systems applications.

Vectorization is one of the core concepts of MATLAB. With one command it lets you process all elements of an array, avoiding loops and making your code more readable and efficient.

Electronically controlled automotive safety systems contribute significantly to vehicle safety, and they present a unique set of engineering challenges as well.

This article describes a land-cover aggregation and mosaic process implemented with MATLAB distributed computing tools.

What if Beethoven had been able to communicate directly with an electronic piano that could interpret his brain signals and record his compositions?

Article reprint from The Mathworks News & Notes, January 2006

Two years ago, researchers for the Human Genome Project unveiled a component “glossary” of the human body that will ultimately yield a database of the 3,000,000,000 chemical base pairs (the DNA sequence) in the human genome.

FPGA-based processing can add levels of performance only possible with custom ASICs.

Automotive engineers have developed lane tracking and departure warning systems that use a small camera to transmit video information about lane markings and road conditions.

Simulink Model Advisor enables you to check models for conditions and configuration settings to produce efficient models and generated code.

In this article, we describe how to write an application to share information among multiple elements with elegant code using nested functions, a new feature in MATLAB 7.

On January 14, 2005, one engineer watched nervously as a probe named Huygens began its descent toward Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.

PC-based rapid prototyping within Model-Based Design is widely recognized as a quick, efficient way to test ideas and experimental solutions early in development, when they are easier and less costly to fix.

Two new functions in MATLAB 7.1 (R14SP3) significantly simplify working with numeric datatypes at the byte level. The typecast function converts vector datatypes without changing the underlying bytes, and swapbytes changes endianness.

When you are developing algorithms to solve technical computing problems, it is often useful to create functions on-the-fly so that you can customize them at run-time without having to define them in files beforehand.

For most engineers and scientists, working with a model of a physical system instead of an actual prototype provides a convenient way to experiment with various design and control ideas.

The Signal Builder is a source block in the Simulink library that lets you quickly develop and modify test input data that you want to incorporate with your model.

While choosing how to upgrade sort for MATLAB 7, we used MATLAB to prototype sort algorithms and to add the new sort direction qualifiers 'ascend' and 'descend'.

Cleve Moler describes his inspiration for authoring MATLAB.

Why is writing “good” code so important? Efficient code executes faster and uses fewer resources. Maintainable code enables you to review, learn from, reuse, and adapt the code.

MATLAB 7 introduces a number of enhancements to support large data set handling. These include improvements to file access, data storage efficiency, and data processing speed, as well as support for new 64-bit platforms.

An important new feature of the MATLAB Compiler 4 is the capability to deploy applications that use MATLAB objects, such as those provided by the Data Acquisition Toolbox.

Use the System Identification toolbox to develop models of a black-box system without having to fully characterize the mathematics governing the system behavior.

This new capability enables processing of integer and single-precision data in its native type, resulting in more efficient memory usage and the ability to process larger, nondouble data sets.

Stateflow truth tables are the only construct in the Simulink® and Stateflow environment that support static analysis of logical completeness.

New textbook available in electronic and print editions.

The ten minutes it takes for data sent from Mars to reach Earth only intensified the suspense for engineers and scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as they waited in the California night for news of the landings of two Mars Rovers.

In terms of their size and processing speeds, modern FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) have attained a level that makes it possible not only to perform individual mathematical operations but also to accommodate entire DSP algorithms.

Four-dimensional arrays are about to become a lot more common in MATLAB. With the new Image Acquisition Toolbox, you can easily stream images from your frame grabbers and scientific cameras directly into MATLAB.

Eager to get home to Dayton, Ohio, for Christmas, Orville and Wilbur Wright rolled their Flyer out of its shed and onto rails laid on the hard, frozen sand, and decided to risk the 25 mph wind gusts.

The MATLAB Editor autosave feature was introduced in MATLAB 6.5 (Release 13). This feature automatically maintains backup files that preserve your M-file changes if MATLAB terminates unexpectedly.

We hope you’ve seen it many times. It’s on the covers of our books. It’s on our business cards and stationery. It’s even on a “sponsor a highway” sign on Route 9 in Natick,Massachusetts. But, do you really know what the logo is?

The need to bring innovative, high quality products to market faster is driving the increased use of models during the design and realization process in industry.

Interactive visualization tools help implement advanced statistical techniques for analyzing batch processes.

If you have ever lost your Command History for an entire session due to a system failure, you can avoid this by changing your preferences to save the history throughout the session instead of only at shutdown.

Stiffness is a subtle, difficult, and important - concept in the numerical solution of ordinary differential equations.

Many MATLAB users save time by pressing the up arrow key while in the Command Window to recall typed lines. Not nearly as many users, however, take advantage of the Command Window's tab completion feature.

The DICOM format describes how to compose messages to send between imaging modalities and defines a set of operations for transmitting them across a network.

Advances in the acquisition and analysis of biosignals such as electroencephalograms (EEGs) and electrocorticograms (ECoGs) are profoundly improving brain wave research.

This article walks you through a simple example that illustrates how to use Excel Builder and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to create a custom GUI-based application that plugs right into Microsoft Excel.

Many organizations make their data publicly available on Internet servers and provide an interface for extracting slices or sections of that data.

How are watersheds and catchment basins related to analyzing biological tissue, studying galaxies, or researching new semiconductor technology? And what is the connection to image processing?

A common measurement for studying the effect of burning fossil fuels on weather patterns is the level of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere.

Google's PageRank is an eigenvector of a matrix of order 2.7 billion.

In this technical example, we examine how to use SimMechanics to model physical components, synthesize controllers, and simulate the closed loop performance of a Stewart Platform, a six degrees-of-freedom positioning system.

MATLAB's special mathematical functions rely on skills from another era.

Ziggurat algorithm generates normally distributed random numbers.

We all use FFT s every day without even thinking about it.

Explore the use of array operators on matrices to implement functions of one and two variables.

Increasing the speed and capabilities of matrix computation

This is a supplement to the Cleve's Corner article, MATLAB Incorporates LAPACK

Engineers commonly face the challenge of designing filters with narrow passbands and transition bands.

Optimization Toolbox features new methods for large-scale problems

A history of the digital autopilot that landed men on the Moon 30 years ago.

OOPS is not an apology

Powerful new algorithms to explore, classify, and identify patterns in data.

Revisiting inverse, complex, hyperbolic, floating-point trig functions

Supplement to the Cleve's Corner article, "Trigonometry is a Complex Subject"

Getting the most out of the deal function.

Vectorizing cell array and structure references.

eigshow helps explain eigenvalues and singular values