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State Chart

State charts for modeling control logic

A state chart is a representation of an event-driven (reactive) system. In an event-driven system, the system makes a transition from one state (mode) to another, if the condition defining the change is true.

For example, you can use a state chart to represent the automatic transmission of a car. The transmission has these operating states: park, reverse, neutral, drive, and low. As the driver shifts from one position to another, the system makes a transition from one state to another, for example, from park to reverse.

State charts are used to model complex logic including:

Scheduling a sequence of tasks or steps for a system
Defining fault detection, isolation, and recovery logic
Supervising how to switch between different modes of operation

You can create state charts with Stateflow software and integrate them into a Simulink model. These state charts provide additional capabilities beyond traditional finite state machines, including:

Modeling hierarchical states for large-scale systems
Adding flow graphs to define complex decision logic
Defining orthogonal states to represent systems with parallelism

State chart, modeled in Stateflow, showing state hierarchy. Inner states are substates (children) of the outer state (called a superstate or parent).

State Chart

State charts for modeling control logic

General Introduction

Aerospace and Defense Applications

Automotive Applications