Any MATLAB/Simulink update for 2012?

Technical Programming
1

It looks like back in 2010 there was some dicussion of the topic, with Mathworks looking for Beta test volunteers. As far as I’m aware, nothing actually materialized for the 2011 season. Does anyone have reason to believe that we should expect anything on the MATLAB/Simulink front in 2012? How about any FRC simulation tools from NI?

2

I’m not aware of any matlab work for FRC.

The focus this year is on supporting the new 4-slot cRIO-FRC II, so I don’t believe there will be simulation for 2012. I have seen that physics simulation was added to the LabVIEW for commercial robotics toolkit, so there is definitely some technology there that could be leveraged for FRC in the future.

3

He’s referring to this: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86223&highlight=simulink which took simulink models and output c++ code.

4

I contacted the poster in that thread and got set up with 6 standard licenses for my teams. Not exactly what you are asking, but it will still be useful this season.

5

Did those teams ever put it to use? Any chance someone could comment on how useful/not-useful it turned out to be?

6

We used my copy from school last year to design the drivetrain control loops for 254’s robot last year. It was fun to be able to teach the students how real tools work and how to design a control loop using all the right math. I requested a couple licences for this coming year so we could do it again without needing to haul my machine in.

7

A Simulink blockset for programming FRC robots, based on the WPILib C++ library, was available for the 2011 FRC season. However, this blockset won’t be available for the 2012 season (primarily because we won’t be able to update it in time for the kickoff).

Note: FRC teams are still eligible to receive free licenses for MATLAB, Simulink and any relevant MathWorks software. While you won’t able to use the software to program the robot, you can use it for other activities (such as control system design, simulation, and data analysis). To request software for your team, see the bottom of this page.

Best regards,
Gautam Vallabha
MathWorks