Modelling language

The MathWorks has announced the Simscape language, a new capability that enables textual authoring of physical modelling components, domains and libraries in the Simulink environment. The language is included in Simscape, which extends Simulink for modelling and simulating mechatronic and other multidomain physical systems using a physical network, or acausal modelling, approach.

The Simscape language, based on the MATLAB language, enables engineers to develop re-usable models of components and systems for rapidly advancing technologies, such as fuel cells, wind power systems and hybrid electric vehicles. With this capability, Simscape can be extended by end users and partners to create and share re-usable models, thereby raising the efficiency of teams and improving communication.

With these shared physical models, design teams can simulate system behaviour more accurately, develop more robust control strategies, perform design tradeoffs, and find system performance errors early in the development process. Companies can explore more design options and help reduce the cost of testing, as errors are found in simulation rather than requiring hardware prototypes.

As systems grow in complexity and require the integration of additional technologies, such as with mechatronics systems, engineers need simulation tools that span electrical, mechanical, hydraulic and other physical domains. In the past, engineering teams needed to master unrelated tools from multiple software vendors and learn to connect them together in cosimulation, which is time-consuming, can require detailed understanding of simulation techniques and makes automated validation testing challenging. Now engineers can work in a single environment by combining Simscape with domain-specific physical modelling tools from The MathWorks, and avoid the complex task of setting up cosimulation.