TE1401 | TwinCAT 3 Target for MATLAB®

TwinCAT 3 Target for MATLAB® provides an interface between MATLAB® and TwinCAT. MATLAB®, the language of technical computing, is developed and distributed by the MathWorks company. The programming environment is widely used both in science and in industry. MATLAB® is a script language that is ideally suited for the development of algorithms and mathematical models.

With the TwinCAT 3 Target for MATLAB®, it is possible to make use of the functions developed in the MATLAB® script language in TwinCAT 3. The functions are automatically converted in C/C++ code with the aid of the MATLAB® Coder™ and compiled into TwinCAT objects with the TwinCAT 3 Target for MATLAB®. These objects can be used seamlessly in the TwinCAT 3 Engineering, e.g. extended with PLC source code to make an overall project, debugged and linked with fieldbus devices. The automatically generated modules can be integrated in the TwinCAT solution as TcCOM objects on the one hand and as PLC function blocks on the other. The inserted modules are downloaded with the complete TwinCAT project into the TwinCAT 3 runtime, where they are executed within the real-time environment like all other objects. TwinCAT 3 Target for Simulink® supports targets with Windows 32 bit and 64 bit as well as TwinCAT/BSD.

MATLAB® programmers are thus able to create series-ready application code for the real-time machine controller and to share it with colleagues. In addition, they can create complete TwinCAT 3 projects via a programming interface from MATLAB® and activate them on target systems with the aid of the TwinCAT 3 Automation Interface. Thus, the complete engineering can take place from MATLAB® if necessary.

Typical use cases for the TwinCAT 3 Target for MATLAB® are applications with a high demand on data processing, e.g. for predictive maintenance, Machine Learning and Computer Vision. The broad application spectrum also includes optimization tasks and robotic or motion applications, e.g. with complex trajectories.