Graphical system design is a modern approach to designing measurement and control systems that integrates system design software with COTS

Commercial off-the-shelf

In the United States, Commercially available Off-The-Shelf is a Federal Acquisition Regulation term defining a nondevelopmental item of supply that is both commercial and sold in substantial quantities in the commercial marketplace, and that can be procured or utilized under government contract...

 hardware to dramatically simplify development. This approach combines user interfaces, models of computation, math and analysis, Input/output signals, technology abstractions, and various deployment target. It allows domain experts, or non- implementation experts, to access to design capabilities where they would traditionally need to outsource a system design expert.

This approach to system design is a super-set of Electronic System Level

Electronic system level

Electronic system level design and verification is an emerging electronic design methodology that focuses on the higher abstraction level concerns first and foremost. The term Electronic System Level or ESL Design was first defined by Gartner Dataquest, a EDA-industry-analysis firm, on February...

 (ESL) design. Graphical system design expands on the EDA-based ESL definition to include other types of embedded system design including industrial machines and medical devices. Many of these expanded applications can be defined as "the long tail

The Long Tail

The Long Tail or long tail refers to the statistical property that a larger share of population rests within the tail of a probability distribution than observed under a 'normal' or Gaussian distribution...

" applications.

System-level design

Graphical system design is an approach to designing an entire system, using more intuitive graphical software and off-the-shelf (non-custom) hardware devices to refine the design, create initial prototypes and even use for the few run of deployments. The approach may involve Algorithm engineering

Algorithm engineering

Algorithm engineering is a combination of theoretical algorithm design with real-world data. By taking an algorithm and combining it with a hardware device connected to the real world, you are able to more accurately verify and validate the algorithm results and behavior...

. The approach can prove successful when designers need to get something to market quickly (medical video: http://www.designnews.com/article/CA6466514.html) or with a team of non-embedded experts like Boston Engineering http://www.boston-engineering.com/spotlight.htm to create a mechatronics-based machine.

"Graphical system design is a complementary but encompassing approach that includes embedded and electronic system design, implementation, and verification tools. ESL and graphical system design are really part of the same movement--higher abstraction and more design automation looking to solve the real engineering challenges that designers are facing today--addressing design flaws that are introduced at the specification stage to ensure they're detected well before validation for on-time product delivery."

Tools

Graphical system design relies on open connectivity. For example, tools that can be used in the design phase include (in alphabetical order): Ansoft Designer, AutoCAD

AutoCAD

AutoCAD is a software application for computer-aided design and drafting in both 2D and 3D. It is developed and sold by Autodesk, Inc. First released in December 1982, AutoCAD was one of the first CAD programs to run on personal computers, notably the IBM PC...

, CarSim

Carsim

CarSim is a commercial software package that predicts the performance of vehicles in response to driver controls in a given environment...

, DOORS, Dymola

Dymola

Dymola is a commercial modeling and simulation environment based on theopen Modelica modeling language. It is developed bythe Swedish company Dassault Systèmes AB, Lund...

, LabVIEW

LabVIEW

LabVIEW is a system design platform and development environment for a visual programming language from National Instruments. LabVIEW provides engineers and scientists with the tools needed to create and deploy measurement and control systems.The graphical language is named "G"...

, MSC.Adams, MultiSim

MultiSIM

NI Multisim is an electronic schematic capture and simulation program which is part of a suite of circuit design programs, along with NI Ultiboard. Multisim is one of the few circuit design programs to employ the original Berkeley SPICE based software simulation...

, NEi Nastran

NEi Nastran

NEi Nastran is an engineering analysis and simulation software product of NEi Software Based on NASA's Structural Analysis program, the software is a finite element analysis solver used to generate solutions for linear and nonlinear stress, dynamics, and heat transfer characteristics of...

, SolidWorks

SolidWorks

SolidWorks is a 3D mechanical CAD program that runs on Microsoft Windows and is being developed by Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp., a subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes, S. A. . SolidWorks is currently used by over 1.3 million engineers and designers at more than 130,000 companies worldwide...

, SPICE

SPICE

SPICE is a general-purpose, open source analog electronic circuit simulator.It is a powerful program that is used in integrated circuit and board-level design to check the integrity of circuit designs and to predict circuit behavior.- Introduction :Unlike board-level designs composed of discrete...

, OpenWire (library)

OpenWire (library)

The OpenWire is an open source Dataflow programming VCL and FireMonkey library that extends the functionality of Delphi, C++ Builder and Lazarus by providing pin type component properties. The properties can be connected to each other...

.

The prototyping stage is more about taking algorithm design and implementing them on hardware for higher quality designs. An effective prototyping platform includes a high-level language, real-time processors, FPGA logic, modular I/O and any intellectual property

Intellectual property

Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...

 needed.

The deploy stage is mostly about hardware - where you put your design in the final stage. This may involve MPUs

Microprocessor

A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...

or FPGAs.

Examples

Examples of engineers and scientists applying graphical system design techniques include:

• Researchers Use Graphical System Design for Development and Control of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles
• Developing a Robotic Manipulator for Cancer Therapy Using Graphical System Design
• Graphical system design for embedded control systems

http://www.ciol.com/Design-Trends/News-Reports/Graphical-system-design-for-embedded-control-systems/15608107082/0/