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Scilab as an alternative for Matlab

1. A new menu will appear in the main window called Add and in the File menu the buttons New and Load are replaced by Save and Export respectively It is only possible to create or load a new figure by restarting guide In the listbox the name of the created or loaded figure is shown Select this and click Edit to load its position size and name into the property fields Now it is possible to replace resize and rename the figure window It is also possible to add some controls first and edit the figure window later on Controls can be added by using the Add menu There are eight controls to choose from Pushbutton Radiobutton Checkbox Edit Text Slider Frame Listbox The popupmenu control is missing because it s position and size are set automatic when called It is also not possible to add a menu to the figure for the same reason A menu is placed and sized automatically too These controls can be added manually when a sci file is exported When a control is selected it will be added to the figure in the default position and size Also a default name is set to the control and displayed in the listbox Guide also sets default background colours and text alignment for easy positioning purposes These values can be edited manually when a sci file is exported The position and size of the controls can be edited by selecting a control in the listbox and pressing Edit The position size and name will then be loaded into the property fields When a figur
2. 11 src tar gz from the installation CD to usr src Type cd usr src tk8 4 1 I unix Type configure enabled shared Type make Type make install Untar scilab 4 0 src tar tar from the installation CD to usr local Untar all files from the folder man eng scilab 4 0 in man eng scilab 4 0 tar tar from the installation CD to usr local scilab 4 0 man eng Overwrite all files Type cd usr local scilab 4 0 Type configure without java Type make all Installing Scilab Scicos amp RTAI add ons Type cd usr src rtai rtai lab scilab macros Open usr src rtai rtai lab macros Makefile and edit the line SCILAB DIR usr local scilab 4 0 Type In s usr local gcc 3 2 3 lib libg2c so usr local lib libg2c so Type In s usr local gcc 3 2 3 lib libg2c so 0 usr local lib libg2c so 0 Type dconfig Type make install Type exit Type cd usr src rtai rtai lab scilab macros Type make user Type In s usr local scilab 4 0 bin scilab usr local bin scilab Appendix C Most important guide functions New file function file new global ndialogs global activedialog ndialogs ndialogs l activedialog figure position 5 350 200 200 figure name Dialog string ndialogs backgroundcolor 236 233 216 tag Dialog strin ndialogs listbox_add Dialog string ndialogs setworklayout endfunction Load file function file load global activedialog global path global ndialogs gl
3. 20 350 140 figure name Jogmode background 236 233 216 tag tag r3g jogmode statictextl uicontrol Rl2 r3g jogmode style text string I Noss jogmode a constant velocity reference can be designed horizontalalignment left position 5 110 340 25 background 236 233 216 tag statictextl jogmode text tO uicontrol R12_r3g_ jogmode style text String t0 position 5 70 65 251 background 236 233 216 tag tag_jogmode_ text tO jogmode_ t0 uicontrol R12 r3g_ jogmode style edit String O position 70 70 65 25 background 255 255 2551 tag tag_ jogmode_ t0 jogmode_text_ xO uicontrol R12_r3g_ jogmode style ec Mi position 5 40 65 25 background 236 233 216 tag_jogmode_ text x0 jogmode_ x0 uicontrol R12 r3g_ jogmode style edit String O position 70 40 65 25 background 255 gt 255 tag tag_ jogmode_ x0 rag jogmode_ text_ vel uicontrol R12_ r3g_ jogmode style text String position 5 10 65 25 background 236 233 216 tag ar jogmode text vel tag jogmode vel uicontrol R12 r3g jogmode style edit string 1 position 70 10 65 25 background 255 255 255 tag tag jogmode vel Ee EN ON EE ES ae PUS DON quinte callback cb_jogmode_accept string Accept position 280 5 65 25 background 236 233 216 tag tag
4. 5 65 backgroundcolor 236 233 ols tag tag edit ref del y edit ref accept uicontrol R12 r3g edit ref style pushbutton callback cb edit ref accept string Accept position 430 5 65 25 backgroundcolor 236 233 216 tag tag_ edit_ref_ accept edit_ref_status uicontrol R12_ r3g edit ref style text horizontalalignment left position 150 40 340 25 backgroundcolor 236 233 216 foregroundColor 100 191 100 tag tag edit ref status Edit trajectory window global edit part axes edit part axes max winsid 1 edit part axes scf edit part axes subplot 4 1 1 plot 1 xtitle C t s pos m or rad subplot 4 1 2 plot 1 xtitle t s vel m s or rad s subplot 4 1 3 plot 1 xtitle t s acc m s 2 or rad s 2 subplot 4 1 4 plot 1 xtitleC t s jerk m s 3 or Fy edit part axes figure position 20 20 40 0 500 position velocity acceleration and jerk edit part axes figure size edit part axes figure name R12 r3g edit part figure position 430 20 150 540 figure name Ref3edit part backgroundcolor 236 233 216 tag tag R12 r3g edit part edit part text tO uicontrol R12 r3g edit part style text string t0 position 5 510 25 25 background 236 233 216 tag tag edit part text LU edit part tO uicontrol R12 r3g edit part style ed
5. 99 102 Figure 24 results of send and receive side respectively without using RTAI scopes 29 5 Conclusions The differences between Scilab 4 and Scilab 3 and between RTAI 3 2 and RTAI 3 3 are pretty small Especially with RTAI only some core changes were made In Scilab 4 the user interface is changes so that it becomes more user friendly and Matlab like Also some functions are adapted so that these can be used in a same way as in Matlab Unfortunately Scicos is not updated and its user interface is still out of date and user unfriendly but this will be solved in the next version probably because this version is the last using the old graphic style Within the installation not that much is changed although a couple new errors were discovered and solved Although the user interface of Scilab and especially Scicos is not as user friendly as Matlabs there are a few ways to create custom user interface By using Scilabs own user interface some predefined dialogs can be used or by using tlc and tk shared libraries own dialogs can be created A lot of functions that handle custom user interface with tlc and tk shared libraries are the same as in Matlab so the mfile2sci tool can be used to convert m files to sci files if the user interface already exists in Matlab Otherwise it is possible to create graphical user interface manually or by using the guide tool which is created to simplify the graphics design process The different ways to create u
6. It s also possible to change properties during runtime by using the following figure hdl findobj tag figure set figure hdl figure position 200 200 Within a figure window it s possible to put certain controls that handle certain user actions These controls are called by using the following command control hdl uicontrol figure hdl properties This control will be put into a figure with handle figure hdl and control hdlis a handle to the control The handle can be used to use the following properties e backgroundcolor this property sets the backgroundcolor of the control Use a vector with three values between zero and one a red component green component and blue component red green blue e callback this property is used when a callback is needed after a certain action of a user The callback can only be applied to pushbuttons and sliders Other user controls can t have a callback The property refers to a function which handles the callback e fontangle a property to set the style of text on the user control This property can be set to three different value s normal italic or oblique e fontsize property to set the size of the text on a control The size is set in fontunits see the next property e fontunits this property can be set to points pixels or normalized and handles the units in which the fontsize is specified e fontweight this property is a text style property too It sets the font thickn
7. REFa2 t REFt2 t REFt2 REFjerk t REFt2 t REFt2 t REFt2 6 elseif t lt REFt4 aref aref 0 vref vref REFv3 qref qref REFXStrt REFS3 REFV3 t REFt3 elseif t lt REFt5 aref aref REFjerk t REFt4 vref vref REFv4 0 5 REFjerk t REFt4 t REFt4 qref qref REFxstrt REFS4 REFv4 t REFt4 REFjerk t REFt4 t REFt4 t REFt4 6 elseif t REFt6 aref aref REFa5 vref vref REFV5 REFa5 t REFt5 qref qref REFxstrt REFS5 REFv5 t REFt5 0 5 REFa5 t REFt5 t REFt5 elseif t REFt7 aref aref REFa6 REFjerk t REFt6 vref vref REFv6 REFa6 t REFt6 0 5 REFjerk t REFt6 t REFt6 qref qref REFxstrt REFS6 REFV6 t REFt6 0 5 REFa6 t REFt6 t REFt6 REFjerk t REFt6 t REFt6 t REFt6 6 else aref aref 0 vref vref 0 j qref qref REFxstrt REFs7 en if REFidir 1 aref aref vref vref qref qref end end tref tref tijd end t tref y aref vref qref endfunction Appendix F Contents of the CD All software discussed in this report is written to a CD included with the report The following files and folders are on the CD Table 2 Documents and folders on CD Folder All documentation used in this report and useful information documentation about Scilab Scicos and RTAI Folder installation All files that are needed during installation Folder home Files that are created these files could best be put
8. Simulink model and retrieve the different outputs To draw the graphs in the REF3 user interface the REF3 Simulink model using a s function as mentioned in Maassen 2006 is used With the outputs graphs can be drawn The s function which is linked to a user defined block in Simulink contains the code that calculates positions velocities accelerations and jerks In paragraph 3 4 2 it can be seen that it s useful to know how this function works so a short explanation follows To retrieve the desired trajectory a position velocity and acceleration like in figure 18 can be plotted This acceleration consist of a couple linear functions that describes the desired acceleration for the trajectory This plot can be separated into eight different zones to to tg For each zone a linear function can be formulated Integrating this functions once respectively 21 twice gives functions for velocity and position Differentiating the acceleration functions once gives the required jerk functions When the functions are known it is possible to make a loop over time from to to te Within this loop check for every time which zone is active and use the corresponding functions to calculate position velocity acceleration and jerk 3 4 2 REF3 user interface in Scilab Because the REF3 user interface already exists in Matlab the mfile2sci tool is able to convert all files from Matlab to Scilab If a user interface doesn t exist already a new user interface ha
9. an entire toolbox propagating inference through toolbox functions O O The set of translated function has been extended in particular with the basic graphic functions Scilab function sum prod extended to the first non singleton matlab semantics to improve readability and efficiency of translated code Try catch construct added to Scilab for a better translation e Scipad editor O O 0006 O O O OO O O O OO O A debugging tool is now available Drag and drop is now supported Split a Scipad window Print file from Scipad is now available Scipad is easily localized See Adding translations in the Scipad Help Menu Today English German French Swedish Polish Norwegian and Italian languages are supported User settings and text colours are now configurable and saved across editing sessions Colorization of strings rewritten now supports strings on continued lines Colorization of files launched in the background with progress bar Quick access in the file menu for recently opened saved files Identification of Scilab predefined variables and library functions in Scilab scripts Miscellaneous file management improvements read only flag absolute pathnames to files pruned pathnames display revert to saved feature MRU Most Recently Used list Keyword completion added keyword list now completely dynamical Undo Redo rewritten Go to functions rewritten and expanded Find Replace rewritten includes f
10. barhomogenize pie Graphical Environment improved and extended Manipulation of the hierarchy of the entities has been made easier thanks to a hierarchy browser toolbar has been added to the graphic windows the function toolbar can be used to set or unset it Windows specific Graphic window Events mouse keyboard handling have been improved and extended Click double click press release move Key press and release with or without Shift and Ctrl modifiers xs2bmp and xs2emf functions added to export graphics under bmp and EMF Enhanced Meta File formats Windows specific colour bar function added e Numerical computation O O O Sparse operations and functions like real imag matrix spones revisited to improve efficiency Bessel functions extended to work in the complex case using Slatec routines Incompatibilities The semantics of besseli besselj besselk and bessely functions has been changed and extended The oldbesseli oldbesselj oldbesselk and oldbessely correspond to the old obsolete semantics New version of linpro and quapro Thanks to Cecilia Pola bvodeS function added to solve differential equation with boundary value Thanks to Rainer Von Seggern detrend function added to remove constant linear or piecewise linear trend from a vector Interface with Excel Functions to read Excel files e Matlab to Scilab converter O Translate paths function improved to allow conversion on
11. can be displayed when the user clicks Pushbutton1 Radiobutton Checkbox Edit Tex Listb OX BB Figure 16 all controls on one dialog e tag identification string with which the control can be identified Using findobj it s possible to retrieve the handle of the control e units this property sets the units used when setting the position property Can be set to points pixels normalized e userdata property to associate Scilab object to controls Not used very often e value this is a the value of certain user controls With checkboxes and radiobuttons value is max when checked or min when unchecked With listboxes and popupmenu value is a vector of strings With sliders value is the sliderposition e verticalalignment property that sets the vertical text position on a control Can be set using one of the following three strings top middle or bottom It s only possible to use this property on text and checkboxes controls Properties of controls can be set when called control hdl uicontrol figure hdl style edit tag control But it is also possible to change properties during runtime control hdl findobj tag control set control hdl position 5 35 200 2001 Finally it is also possible to place menu s into a figure window These menu s are shown on top of the window Menu s can be called using the following code menu hdl uicontrol Cfigure hdl properties menu hdl uidon
12. guide by clicking on the cross button in the right corner of the window In that way guide is not correctly closed and problems can occur when using it the next time 19 3 3 2 Working of Guide While programming guide some problems were discovered with the Scilab user interface The biggest issue that needed to be solved in order to make a workable guide tool was the fact that Scilab isn t compatible with drag and drop So dragging a control from one window to another isn t possible The second problem is that not all controls use callback when clicked So selecting a control by clicking on the figure object isn t possible This would only be possible with a pushbutton and slider control because only these two controls use a callback function but more controls are needed These problems are solved together by using a listbox which displays the figure name and all control names which are added to the figure When a control is added to the figure object it is placed in the left lower corner with standard width and height The control gets a name and a tag which is the same This name is also added to the listbox Guide checks whether no other control has the same name so duplicate names aren t possible and every control can be identified by their own tag When a control is selected it can be edited by clicking the edit button the position and size of the selected control will then be loaded into the property fields The selected control can be
13. install Mesa and EFLTK and then patch the kernel Finally RTAI 3 3 and Scilab 4 need to be installed These installation steps are also exactly the same as in Maassen 2006 Be aware that the following steps need to be adapted in order to install everything e Everywhere replace linux 2 6 10 by linux 2 6 15 e Everywhere replace rtai 3 2 by rtai 3 3 Everywhere replace linux 2 6 1 1 fusion 0 7 by linux 2 6 12 6 fusion 0 9 1 Everywhere replace scilab 3 1 1 by scilab 4 0 In appendix B the installation steps are adapted as written above Only the installation steps are copied so for more information or error solutions see Maassen 2006 2 3 Solutions to known issues and problems In Maassen 2006 already a couple issues were mentioned regarding the installation and usage of Matlab Scilab and Linux The installation errors can occur with the new installation too but no more errors were discovered while installing the new versions Nevertheless a couple new errors were discovered during usage of Matlab Scilab and Linux 2 3 1 Matlab e Problem start up error when trying to start Matlab from within a console window Matlab starts in console window displaying following error Xlib connection to 0 0 refused by server Xlib No protocol specified Xlib connection to 0 0 refused by server Xlib No protocol specified warning Unable a open display 0 0 MATLAB is starting without a displa You will not b able to display graphi
14. management options gt gt APM Include Power management options gt gt ACPI gt gt needed functions for a laptop include AC Adapter Battery Button Fan Processor Thermal Zone and other needed features Include File systems gt gt Reiserfs support Save and exit Type cp usr local gcc 3 2 3 lib gcc lib i686 pc linux gnu 3 2 3 include stdarg h usr src linux 2 6 15 rtai 3 3 include stdarg h Type cp usr src linux 2 6 15 rtai 3 3 include mca legacy h usr src linux 2 6 15 rtai 3 3 include linux mca legacy h Type make Type make modules_install Type make install Add the new kernel to boot grub menu lst Use as title Debian GNU Linux kernel 2 6 15 rtai 3 3 Default as root use hd0 6 as kernel use boot vmlinuz 2 6 15 rtai 3 3 ro ramdisk_size 100000 init etc init lang us acpi off noapic noapm xmodule fbdev nomce quiet vga 791 Reboot using the new kernel Type cd usr src rtai Type make menuconfig Change General gt gt Installation directory to usr realtime rtai 3 2 Include RTAI Lab Type cd usr local gcc 3 2 3 lib gcc lib 1686 pc linux gnu 3 2 3 include stddef h usr include stddef h Type make Type make install Open etc profile and add usr realtime rtai 3 2 bin to the PATH variable Scilab Untar 1c18 4 I I src tar gz from the installation CD to usr src Type cd usr src tcl8 4 I I unix Type configure enabled shared Type make Type make install Untar 1k8 4
15. of sci files is almost the same as the syntax used in m files As mentioned before a big difference is the use of a then statement A bigger issue concerns the functions Not all Matlab functions are adapted to sci files yet and even when they are adapted not always the names are familiar To solve this problem a smart tool has been created which can convert m files to sci files Unfortunately a couple bugs can appear when using this tool At first when converting a m file a lot of warnings will appear Far most warnings concern syntax issues or function missing issues The syntax warnings can be ignored mostly because syntax is almost the same Function missing warnings are caused due to the fact that the tool thinks that a function doesn t exist in Scilab But often this appears to be wrong because the functions do exist This is strange and can only be explained by suggesting that the tool isn t up to date Furthermore this is not really a problem because the warnings can easily be ignored Sometimes however the tool replaces the function by a Matlab equivalent which has a mtlb prefix Pretty often this is not necessary and the prefixes can be deleted Another error occurs when trying to convert a whole directory at once This option should be available but doesn t work A simple workaround script can be written to convert a whole directory at once mfilepath resultpath recmode f onlydouble f verbosemode 0
16. prettyprint f S dir mfilepath myfiles S 2 nof size myfiles for i 1 nof 1 myfile myfiles i if max strindex myfile m length myfile 1 then mfile2sci mfilepath myfile resultpath recmode onlydouble verbosemode prettyprint end end This script is implemented in a sci file and it can be found on the CD For help on the input variables see the help file of mfile2sci by typing help mfile2sci in the Scilab command window Matlab to Scilab conversion tool FILES SELECTION Convert a whole directory Directory name home pieter Browse Convert a single file File name senter a file name gt Browse OUTPUT FILES DIRECTORY Directory name nome pieter Browse CONVERSION OPTIONS Recursive conversion Ves 9 No Only double values used v Yes 9 No Verbose Mode 0 1 2993 Generate pretty printed code v Ves 9 No VALIDATION Cancel Convert Figure 5 Mfile2sci converter 32 Custom user interface User interface is used to simplify certain tasks which otherwise would have been very circuitous At this time user interface on a computer is often represented by a window or dialog with certain controls These controls have different ways of handling and can do different tasks Within Scilab there are two different ways in which custom user interface can be designed Scilab itself has a user interface toolbox and it s possible to use tlc and tk shared libraries to
17. slider w set hdl guide slider w value string position 3 hdl guide edit h findobjC tag guide edit h set hdl guide edit h string string position 4 hdl guide slider h findobj tag guide_slider_h set hdl guide slider h value string position 4 hdl guide edit rename findobj tag guide edit rename set hdl guide edit rename string control if activecontrol activedialog then T dialogposition get activedialog position set hdl guide slider x max dialogposition 3 set hdl guide slider y max dialogposition 4 set hdl guide slider w max dialogposition 3 set hdl guide slider h max dialogposition 4 else set hdl guide slider x max 1000 set hdl guide slider y max 1000 set hdl guide slider w max 1000 set hdl guide slider h max 1000 en endfunction Add item to list box function listbox add newitem hdl guide listbox findobj tag guide_listbox items get hdl guide listbox string ind strindex items newitem if ind then disp Control already exists please rename newitem else if items then j set hdl guide listbox string newitem else 4 set hdl guide listbox string items newitem en end endfunction Replace and resize items for example x coordinate slider moves function check control global position hdl guide edit x hdl guide edit y hdl guide edit w hdl guide edit h findobj tag guide ed
18. the part by clicking in the graph In Matlab the function ginput is used but Scilab hasn t got this function Nevertheless 22 a pretty familiar function called xclick is able to do the same The function must be used in the following way c_i c_x c_y c_w c_m xclickQ With c_i the button that is pressed or clicked c_x and c_y the coordinates of the position of the mouse click c_w the window number where the click has occurred and c_m the number of a menu when clicked in a menu See Scilab help for more information In paragraph 3 1 4 has been mentioned that graphs can not be plotted into figures This brings a certain deficiency in programming REF3 user interface A communication between the figure and graphic window needs to be implemented Fortunately this is not really hard to do When a graphic window is called a handle is saved in a variable When this variable is first declared as global it can be used in every function So when something needs to be plotted in a graphic window just call the handle and the plot can be done Because the REF3 user interface needs to be implemented in a sci file created in Maassen 2006 a pause statement needs to be implemented just after the main dialog is loaded Otherwise the main dialog would appear but the sci file from Maassen 2006 would still be running and cause errors because no trajectory is created yet This sci file needs to be paused until the accept button is clicked and a traject
19. users home directory When those executables are created open as much console windows as tasks that need to run simultaneously and be sure that in all windows super user mode is turned on by typing su and a password The first task needs to be called using the following commands r filenamel n host interface task namel With filenamel the name of the executable that has to be run as first task and host interface task namel is a identifier for the task When running multiple tasks this is needed to identify each task so all tasks must have their own unique identifier Next tasks can all be started by using another console window and typing filenamei n host interface task namei If all tasks are running RTAILab can be started by opening a new console window in normal mode not as super user and entering the following commands xhost su password xrtailab 25 With password the password of your account The program is started To connect to a task select Connect to target in the File menu A dialog will appear with standard value s Change the value for Task identifier into the name of the identifier of the task that needs to be scoped and click Ok RT AILab is now connected to the selected task To scope more than one task it is possible to start a new RTAILab or to disconnect by clicking Disconnect in the File menu and reconnecting to another task using another Task identifier Running multiple RTAILabs at the same time requir
20. 14sp2 toolbox wintarget usr local matlabrl4sp2 toolbox diet usr local matlabr14sp2 toolbox pizza usr local matlabr14sp2 toolbox printer usr local matlabrl4sp2 toolbox demo01 usr local matlabr14sp2 toolbox minipato usr local matlabr14sp2 toolbox pato usr local matlabr14sp2 toolbox ref3ma o Choose Save and Close Problem testref3 displays the following error Error evaluating OpenFcn callback of Ref3 block mask edit part S Function Undefined function or variable irepeat e Solution before starting testref3 type global irepeat or don t use testref3 but ref3sa template by typing ref3sa template 2 3 2 2 3 3 Scilab Problem help browser doesn t work Solution o Exit Scilab o Download file man eng scilab 4 0 tar tar from www scilab org o Untar all files from the folder man eng scilab 4 0 in man eng scilab 4 0 tar tar to usr local scilab 4 0 man eng Overwrite all files Problem during RT AI Code generation in Scicos the following error might occur Sorry file name not defined in c block Solution click on all blocks in the scheme so that all blocks are opened once Linux Problem when for some reason Microsoft Windows is installed or reinstalled after Linux was installed in a other partition the start up grub menu won t appear anymore Solution A new installation of Microsoft Windows to another partition will overwrite the Master Boot Record mbr so that the link to the grub menu is del
21. 255 255 tag tag edit part vel edit part text te uicontrol R12 r3g edit part style text string acc position 5 200 25 25 background 236 233 216 tag tag edit part text te edit part acc uicontrol R12 r3g edit part style edit string 1 position 30 200 65 25 background 255 255 255 tag tag edit part acc edit part text jerk pene r3g edit part style text string jerk position 5 80 25 25 background 236 233 216 tag tag edit_ part_text_ jerk edit part jerkeuicontrol R12 r3g edit part style edit string 10 position 30 80 65 25 background 255 255 255 tag tag edit part jerk edit part text status uicontrol R12_ r3g edit part style text string waiting for input horizontalalignment left 5 30 150 25 background 236 233 216 foregroundcolor 100 191 100 tag tag_edit_part_label_status edit_part_check uicontrol R12_r3g_edit_part style pushbutton callback cb edit part check string Check position 5 5 65 LPS background 236 233 216 tag tag edit part check edit part accept uicontrol R12 r3g edit part ed pushbutton callback cb edit part accept string Accept position 70 5 65 25 background 236 233 216 tag tag edit part accept Jogmode window R12_r3g_jogmode figure position 20
22. EFt3 REFt2 REFjerk REFt3 REFt2 REFt3 REFt2 REFt3 REFt2 6 REFa4 0 REFVASREFV3 REFS4 REFS3 REFV3 REFt4 REFt3 REFa5 REFjerk REFt5 REFt4 REFV5 REFV4 0 5 REFjerk REFt5 REFt4 REFt5 REFt4 REFS5 REFS4 REFV4 REFt5 REFt4 REFjerk REFt5 REFt4 REFt5 REFt4 REFt5 REFt4 6 REFa6 REFa5 REFV6 REFV5 REFa5 REFt6 REFt5 REFS6 REFS5 REFV5 REFt6 REFt5 0 5 REFa5 REFt6 REFt5 REFt6 REFt5 REFa7 REFa6 REFjerk REFt7 REFt6 REFV7 REFV6 REFa6 REFt7 REFt6 0 5 REFjerk REFt7 REFt6 REFt7 REFt6 REFS7 REFS6 REFV6 REFt7 REFt6 0 5 REFa6 REFt7 REFt6 REFt7 REFt6 REFjerk REFt7 REFt6 REFt7 REFt6 REFt7 REFt6 6 BE NE EEE E J while j lt length tref if tstart lt tref j if j tref qref aref vref tref tref 1 j 1 qref qref 1 j 1 aref aref 1 j 1 vref vref 1 j 1 else end end j j 1 end for t tijd if t lt REFtO aref aref 0 vref vref 0 qref qref REFxstrt REFs0 elseif t lt REFtl aref aref REFjerk t REFtO vref vref 0 5 REFjerk t REFt0 t REFt0 qref qref REFXStrt REFSO REFjerk t REFtO t REFt0 t REFt0 6 elseif t lt REFt2 aref aref REFal vref vref REFVI REFal t REFtl qref qref REFxstrt REFS1 REFv1 t REFt1 0 5 REFa1 t REFtl t REFtl elseif t lt REFt3 aref aref REFa2 REFjerk t REFt2 vref vref REFV2 REFa2 t REFt2 0 5 REFjerk t REFt2 t REFt2 qref qref REFXStrt REFS2 REFV2 t REFt2 0 5
23. Scilab 3 and Scilab 4 1 Appendix B Installation of Scilab 4 and RTAI 3 3 1 Installation of Knoppix Installation steps in Linux Mesa EFLTK A new patched kernel RTAI Scilab Installing Scilab Scicos amp RTAI add ons LA L LA LA a KE Appendix C Most important guide functions 1 New file Load file Save file Export file Add a control for example the pushbutton control Delete a control Edit a control Add item to list box Replace and resize items for example x coordinate slider moves Rename control Anna bh E Lad MA HA Appendix D Graphical interface function of REF3 1 Main window 1 Edit trajectory window 2 Jogmode window 3 Appendix E Sim function in Scilab 1 Appendix F Contents of the CD 1 iii 1 Introduction With the increasing number of real time applications an increasing want to cheap reliable and easy to use controller software originates very reliable software package currently on the market is of course Matlab in combination with Simulink This software provides a user friendly interface to design controllers that in combination with the real time workshop can handle real time processes disadvantage of Matlab is that it is a commercial software package and it is therefore pretty expensive s an alternative for Matlab Scilab can be found This open source software package can be downloaded for free and when used in combination with Real Time Application Interface RTAD it is possib
24. Scilab as an alternative for Matlab P W M van Zutven DCT 2006 105 Implementing graphical user interface in Scilab 4 including a short introduction to multi rate tasking Author Student number DCT number Supervisor Date P W M van Zutven 0553508 DCT 2006 105 M J G van de Molengraft 31 08 2006 Contents k Introduction 1 25 Scilab 4 and RTAI 3 3 2 2 1 Major changes 2 2 1 1 Scilab 4 2 2 12 RTAI3 3 2 2 2 Installation 2 2 3 Solutions to known issues and problems 3 2 3 1 Matlab 3 2 3 2 Scilab 5 2 3 3 Linux 5 3 User Interface in Scilab 4 6 3 1 Scilab user interface 6 3 1 1 Main window 6 3 1 2 Scipad 7 3 1 3 Scicos 7 3 1 4 Graphics and figures 8 3 1 5 M file to sci converter 9 3 2 Custom user interface 10 3 2 1 Scilabs own GUI and dialogs 10 3 2 2 GUI using tlc and tk shared libraries 13 3 3 Guide 18 3 3 1 User manual 19 3 3 2 Working of Guide 20 3 3 3 Known bugs and issues 20 34 REF3 user interface example 21 3 4 1 Working of REF3 user interface 21 3 4 2 REF3 user interface in Scilab 22 3 4 3 Known bugs and issues 24 4 Multi rate tasking in Scilab 4 25 4 1 General notes regarding multi rate tasking 25 4 2 Multi tasking possibilities 26 4 2 1 Mailboxes 26 4 2 2 Messages and RPC 27 4 2 3 Semaphores 27 4 20 8 FIFO 2 4 2 5 Shared memory 28 4 2 6 VO 28 5 Conclusions 30 il 6 References 31 6 1 Books and reports 31 6 2 Websites 31 Appendix A Major changes between
25. _jogmode_accept Appendix E Sim function in Scilab function t y sim ref part aref vref qref tref s size ref_part for i 1 s 1 xstart ref part i 1 tstart ref part i 2 xeind ref part i 3 vdes ref part i 4 tdes ref part i 5 maxjerk ref part i 6 displ xeind xstart if displ lt o REFidir 1 displs displ else REFidir 1 end if vdes 0 vdes vdes end if maxjerk gt 0 REFjerk maxjerk else REFjerk maxjerk end dett tdes tdes REFjerk REFjerk 4 REFjerk vdes if dett lt 0 disp vdes cannot be reached increase jerk and or tdes else REFdelta tdes REFjerk sqrt dett 2 REFjerk en REFgamma tdes 2 REFdelta REFtO tstart REFtl REFtO REFdelta REFt2 REFtl REFgamma REFt3 REFt2 REFdelta REFt4 REFt3 displ 2 REFjerk REFdelta REFdelta REFdelta 3 REFjerk REFdelta REFdelta REFgamma REFjerk REFdelta REFgamma REFgamma vdes if REFt4 lt REFt3 disp vdes too high for displacement decrease vdes else REFt5 REFt4 REFdelta REFt6 REFt5 REFgamma REFt7 REFt6 REFdelta end REFxstrt xstart REFSO 0 REFal REFjerk REFt1 REFt0 REFv1 0 5 REFjerk REFtl REFtO REFtl REFtO REFSI REFSO REFjerk REFt1 REFtO REFt1 REFtO REFt1 REFtO 6 REFa2 REFal REFV2 REFV1 REFa1 REFt2 REFt1 REFS2 REFS1 REFV1 REFt2 REFt1 0 5 REFa1 REFt2 REFt1 REFt2 REFt1 REFa3 REFa2 REFjerk REFt3 REFt2 i xA SE M RM E DNE REFt2 REFS3 REFS2 REFV2 REFt3 REFt2 40 5 REFa2 REFt3 REFt2 R
26. a full list of changes between Scilab 3 and Scilab 4 see appendix A 2 1 2 RTAI 3 3 Not only Scilab has changed also the Real Time Application Interface RTAI has been developed The newest version is RTAI 3 3 were RTAI3 2 was used in Maassen 2006 Regarding the change log included in the installation file a lot has changed in the new version Most changes are bug fixes and implementations to derive better stability In general a lot has changed in the core files but the user won t notice the difference In this report RTAI has not been used very often so there has not been made a deep investigation in the possibilities of the new version of RTAI For a full list of changes between RTAI 3 2 and RTAI 3 3 see the change log included in the installation file on the CD 2 2 Installation The installation of Scilab 4 and RTAI 3 3 has not changed a lot in comparison with Scilab 3 and RTAI 3 2 Just like described in Maassen 2006 the installation consists of three steps First a compatible Linux version has to be installed in this report the Knoppix v 0 3 19 12 has been used This version is included in the TUeDAX DVD Linux Live DVD for TUeDACS QAD AQI devices version 3 2 2 In Maassen 2006 an older version of Knoppix was used but the installation and use of the newer version is exactly the same as the old Secondly the kernel needs to be patched in order to install RTAI A new patch is used but the installation steps are the same First
27. ad only property that gives a string to the TK path of the control This property is not used very often position property to set the x and y coordinate and the width and height of the control Use a vector with four different value s the first two indicate the x and y position and the last two the width and height x y width height sliderstep only available with slider controls This property sets the small and big slider step size The small step is when the user clicks on the arrow the big step is activated when clicked on the slide bar Vector with two value s small step big step string this property sets the text on a user control Within listboxes and popupmenu s this property can be a vector of strings separated by I style this is the style of the user control There are nine different styles available Pushbuttons are buttons that can be pressed and a callback is called A radiobutton can be checked or unchecked only one radiobutton can be checked at the same time A checkbox is the same as a radiobutton accept for the fact that those can be checked all at the same time An edit control is a editable field in which a user can put a string in A text control is a not editable label With a slider the user can select a value by sliding the bar A frame is a border to separate different places in a figure window 16 Listboxes are controls in which a list of strings is displayed A popupmenu is a menu which
28. create custom user interface As an example the conversion of the REF3 user interface from Matlab to Scilab is used As third a short introduction to multi rate tasking is reported 2 Scilab 4 and RTAI 3 3 2 1 Major changes 2 1 14 Scilab 4 Since Maassen 2006 was written two new versions of Scilab were introduced Namely Scilab 3 2 and Scilab 4 In this report the newest version of Scilab has been used Scilab 4 This newest version will be the last using the old graphics mode So probably in newer versions the graphics will be more up to date and more Matlab like The major changes between Scilab 3 and Scilab 4 are also mostly graphical changes and changes in functions to let them be more Matlab equivalent Tools like Scipad and the Matlab to Scipad converter are changed too For example Scipad the sci file editor is changed especially in a graphical way With different colours for different functions statements and variables the environment is more M File Editor like A big missing in the list of changes between Scilab 3 and Scilab 4 is Scicos This still uses old graphics and a out of date user interface For example drag and drop is still not supported and in that way its development is far behind in comparison with Simulink Nevertheless the control capabilities are tested in Maassen 2006 and the overall conclusion is that Scicos is a good alternative for Simulink Newer versions will be more user friendly hopefully For
29. cs on the screen e Solution o Leave Matlab by typing exit In the console type exit to exit super user mode Enter xhost in the console Go back to super user mode by entering su and password Type matlab to start Matlab Now Matlab will start in its own window 000006 e Problem when using Matlab Symbolic Toolbox the following error might be displayed Invalid MEX file usr local matlabri4sp2 toolbox symbolic maplemex mexglx usr local matlabri4sp2 bin glnx86 libmaple so symbol errno vn GLIBC 2 0 not defined in file libc so 6 with link time reference e Solution this issue is the result of a conflict between the Linux kernel 2 4 2 and the MAPLE function and can be resolved by following the steps below Close Matlab Go to directory usr local matlabrl4sp2 bin Right click file matlab and select KWrite from the Open With menu Scroll down until you see arg0 0 probably at line 166 Insert export LD ASSUME KERNEL 2 4 1 above this line it will look like this O Oooo 0 export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL 2 4 1 arg0_ 0 o Now save and close the file and restart Matlab e Problem custom Simulink models won t work e Solution be sure that the matlab paths are set correctly o Choose Set path from the File menu o Choose Add with subfolders and repeat this step until all of the following are added usr local matlab6p1 toolbox local usr local matlab6p 1 rtw usr local matlabr14sp2 toolbox qadscope usr local matlabr
30. dialogposition 4 figure_name items 1 backgroundcolor 236 233 216 tag items 1 for i 2 size items 1 hdl control findobj tag items i controlposition get hdl control position controlstyle get hdl control style controlbackgroundcolor get hdl control backgroundcolor fprintf f items i uicontrol items 1 style controlstyle string items i position string controlposition 1 string controlposition 2 string controlposition 3 Er ent ro oos Iton dead string controlbackgroundcolor 1 string controlbackgroundcolor 2 string controlbackgroundcolor 3 tag items i1 end file close f end endfunction Add a control for example the pushbutton control function add_pushbutton global activedialog global npushbuttons npushbuttons npushbuttons 1 mypushbutton uicontrol activedialog style pushbutton string Pushbutton string npushbuttons horizontalalignment left position 5 5 90 20 backgroundcolor 236 233 216 tag Pushbutton string npushbuttons listbox add Pushbutton string npushbuttons endfunction Delete a control function delete control global activecontrol hdl guide listbox findobj tag guide listbox items get hdl guide listbox string ind strindex items if ind then control i
31. e else f ind strindex items if ind then items name el se x items strsplit Citems ind items strsubst items val get hdl guide listbox value items items 1 val 1 name items val l size items 1 end set hdl guide listbox string items set activecontrol tag name if activecontrol activedialog then i set activedialog figure name name else set activecontrol string name end hdl activecontrol findobj tag guide activecontrol p set hdl activecontrol string Properties name en endfunction Appendix D Graphical interface function of REF3 REF3 uses three different dialogs a main window a trajectory edit window and a jogmode window In this appendix the code that creates the graphical part of the user interface is described Main window global edit ref axes ref edit ref axes ref max winsidO 1 edit ref axes ref scf edit ref axes ref xtitle Position t s pos m or rad plot 1 edit ref axes ref figure position 5 5 edit ref axes ref figure size 50 0 300 edit ref axes ref figure name Position disp edit ref axes ref R12 _r3g_ edit_ ref figureC position 5 380 500 70 figure_name Ref3Edit backgroundcolor 236 233 216 tag tag R12 r3g edit ref edit ref repeat uicontrol R12 r3g edit ref style checkbox string repeat position 5 40 65 25 backgroundcolor 236 233 216 tag tag edit re
32. e or a control is loaded into the property fields its position can be changed in two ways Firstly sliding the x and y sliders will replace the control or by typing a value into the x and y textboxes and pressing Check In the same way the size of a figure or control can be changed in two ways By sliding the width and height sliders or by typing the correct value s into the width and height textfields Renaming a figure or control can be done by entering a string into the Name textbox and pressing the Rename button To delete a control select the name from the listbox and press Delete The name will disappear from the listbox and the control will be deleted from the figure It is possible to save the user interface during design by selecting Save from the File menu The file will be save as a Scilab Graphical Interface file sgi In this file all positions sizes and names are saved The file can later on be loaded as described above it is not possible to load a sci file in guide To use the user interface created with guide the whole graphical user interface needs to be exported to a sci file This file contains the user interface script and can be loaded from within Scilab When this file is called the figure window created with guide will be shown containing all the controls with their names positions and sizes Export a user interface by selecting Export in the File menu Always close guide by selecting Exit from the File menu So do not close
33. es a lot of cpu and as a result the computer may become unstable or RTAILab isn t updated fast enough anymore It is better to reconnect to another task To stop a task it is possible to select Stop realtime code in the RTAILab toolbar or by pressing ctrl c in the console window of the task that has to be quitted 42 Multi tasking possibilities According to Yaghmour a couple different communication ways can be created by using RTAI These ways are shortly explained below as an introduction to multi rate tasking and if tested a recommendation is made whether that way can be used in multi rate tasking Tests are done with mailboxes semaphores and I O because these methods are integrated into blocks in RTAI by default The other ways are not tested yet In every test the sender is sampled at ten Hertz and the receiver at one hundred Hertz A sinus signal has been send from sender to receiver To visualize the signals in RTAILab one scope is used in each task Because a single task can t contain two different sample rates there are always two tasks created and ran simultaneously 4 2 1 Mailboxes Mailboxes are particularly designed to let two different computers interact with each other but can also be used on one single computer to communicate between tasks This type of communication works just like a mailbox A task can send data to a buffer and another task can read the data from the buffer Within RTAI there are blocks which can send and recei
34. ess available in Scilab So is the command history accessible by typing gethistory the result is a string matrix with all commands typed To clear the history simply select Clear History from the Preferences menu or type resethistory in the command window The menu s mentioned are menu s available in windows in Linux those menu s are not available but typing the commands will result in the same It s possible to view the current directory by typing pwd or getcwd and this directory can be set by typing cd path or chdir path with path the path to which the working directory has to be set to It s also possible to retrieve and change the current directory by clicking Get Current Directory and Change Directory within the File menu respectively The workspace is available by typing browsevar or selecting Browser Variables from the Application menu A new window will appear with all the variables which are loaded in the memory To see all the variables in the command window it s possible to type who Finally help is available by selecting Scilab Help from the menu or typing help function name in the command window where function name is a function from Scilab ssl ECE scilab 4 0 Copyright c 1989 2006 Consortium Scilab INRIA ENPC Scilab Bronsevan AD Variable Browser abe scicos pal lies Tby 11 47 sting abe SCIHOME 1by1 15 sting 4 Bi 8 You are using 16470 of 5000000 0 Fi
35. ess of text on a usercontrol It can be set to four different value s light normal demi or bold 15 fontname also a property that sets a textstyle This property sets the font of text on a usercontrol foregroundcolor just like background colour a style property that sets the colour of the text on a user control Also a vector containing three value s red green blue horizontalalignment property that sets the positioning of the text on a user control This property can be set to left center or right listboxtop this property can only be used with a listbox It sets the item which will be shown first in the list max a property that sets the highest value of a control This can be used with checkboxes sliders and listboxes With checkboxes the value represents the value when the checkbox is checked With sliders this value sets the highest possible slider position With listboxes the property sets the possibility of multi selection If the difference between max and min is greater then one multi selection is enabled min this property sets the lowest value of a control and can also be used with checkboxes sliders and listboxes This property sets the value of checkboxes when unchecked the lowest possible slider position on sliders and the possibility of multi selection in listboxes parent this is the handle of the control By changing this property the handle can be moved from one figure to another path re
36. eted This can be solved in the following way o Boot computer from TUeDAX DVD or another bootable Linux CD DVD o Start a console window and type grub o Inthe grub command line type root hd0 6 where hdi represents the hard disk where Linux is installed on and 6 represents the Reiserf partition 5 setup hd0 quit o Reboot the computer and grub is recovered 3 User Interface in Scilab 4 3 1 Scilab user interface User interface is very important when creating programs and tools The user needs to find his way around easily With the development of Scilab at first the user interface wasn t the biggest concern but with new version being released the user interface starts to more and more up to date Users used to work with Matlab can find there way around in Scilab too because the user interface is beginning to mimic Matlabs user interface Not only the graphical objects are becoming more and more the same also functions syntax and statements are developing in a Matlab way 3 1 1 Main window In general the user interface gui of Scilab is pretty familiar with the gui of Matlab It s also possible to type commands in a command window Just like Matlab there is a toolbar on top of the window This is a new feature first introduced in Scilab 4 But at first sight there are also a couple differences Scilab hasn t got any separate windows like Matlabs command history current directory and workspace Those features are neverthel
37. f repeat edit ref jogmode uicontrol R12_ r3g_ edit_ ref style pushbutton callback cb edit ref jogmode string Jogmode position 70 40 65 25 backgroundcolor 236 233 216 tag tag_edit_ ref jogmode edit_ref_load uicontrol R12_ r3g_ edit_ ref style pushbutton callback cb edit ref load string Load position 5 5 65 DE uu backgroundcolor 236 233 216 tag tag_ edit ref load 5 edit ref save uicontrol R12 r3g edit ref style pushbutton callback cb edit ref save string Save position 65 5 65 255 backgroundcolor 236 233 216 tag tag edit ref save edit ref new uicontrol R12_ r3g_ edit_ m style pushbutton callback cb edit ref new string New position 150 5 5 65 25 backgroundcolor 236 233 216 tag tag_ edit_ref_new edit_ ref_ add uicontrol RI2_ r3g_ edit_ ref style pushbutton callback cb edit ref add string Add position 215 5 65 25 backgroundcolor 236 233 216 tag tag edit ref add edit_ ref_ edit uicontrol R12 ie edit ref style pushbutton callback cb edit ref edit string Edit position 280 55 65 251 backgroundcolor 236 233 2161 tag tag edit ref edit edit ref del uicontrol R12_ r3g_ edit_ ref style suse os ey callback cb edit ref del string Delete position 345
38. fier and cannot be set This property is read only and is set at figure creation When using more than one figure this property can be used to set the active figure window It is a integer number the same as the handle of the figure window color map this represents the colour map used by the figure It is a matrix of colours that can be used The property is not used a lot and can be hold at default values best e pixmap this property sets the pixmap status This is used to determine the way a pixel is drawn on the screen but there is no graphical difference in setting this property to on or off So this is never used e pixel drawing mode familiar with pixmap and also a property that handles the way a pixel is drawn So this property is also never used 14 e immediate drawing also a property for drawing and never used background property to set the background colour of the window It s a vector with three values between zero and 1 the first is the red component the second the green and the third the blue component red green blue e user data this is to store and retrieve data into the figure structure but not used very often tag here a identification name can be stored This property is used a lot to retrieve the handle of the figure window by using the command findobj These properties can be set when the figure is called for example figure hdl figure figure position 100 100 tag figure
39. g the result directly With guide it is possible to set the x and y coordinate the width and height and the name of a control So it s not possible to set other properties like in Matlab but these properties can also be set in the sci file which is exported by guide Guide sets the background colour and text alignment to default values because in that way it is easier to place the buttons These properties can also be changed in the sci file File Add Dialog1 lt Properties Dialog1 f mg Te lat Pushbutton1 x 5 LL Radiobutton1 y 50 m Checkkox1 Edit1 Width 280 Bi Text Height 200 Slider1 Frame1 Check Listbox1 7 Name Zr Dialogi Rename Edit Delete Figure 17 guide user interface 18 3 3 1 User manual Using guide is pretty easy First start the tool by typing guide in the command window It s possible that Scilab doesn t recognize the function and returns an error Then the function guide needs to be loaded into Scilab first using getf path with path the path to the file containing the guide function If the function is loaded retry starting guide Be sure to use only one guide at the same time see paragraph 3 3 3 for more information When guide is started the main window will appear Select New or Load from the File menu to create or load a figure respectively Selecting New will display a empty figure and load will display a figure containing controls as saved last time
40. gument or xgetmouse third component of returned vector then replace test like button 0 by or button 0 3 button 1 by or button 1 4 button 2 by or button 2 5 Appendix B Installation of Scilab 4 and RTAI 3 3 This appendix describes the installation of Scilab 4 and RTAI 3 3 from the TUeDACS DVD and the installation CD added to this report For more information or when errors occur refer to Maassen 2006 Installation of Knoppix Start Knoppix from the TUeDACS DVD Open console Terminal Program and type sudo knoppix installer Wait a moment till the program starts and configure a new installation Choose the system beginner Multi User System with hw detection Make a new user account and choose a short administration password because this password is needed more often Install grub to the mbr Master Boot Record Start the installation and make a boot diskette not necessary but might be helpful in case the system won t start anymore because the start up file is messed up Restart the computer without the cd start the hard disk copy of Knoppix Installation steps in Linux Mesa Untar MesaLib 6 3 2 tar gz from the installation CD in a temporary directory Open console enter su and the administration password Then go to the Mesa directory cd tmp Mesa 6 3 2 Type make linux x86 static Type make install enter enter enter EFLTK Untar efltk 2 0 5 tar bz2 from the installation CD in a temporary di
41. gure 1 Scilab main window and variable browser 3 1 2 Scipad Just like the m file editor from Matlab Scilab has a own sci file editor named Scipad This editor can be loaded by typing scipad or selecting the Editor menu This editor is very familiar with the m file editor It s possible to load sci files into the editor and with different colours different functions keywords statements and variables are indicated just like in the m file editor In this sci file editor even the short keys are the same for example pushing the F5 button will save and run the script From within the File menu it is possible to select Import Matlab file this function uses the mfile2sci tool to convert a m file to a sci file Later on more about this tool The syntax in sci files is almost the same as in m files Be aware by using the conditional execution if In Scilab this statement has to be followed by a condition and the keyword then This is in contradiction with Matlab where then is not a valid keyword Another difference between m files and sci files is the fact that a sci file can contain more than one function Every function needs to be closed by using the endfunction statement and another function can be added to the sci file just after this statement SciPad refab sci Hie Edit Search Execute Debug Scheme Options Windows Herp bt EDIT THIS PART firt function x y typ ref3b job argl arg2 if job set job define only ss
42. ialogs items 1 dialogpositions get activedialog position controls controlpositions controlstyles controlbackgroundcolors for i 2 size items 1 controls controls items i hdl control findobj tag items i controlpositions controlpositions get hdl control position controlstyles controlstyles get hdl control style controlbackgroundcolors controlbackgroundcolors get hdl control backgroundcolor en save path ndialogs npushbuttons nradiobuttons ncheckboxes nedits ntexts nsliders nframes nlistboxes dialogs dialogpositions controls controlpositions controlstyles controlbackgroundcolors endfunction Export file functi global global global global global global global global on file export activedialog ndialogs npushbuttons nradiobuttons ncheckboxes nedits ntexts nsliders global nframes global nlistboxes path tk_savefile sci if path then ind strindex path sci if ind then path path sci end hdl guide listbox findobj tag guide_listbox items get hdl guide listbox string ind strindex Citems if ind then items strsplitCitems ind end items strsubst items f file open path dialogposition get activedialog position fprintf f items 1 figure position string dialogposition 1 string dialogposition 2 string dialogposition 3 string
43. ign two different figures at the same time 20 3 4 REF3 user interface example In Maassen 2006 a couple blocks were designed to be able to use the TUeDACS QAD AQI devices with Scilab One of that blocks was the REF3 block This block was built to create custom reference trajectories to use in control systems for real time devices It was built in Matlab Simulink and Maassen 2006 describes how it was recently implemented in Scilab Everything works nicely accept for the user interface In Maassen 2006 a x dialog see paragraph 3 2 1 was used as user interface for the input parameters In Simulink a custom user interface was used to retrieve those input parameters but the implementation in Scilab and especially Scicos is a bit different When a user clicks on a user defined block in Simulink a function is called This function can be set in the properties of the block In Scicos it is possible to put user interface code in the sci file which handles the user events Functions can be called from within this sci file just like the functions called in Simulink For example in the REF3 sci file the x dialog needs to be replaced by custom user interface code to use a custom user interface To implement the user interface from Simulink into Scicos it is necessary to know something more about the working of the REF3 user interface 3 4 1 Working of REF3 user interface The working of the REF3 user interface is pretty complex and it is not necessa
44. in the Linux home directory because this is the standard workspace in Scilab In that way Scilab is always able to find the functions used
45. ind files find in files find in multiple buffers find in selection only find full word Creation of XML help page templates and xml to html compilation available from within Scipad e Syntax O try catch instruction added to improve programming with error control Other improvements O O O Configure adapted to Linux 64bit architectures Use tcltk 8 4 12 TCL interface has been totally rewritten for better error detection and better data transfer ScilabEval improve to handle synchronism Memory improvements under Windows platforms particularly the management of virtual memory or swap file Exception management added under Windows version Windows platforms with Intel C Compiler 9 0 Intel Fortran 9 0 The source files have been updated to optimise the compiled version built with VC6 tool Please note that the Windows binary version provided on our Web site is built with NET O O OO O O Improvement of the integration of Visual Studio Compiler to the dynamic links findmsvccompiler and configure msvc macros have been added Integration of the ATLAS library specific Windows version During the installation of Scilab dynamic library Atlas dll is automatically chosen according to the CPU detected See details in the Atlas spec file under scilab bin directory For advanced users Scilab can be used with Atlas library on all platforms by downloading Atlas library sources compiling Atlas sources co
46. it string 0 position 30 510 65 25 background 255 255 2551 tag Feet tag edit part t0 edit_part_text_te uicontrol R12_r3g_edit_part style text string te position 5 480 25 25 background 236 233 216 tag tag edit part text te edit part tes uicontrol R12_r3g_edit_part style text string 2 6 1286 233 ie tai left position L30 480 65 25 background 236 233 216 tag tag edit part te edit part text x0 uicontrol R12_ r3g_edit part style text String x0 position 5 450 25 25 background 236 233 216 tag tag edit part text x0 edit part xO uicontrol R12 r3g edit part style edit string O position 30 450 65 25 background 255 255 255 tag tag edit part x0 edit part text xe uicontrol R12 r3g edit part style text string xe position 5 420 25 25 background 236 233 216 tag tag edit part text xe edit part xe uicontrol R12 r3g edit part style edit string 1 position 30 420 65 25 background 255 255 255 tag ma tag_edit_ part_ xe 5 edit part text vel uicontrol R12 r3g edit part style text string vel position 5 320 25 25 background 236 233 216 tag tag edit part text vel edit part vel uicontrol R12 r3g edit part style edit string 0 5 position 30 320 65 25 background 255
47. it x Hu cet M ape iem 1 findobj tag guide_edit_w findobj tag guide_edit_h x eval Cget hdl guide edit x string y eval get hdl guide edit y string w eval Cget hdl guide edit w string h eval Cget Chdl guide edit h string position x y w h hdl guide slider x findobj tag guide_slider_x set hdl guide slider x value x slider x move hdl guide slider y findobj tag guide slider y set hdl guide slider y value y slider y move hdl guide slider w findobj tag guide slider w set hdl guide slider w value w slider w move hdl guide slider h findobj tag guide_slider_h set hdl guide slider h value h slider h move endfunction function slider x move global activecontrol global position if activecontrol then hdl guide dr X findobj tag guide_slider_x x get hdl1 guide slider x value position X position 2 4 set activecontrol position position hdl guide edit x findobj tag guide edit x j set hdl guide edit x string string x en endfunction Rename control function rename control global activecontrol global activedialog hdl guide edit rename findobj tag guide edit rename name get hdl guide edit rename string hdl guide listbox findobj tag guide listbox items get hdl guide listbox string ind strindex items name if ind then disp Control already exists please rename nam
48. le to control real time applications Scilab works with Microsoft Windows and Linux Regarding Microsoft Windows only Microsoft Windows CE is suitable with real time processes but this is a very expensive software package too For that reason Linux has been chosen as operating system In Maassen 2006 it has been approved that Scilab is a good alternative for Matlab showing proper result with real time processes Another conclusion was that Scilab is not as user friendly as Matlab and that its user interface is a bit out of date The main goal of this report is to investigate if Scilab offers the ability of creating custom user interface and if so to explain how it can be used This explanation can be done by converting the REF3 user interface from Matlab to Scilab s real time application become more complex different sensors and actuators need to be integrated By using all those different components in one single controller different sample rates are needed The second goal of this report is to give a introduction to this so called multi rate tasking or distributed control This report consists of three sections Since Maassen 2006 was written a new version of Scilab and a new version of RTAI have been released In the first part the differences between Scilab 3 and Scilab 4 and between RTAI 3 2 and RTAI 3 3 are discussed including a new installation guide The second part describes the user interface of Scilab and its tools and how to
49. make a user interface 3 2 1 Scilabs own GUI and dialogs The first way is by using the user interface of Scilab itself Scilab has a couple predefined gui functions and dialogs These functions and dialogs can be used to make a simple predefined user interface As mentioned before Scilab makes a difference between figures and graphic windows Using this gui method it is not possible to create custom figures with own controls Everything is predefined with only a small number of properties that can be edited The following list shows all dialogs that can be accessed in Scilabs own user interface with a short explanation of how to use them For more information refer to the help files of the different dialogs 10 buttondialog this dialog shows a message icon and one or more buttons The result is the number of the button that has been clicked result buttondialog message buttonl button2 buttoni icon X selio sun Dicilog X This is an example ok Figure 6 Buttondialog Scie getvalue dialog this dialog shows a window with different labels and texboxes In all the textboxes different values can be put These values are the result of the dialog ok x1 x2 xi getvalue message labels type initialvalues define sine ne signal magnitude 9 85 frequency 402 Figure 7 getvalue dialog progressionbar this dialog shows a bar in which a red square walks from the left to the right a
50. mode of Scilab This mode is actually only used by Scicos and will no longer be in use in newer Scilab versions Otherwise the figure uses the new graphic mode which is used by all other tools of Scilab such as Scipad This property is not used a lot it s standard on new and it s better to use the new graphic mode in Scilab figure position this is a vector with the position of the figure in pixels The vector contains two values the first value is the x coordinate and the second the y coordinate x y This property is used almost always e figure size this is the size of the figure window in pixels Just like the figure position this is a vector containing two values the first is the width and the second the height width height This property is used almost always too e axes size this is the outer border of the figure window the virtual graphic window This is also a vector containing two values width height This property is not used a lot e auto resize this property can be set to two different values on or off When set to on the axes size is equal to the figure size and when set to off the axes size cannot be changed This property is just like the axes size property almost never used It s best to keep it just in it s default state e figure name this is the name of the figure The name is on top of the figure window This property is used almost always e figure id this is the figure identi
51. mpiling Scilab sources with the following configure option with atlas library ATLAS LIB DIRECTORY see configure help Java interface written to allow calling Scilab computational engine from Java Font rotation is now possible under Xwindow SCI and HOME are redefined if not correct Bug 1488 Only for Windows home variable HOMES defined under Windows c Documents and Setting USER New environment variable SCIHOME Under Windows HOME NScilab SCILAB VERSION Under Linux SHOME USER Scilab SCILAB VERSION Function what has been rewritten alphabetical sort print modified New primitives O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O clipboard specific Windows perl calendar mkdir rmdir copyfile sleep getos setenv toprint file getmemory getshortpathname specific Windows getlongpathname specific Windows toolbar specific Windows hidetoolbar specific Windows console specific Windows mcisendstring specific Windows banner winqueryreg specific Windows xls open xls read Please note O o xgetmouse eventhandler event set extended to click double click Ctrl Key See more details in xclick and xgetmouse on line help Warning Because of distinction of click events some users scripts can have a different behaviour To make it work as before please check and modified test on events as follow supposing that button contains the value returned by xclick left most ar
52. n Switzerland and proXima electronics Italy R Djenidi C Lavarenne R Nikoukhah Y Sorel and S Steer 1999 From Hybrid System Simulation to Real Time Implementation INRIA M G J M Maassen 2006 Scicos as an alternative for Simulink Technical University of Eindhoven Holland R Nikoukhah and S Steer publication year unknown Scicos Dynamic System Builder and Simulator User s Guide G E Urroz 2003 Scilab scripts functions and dairy files a summary G Vernaeve 2000 Cursus C Zeus WPI workgroup informatics K Yaghmour publication year unknown The Real Time Application Interface Multiple writers Scilab help 2006 INRIA 6 2 Websites Scilab 4 Features http www scilab org download features scilab40 php Scilab documentation 4 0 version http www scilab org product man eng index html 3l Appendix A Major changes between Scilab 3 and Scilab 4 Source http www scilab org download features scilab40 php e Graphics O O O Graphical entities objects have been extended with a particular effort on The Axes entity with respect to change of coordinates logscale enable axes inversion in 2D and 3D and graduation display Versatile Title and labels entities in 2D and 3D 3D object merge and zoom Rotation of text entities Save and load of all graphical entities New functions have been defined to mimic their Matlab equivalent plot Surf mesh bar barh and
53. nd back Every time the function is called the progressionbar is updated This dialog can be used in order to indicate that the computer is busy winid progressionbar message progressionbar winid message to update the bar X Sed r99ression sar 69 1X X Do something ERT Figure 8 progressionbar waitbar this dialog is pretty much the same as the progression bar with one difference The bar in this dialog fills from the left to the right with a red square instead off a walking square Dialog can be used to indicate the progress of a task the computer is doing winid waitbar message waitbar percent filled winid to update the bar x sili Wait er 4 Ix This is an example 0 0 Figure 9 waitbar x_choices this dialog shows different labels and different toggle boxes Values can be chosen from these toggle boxes The result is a list of the chosen items 11 result x choices message list of items Toggle Menu choice 1 toggle ci toggle c2 toggle c3 choice 2 toggle d1 EEEE sle choice 3 toggle et MEET Figure 10 x choises dialog x choose this dialog looks like the x choices dialog but this dialog shows one list with items from which a item can be chosen The result is the number of the chosen item resultsx choose items message custom button that is a comment for the dialog itemi item2 item3 Figure 11 x_choose dialog e x dial
54. nication can also be used with real time and user space tasks This method has not been tested 4 2 6 l O With this communication way RTAI is not used The blocks that handle this method are in a standard library of Scicos I O can only be used on a local computer it is not possible to connect different computers with each other The schemes that were used during testing are displayed in figure 22 The result from RTAILab are the same as with the mailboxes in figure 20 The frequency of the signal is ten times higher on the receiver side than on the sender side To check if this could have something to do with the RTAI scopes a new model is built shown in figure 23 This model uses scopes from the Scicos library which are not triggered by an activation signal The results are displayed in figure 24 and as can be seen the frequency is the same in both scopes Also it can be seen that the receive scope is drawn in more sharp edged way This is caused by the higher frequency and these results were expected at first This strengthens the first idea but it is not yet a fact that the problem is caused by the scopes and more research will be needed o 9 L Sine e D L SCOPE Figure 22 Scicos schemes using I O send and I O receive O d Be im 1 ine S Lo aa Figure 23 Scicos schemes using I O send and I O receive without RTAI scopes kr a PA 1 1 0 0 pe S R 2 90 93 96 99 90 93 96
55. obal npushbuttons global nradiobuttons global ncheckboxes global nedits global ntexts global nsliders global nframes global nlistboxes path tk getfile sgi if path then load path ndialogs Alper 3 nradiobuttons ncheckboxes nedits ntexts nsliders nframes nlistboxes dialogs dialogpositions controls controlpositions controlstyles eee controlbackgroundcolors activedialog figure position dialogpositions figure name dialogs backgroundcolor 236 233 216 tag dialogs listbox add dialogs for i l size controls 1 mycontrol uicontrol activedialog style controlstyles i string controls i position controlpositions i backgroundcolor controlbackgroundcolors i tag controls 1 listbox add controls i end setworklayout end endfunction Save functi global global global global global global global global global global global file on file save activedialog path ndialogs npushbuttons nradiobuttons ncheckboxes nedits ntexts nsliders nframes nlistboxes if path then path tk savefile sgi if path then end ind strindex path sgi if ind then path path sgi end hdl guide listbox findobj tag guide_listbox items get hdl guide listbox string ind strindex items if ind then items strsplit items ind end items strsubst items d
56. og this dialog shows a message with a textbox in which one value can be given This value is the result of the dialog result x_dialog message initial_value value of gain 0 235 Figure 12 x_dialog dialog e x matrix this dialog looks like the x dialog but is meant to put matrices in result x_matrix message initial_matrix J2 11 01 3 303E 7 560E 01 6 654E 2 211E 04 6 284E Figure 13 x matrix dialog 12 e x mdialog this dialog is exactly the same as the getvalue dialog result x mdialog message labels initial values enter sine signal magnitude 4 frequency 40 phase EE Figure 14 x mdialog dialog e x message this dialog shows a message with custom buttons The result is the number of the button that has been pressed result x message message buttonsl button2 buttoni Figure 15 x message dialog e x message modeless this dialog shows a message and a ok button just as the x message dialog But when this dialog is shown Scilab remains available for commands x message modeless message The biggest advantage of these dialogs is that they are easy to use and pretty fast to implement because there are just a small amount of properties But that is also a disadvantage when complex user interfaces need to be built These dialogs have a lack of customization The only properties that can be set are all listened ab
57. ory is designed When a trajectory is designed the accept button can be pressed all windows will close but to return to the Scicos scheme the return statement needs to be entered in the main Scilab window At last the syntax needed to be adapted As mentioned in paragraph 3 1 5 the mfile2sci tool isn t up to date and here and there some syntax errors were discovered Furthermore no big adjustments had to be made ox Ref2edit position Valdeisy sieeslsraitiori lt irlel jark ill te 52 xD xe 2 Position pos m or rad vel 0 5 acc 1 Taa ooooooo oi MOHONSA onono pro bvano wii hid n E 5 e T m Xx REISE Sica _ repeat Jogmode Waiting for button to be pressed jerk mis 3 ar radis 3 arc Ims 2 or radfsA2 vel mis or radis Waiting for input Load Save New Add Edit Delete Accept as Accept t0 xD In L Accept Figure 18 REF3 main window REF3 edit trajectory window and REF3 jogmode window 23 3 4 3 Known bugs and issues Because not all function could be translated as mentioned above a couple issues and bugs can appear Enabling and disabling controls is not possible in Scilab so when the edit trajectory or jogmode dialog is shown it is not possible to use the main dialog In Matlab this was resolved by disabling all buttons on the main dialog When accidentall
58. ove When complex user interface with for example graphs are needed these dialogs aren t compatible anymore For example in Maassen 2006 a getvalue dialog was used for the REF3 block It was sufficient for the tests that had to be done but when more complex signals are needed it is way too user unfriendly In that case a custom made dialog needs to be implemented This can also be done with Scilab in combination with the tlc and tk shared libraries 3 2 2 GUI using tlc and tk shared libraries When the standard dialogs of Scilab aren t sufficient anymore the shared libraries of tlc and tk are the solution With those libraries it is possible to make custom dialogs with controls like buttons and labels The commands that access these libraries are familiar with Matlab As mentioned before these libraries make use of the figure object so firstly a new figure needs to be called figure hdl figure properties 13 With figure hdl the handle to the just created figure This handle is needed when controls are placed into the figure The properties statement can contain a lot of different properties listened below e children this is a vector with handles to the children of the figure window All the children are axes which represent the outer border of the figure window This property is not used a lot e figure style this represents the style of the figure It can be set to old or new When set to old the figure uses the old graphic
59. recognised by its unique tag In the same way a control can be deleted by clicking the delete button Saving and loading files is easily done by using the save and load and functions Variables can be saved using save path variablel variablei and loaded using load path variablel variablei just like in Matlab Exporting a file is done by using the fprintf function With this function it is possible to write data into a file just like in Matlab When saving the file as sci file it can be compiled and ran in Scilab resulting in a graphical user interface In appendix C the most important functions that control guide are mentioned 3 3 3 Known bugs and issues A couple issues were discovered using the guide tool e Sliding the sliders to fast will effect in bad program behaviour For some reason the sliders aren t able to use the callback fast enough when the slider is moved to fast When for some reason the slider moves in a strange way it s possible to click the check button to reset the sliders or to click on the slider bar In that way the sliders and controls are reset to there actual position e Be sure to use only one guide tool at the same time Opening guide while another window of guide was still running will result in unwanted behaviour To start a new design of a user interface close guide by clicking Exit in the File window and restart the tool by typing guide in the Scilab main command window It s not possible to des
60. rectory Type cd tmp efltk Open File Manager Super User Mode go to tmp efltk and open the properties of efltk config in Open the permissions tab and be sure that all permissions are set to Can Read amp Write and that Is Executable is checked Type efltk config in prefix usr local multithread Type emake Type emake install Add usr local lib to the file etc Id so conf already done when using the TUeDAX cd Type dconfig new patched kernel RTAI Untar linux 2 6 15 tar bz2 from the installation CD to usr src linux 2 6 1 5 rtai 3 3 Untar rtai 3 3 tar tar from the installation CD to usr src rtai 3 3 Type cd usr src Type rm linux Type y Type In s usr src linux 2 6 15 rtai 3 3 linux Type In s usr src rtai 3 3 rtai Type cd usr src Linux Type patch p1 lt usr src rtai base arch i386 patches hal linux 2 6 15 i386 r9 patch Type cp usr src linux 2 6 12 6 fusion 0 9 1 config usr src linux 2 6 15 rtai 3 3 Type rm usr include asm Type y Type In s usr src linux include asm i386 usr include asm Type make menuconfig Change General setup gt gt Local version to rtai 3 3 Exclude Processor type and features gt gt Symmetric multi processing support Include Processor type and features gt gt Preemptible Kernel Exclude Device Drivers gt gt Parallel Port support Exclude Device Drivers gt gt Multi device support Exclude Device Drivers gt gt Fusion MPT device support Exclude Power
61. ry to explain all details but a short explanation is handy to understand how the implementation in Scilab has been done To start the REF3 user interface in Linux in Matlab type testref3 in the main command window A simulink file will open with the REF3 block on Double click on the REF3 block and the REF3 user interface will show up A callback in the REF3 block properties calls a function in Matlab which at his way shows a figure object saved in a fig file created with guide All dialogs are fig files created with guide and can be called from m files It is possible that an error occurs when double clicking on the block see paragraph 2 3 for more information The REF3 main window shows a graph with the total trajectory and buttons like load save new and accept It is possible to add delete or edit a part of the total trajectory by clicking those buttons When done a new window will appear with four graphs representing the position velocity acceleration and jerk of the trajectory Edit these parameters to change the trajectory and click accept to save it In the main window it is also possible to choose for jogmode to create a jogmode signal The strength of the REF3 user interface is of course the graphs showing the user directly changes in parameters This is the core feature of the REF3 user interface and needs to be implemented in Scilab The working of the graphs in Simulink is pretty easy With the function sim it is possible to simulate a
62. s to be made Using the tlc and tk shared libraries a figure can be called to put controls on as mentioned above Of course it is also possible to use the guide tool to create graphic interface For a example of how to use figures and uicontrols see appendix D where the functions that create the user interface for the REF3 tool are described Manually add functions to the exported file to create a user interface But in this case all files from Matlab were converted All functions were put into four different files for each dialog a file is created and one file for some main scripts used in all dialogs After the conversion when trying to run the files for the first time errors will occur because not all functions are converted correctly The conversion of REF3 lead to a couple errors regarding missing functions like sim and ginput As mentioned in paragraph 3 4 1 the core of the REF3 user interface consists of a couple graphs which are drawn using the function sim in Matlab to simulate a Simulink model This function is one of the missing function in Scilab There are two alternatives that can be used scicos simulate and scicosim Both function can simulate a Scicos scheme but with scicos simulate the scheme has to be compiled first while scicosim can do a compilation itself So just replacing sim by one of this function would do the job but it isn t that easy These functions are very complex the input and output parameters are hard to understand
63. ser interface in Scilab are all investigated and discussed in this report and therefore this goal is achieved Also the objective to implement a user friendly REF3 user interface into Scilab is achieved The graphic user interface of REF3 in Scilab looks like Matlabs as much as possible Finally a short introduction has been made to multi rate tasking Different ways of communication between different tasks are described Some of this ways are tested and recommendations are given if it is possible to create multi rate systems using that kind of communication way Some more investigation is needed to ultimately create a multi rate real time application in Scilab but all in all it is possible The overall conclusion is that Scilabs user interface is pretty extensive and looks like Matlabs Multi rate tasking is probably possible with Scilab and RTAI but a lot of investigation needs to done 30 6 References 6 1 Books and reports H Bruyninckx 2002 Real Time and Embedded Guide K U Leuven mechanical engineering Belgium R Bucher Lorenzo Dozio and Paolo Mantegazza publication year unknown Rapid Control Prototyping with Scilab Scicos and Linux RTAI SUPSI and DIAPM R Bucher publication year unknown Interfacing Linux RTAI with Scilab Scicos University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland R Bucher S Mannori publication year unknown Using Scilab Scicos with RTAI Lab University of Applied Sciences of Souther
64. sign values to variables when needed mum inputs 1 the number of input ports rum outputs 3 the number of outports ports num evtin 1 the number of event input ports num evtout 0 the number of event output ports firing firing a vector whose size is equal to the size of evtout gt It contains outpu Default value state state state column vector the initial continuous state of the block Must be Default value dstate dstate column vector the initial discrete state of the block Must be if Default value with possible values dep u t dep u must be true if output depends continuously of the input dept SE output depends continuously of the time dep ut vector of boolean dep u dep t default value 2f Af dep t must be true dep u dep t dep ut ossing surfaces Line 1 Column 1 Logical line 1 Figure 2 Scipad 3 1 3 Scicos The simulink mimic of Scilab is called Scicos With this tool it is possible to make schemes by connecting blocks together The user interface is a little bit different from Simulink It s also a bit different from the main window and from Scipad Because a drag and drop command is missing in the Scilab user interface all actions have to be accessed from the menu or from using short keys A list of available short keys can be found by typing scicos short The following short keys are defined by defaul
65. structures containing hundreds of value s This wouldn t have been a problem if the documentation had been up to date and more detailed Trying to use one of these functions failed so another way had be figured out At this point the knowledge of the working of the REF3 user interface becomes useful The solution to this problem is to write a sci file containing the part of code that calculates the position velocity acceleration and jerk The working of this part of code is already explained Because no s function can be simulated the part of code needs to be converted to sci language In this way the function can be called giving the opportunity to make graphs To see the full function which is created in Scilab refer to appendix E The REF3 user interface in Matlab uses callback functions in textboxes to auto update the graphs In Scilab call backs are only allowed with buttons and sliders so graphs can not be updated automatically This is not really a problem but every time a value is entered in a textbox the check button needs to be pressed to update the graphs There is no other solution to this problem Another problem is that in Matlab buttons can be disabled and enabled This function ability is missing in Scilab so all the buttons can be clicked at any time This can cause problems but there is no solution for this problem See paragraph 3 4 3 for more details When editing a certain part of the trajectory it is necessary to select
66. t Table 1 Short keys in Scicos A Align Delete D C Copy M Move U F Undo Flip Align Open Set Save Get Info Replot Link Q Quit UM OO Se By pressing one of these short keys the operation is selected and is available for all blocks The white info line on top of the Scicos window displays information about which operation is currently selected It will take some time to get used to this kind of user interface and probably it will change in future versions of Scilab For more information see also Maassen 2006 Another difference between the user interface of Scicos and Simulink is the fact that Scicos uses trigger signals that need to be implemented by putting a red clock in the scheme This clock needs to be connected to a red activation input on some blocks These blocks are triggered in a certain sample rate which is assigned to the clock Most blocks have also black in or outputs these are the data signals For more information about building RTAI code or an example how to build a Scicos scheme refer to Maassen 2006 or Bucher Figure 3 Scicos 3 1 4 Graphics and figures In Scilab graphs and figures are not the same like in Matlab In Matlab a graph is drawn into a figure object In Scilab these objects are separated It is not possible to plot a graph into a figure object A graph is always plotted into a graphic window These graphic windows ha
67. tems items else itemssstrsplit items ind items strsubst items val get hdl guide listbox value control items val f items items 1 val 1 items val 1 size items 1 en activecontrol findobj tag control close activecontrol set hdl guide listbox string items endfunction Edit a control function edit control global activecontrol global activedialog global position hdl guide listbox findobj tag guide_listbox items get hdl guide listbox string ind strindex items if ind then control items else items strsplit items ind items strsubst items val get hdl guide listbox value F control items val en hdl activecontrol findobj tag guide_activecontrol set hdl activecontrol string Properties string control activecontrol findobj tag control position get activecontro position hdl guide edit x findobj tag guide edit x set hdl guide edit x string string position 1 hdl guide slider x findobj tag guide slider x set hdl guide slider x value string position 1 hdl guide edit y findobjC tag guide edit y set hdl guide edit y string string position 2 hdl guide slider y findobj tag guide slider y set hdl guide slider y value string position 2 hdl guide edit w findobj C tag guide edit w set hdl guide edit w String strin position 3 hdl guide slider w findobj C tag guide
68. the camera s typically work at 20 or 30 frames per second Therefore the sample rate which controls the camera s doesn t need to be higher than 20 Hertz On the other hand the control for the motion typically uses a sample rate of 1000 Hertz So when both controls systems are integrated it is not necessary to use a sample rate of 1000 Hertz for the visualization but a multi rate system can be designed The robots in the Robocup use therefore two different controllers working at 20 and 1000 Hertz for the visualization and motion respectively Those controllers are created with Simulink Communication between those two controllers takes place with so called shared memory Another application where communication between different tasks is necessary is when distributed control is desirable Distributed control are also controllers separated over different tasks these tasks can run on a local computer or on a network of more than one computer The big question is if multi rate systems can be designed with Scilab 4 1 General notes regarding multi rate tasking To start multiple tasks in Linux using RTAI and RTAILab some commands need to be executed First create two or more executable programs with Scicos and RTAICodegen as described in Maassen 2006 These programs may use different sample frequencies Communication between those tasks can be done with one of the different ways described in paragraph 4 2 The easiest way is to create the executables in the
69. trol menu_hd1 properties The figure hdlis the handle of the window in which the menu has to be placed It s also to put a menu into another menu by using a menu hdl instead of a figure hdl menu object has three different properties 17 e callback this property is used to refer to a function which is called when the menu is pressed e Jabel this is the text displayed in the menu e tag just as mentioned before a identification string Combining all those different user interface objects it is possible to build complex and user friendly dialogs For an example refer to paragraph 3 4 3 3 Guide In Matlab it s possible to create user interface using a tool called guide This tool helps users to create custom dialogs It uses drag and drop to put controls on a figure object and it s possible to set different properties per control In Scilab such a tool doesn t exist so to make it easier to design a user interface a stripped version of the Matlab guide tool is created for Scilab With this tool also called guide it is possible to place different controls on a figure in an easy way Before this tool was created the only way of designing a user interface was to use trail and error All the positions and sizes of all controls needed to be set before it could be compiled When compilation was ready it was necessary to run the file to see if the controls were placed right With guide it is possible to move and resize controls seein
70. ve data through mailboxes In figure 19 the schemes that are made to test mailboxes can be seen The results of the tests are shown in figure 20 and are a strange because the sinusoidal signal of one Hertz which is send is received with a frequency of ten Hertz The cause of this problem is not yet discovered but it could have something to do with the scopes used Scopes used by RTAI are activated by the red clock with the frequency of the sample rate So the scope of the receiver is triggered ten times more than a signal is sent probably is that causing the problem All in all more investigation is needed in this way Opp p Scope g SCOPE Sine km i i B B end Ger Scope ME Sendo PE rev bik SCOE Figure 19 Scicos schemes using mailbox send and mailbox receive 26 Figure 20 results of mailbox communication send and receive side respectively 4 2 2 Messages and RPC With this method it is also possible to send and receive data between different computers but can also be used on a local computer Like mailboxes a sender sends data but in this case it s not stored in a buffer but send directly to the receiver Therefore the receiver needs to be a active task and waiting to receive data Unlike mailboxes the data that is send has a fixed size There are no blocks in RTAI that can handle messages and RPC so no tests are executed 4 2 3 Semaphores Data can also be sent using a semaphore This method creates a channel between t
71. ve there own menus and toolbars and look like the figures created by the plot statement in Matlab In these windows it is possible to zoom save load and edit properties Most commands available in the menu are the same as in Matlab The figure object in Scilab looks like the figure object in Matlab when no graph is plotted In this object controls like buttons or labels can be put While in Matlab a graph and a control can be put together into a figure in Scilab it s not possible to plot a graph into a figure object The figure objects are only designed to make custom user interface and graphs are always plotted into graphic windows The best way to explain the difference between Matlab and Simulink at this point is to use the following commands straight after each other figure and plot 1 In Matlab firstly an empty figure will be shown and then this figure is filled with the plot In Scilab there will be shown an empty figure too but secondly a new window will be opened a graphic window which displays the plot Difference between the figure and graphic window object is very important when creating graphical user interface in Scilab In the next paragraph is explained how to create custom user interface in Scilab 4 ME ee ER ENER 102 Figure 4 Graphic window and figure object 3 1 5 M file to sci converter When switching from Matlab to Scilab all m files need to be adapted to sci files The syntax
72. wo task and data can be sent over this channel when the tasks want to synchronize RT AI contains two blocks which use semaphores to communicate In figure 21 the schemes are displayed that have been used to test With this method the data is sent correctly when the same sample rates are used in both tasks But when different sample rates are used the tasks become unstable and plots in RTAILab will freeze It is also possible that the whole system freezes To conclude semaphores are not working with different sample rates and so can not be used in multi rate systems Oo d U Scope ay e Mbz Send Ow Meee Oy m SCO PE Figure 21 Scicos schemes using semaphore send and semaphore receive 4 2 4 FIFO This method is used to put data parts into a buffer Unlike mailboxes where all data from the buffer can be read this method uses first in first out This method is particularly used to communicate between real time tasks and the user space It handles communication between real time tasks and tasks which are not real time Although RTAI library contains one block 27 which handles communication with FIFO this method was not tested because all tasks must be real time in this case 4 2 5 Shared memory Just like with the Robocup robots it is possible to use shared memory as communication method With this method multiple tasks are sharing the same memory region and all tasks can access variables stored in the memory This type of commu
73. y pressed a button on the main dialog while another dialog was already loaded just close all dialogs and restart REF3 Otherwise the tool doesn t work correctly and errors may occur Scicos is still using the old graphic mode while the rest of Scilab is using a new graphic mode In this old graphic mode it is not possible to position and size graphic windows The result is that a graphic window is positioned and sized with default value s and the windows are displayed across the screen which can be frustrating In the new graphic mode positioning and sizing graphic windows is implemented but until Scicos will use the new graphic mode this problem remains undissolved This version of Scilab is the last using the old graphic mode so probably this issue will be fixed in the next version For some reason Scilab doesn t always load all functions To resolve this problem use the getf path to load all function in a sci file The easiest way is to put the four files containing all functions in the working directory which by default is home username with username the name of the active user in Linux Then it is namely possible to only use the name of the file in getf instead of the entire path 24 4 Multi rate tasking in Scilab 4 In many systems different sensors and actuators are used For example the soccer playing robots such as used in the Robocup have camera s to visualize their environment and a couple motors to drive In such systems

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