Simulink(R) Generated Code Powers New Simulation

The MathWorks and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company announced on Monday that their collaborative work has led to the successful completion of the first simulated test flight of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) using Simulink(R) generated code. Lockheed Martin's Chief Test Pilot, Jon Beesley, conducted an unrestricted evaluation flight in the F-35 real-time simulator lasting over two hours, performing a wide range of maneuvers. He exercised the sophisticated flight control laws designed and generated by Lockheed Martin's JSF Flight Control Application Software team using MATLAB(R), Simulink, Stateflow(R), and Real-Time Workshop(R) Embedded Coder from The MathWorks.

"Jon was given freedom to fly the aircraft through maneuvers such as landing, formation, in-flight refueling, and basic stability and control tests. The control law software performed flawlessly throughout these tests, a notable outcome for simulated flights using a new toolset. Performance results were very good and we identified several minor items for refinement," said Greg Walker, JSF Flight Control Application Software IPT lead, Lockheed Martin. "Using The MathWorks tools, we were able to develop and test the control laws, automatically generate code, and, as a result, complete this milestone on our way to first flight."

The F-35 is considered the single most important new military aircraft to be produced over the next 30 years. The program will deploy 2,593 aircraft for the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.K. Royal Air Force, and U.K. Royal Navy. The F-35 family includes a conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variant, an aircraft carrier version (CV), and a short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) variant, which provide challenging requirements for the flight-control system. Using a model-based design approach with Simulink and Stateflow, the flight-control engineers have developed the control techniques and generated the software to address those challenging requirements while reducing software development costs. Additionally, F-35 engineers will use MATLAB to rapidly perform flying- qualities and stability analysis, and to analyze the vast amounts of test data generated during the F-35 flight test program.

"We have worked closely with Lockheed Martin for several years to enable them to create advanced control design systems technology for the JSF project," said Paul Barnard, control design automation marketing director, The MathWorks. "Together, we drove enhancements so their engineers can work with significantly larger models and dramatically reduce their downtime when modeling, simulating, and implementing their designs. These enhancements are now incorporated in Simulink 5.1, the latest release."

FMI:  www.jsf.mil