The application of Scilab/Scicos in the lecture of automatic control theory

Scilab is a free open-source mathematical software package for scientific computation. It includes hundreds of general purpose and specialized functions for numerical computation which is organized in libraries called toolboxes that cover such as simulation, optimization, systems and control, and signal processing. Scicos is a Scilab package for modeling and simulating of dynamical systems like the toolbox Simulink in Matlab. Scicos also provides a block-diagram graphical editor for the construction and simulation of dynamical systems. Widely used in universities and schools, Scilab/Scicos is gaining ground in industrial environments and in colleges. Based on the of research on control theory and computer aided design of control systems, this paper discusses the methods and skills of control system simulation by using Scilab/Scicos, gives some examples of simulating typical control system by using Scilab and Scicos to explore new teaching methods for the lecture of automatic control theory.