Virtual prototyping of a sensor-driven plant using model-based design

Model-based design is an approach that aims to establish a framework for complex embedded systems by incorporating graphical and/or textual high-level programming and integrated code generation and simulation tools; during the early phases of model-based design, an executable specification of the intended functionality of the embedded system is also generated. With a parallel proposal, a recent discipline that has received a great deal of attention for product concept and manufacture is virtual prototyping; with virtual prototyping, a visual mockup of the product is built for specification and validation purposes during the early stages of the product design flow. This paper proposes the joint use of virtual prototyping and model-based design for the graphical validation of a sensor-driven plant and for the correct functionality of the embedded controller of the plant; this approach is further supported by a variation of a processor-in-the-loop simulation.