What Is Simulink Real-Time?

Learn how Simulink Real-Time™ is used with Speedgoat^® target computers to run Simulink^® models with deterministic timing for real-time testing. This workflow starts on the desktop in MATLAB^® and Simulink, where you build a real-time application from a Simulink model and deploy it to a Speedgoat target.

Once the real-time application is running on the target, you can stream signals back to the host computer, monitor execution, and adjust tunable parameters while the model runs. Within a Model-Based Design framework, the workflow highlights two common test setups: rapid control prototyping (RCP) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL). In RCP, the control algorithm is executed in real time on the target and connected to a physical plant or subsystem. The example shown here uses electric motor control to illustrate an early-program situation in which production controller hardware may not yet be available. RCP allows you to connect the control algorithm to a real motor to evaluate behavior under operating conditions. For later-stage verification, you can apply HIL testing, where the production controller hardware and embedded software are connected to a real-time plant model executing on Speedgoat. In the motor-control example, the motor is emulated in real time so the controller can be evaluated against representative dynamics without requiring the full physical system. This approach can help uncover integration issues before field testing and can reduce risk to equipment.

If your plant model includes power electronics with fast switching behavior, you can deploy parts of the model to FPGA-based I/O modules using HDL Coder™. To support systematic verification, you can automate tests using Simulink Test™ together with Simulink Real-Time. Tests can be reused across stages, starting with model-in-the-loop execution on the desktop and progressing to HIL runs on the target. MATLAB scripting and external APIs can be used to control runs and connect targets to continuous integration pipelines. On the hardware side, Speedgoat systems and I/O modules support a range of communication protocols, and you can access these capabilities through I/O blocks in Simulink.