Change Log
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Change log for the Flight Dynamics and Control toolbox ====================================================== FDC 1.4.0 ========= * This version is compatible with Matlab 5.3 / Simulink 3.0 and newer. * Now includes full Simulink library support. This reduces the chance of inadvertently creating several versions of the same system, as any changes made to library blocks will automatically be reflected in all systems that use them. More importantly: the package now requires _much_ less disk space than before (even less than FDC version 1.2) and the size of the FDC distribution has been reduced dramatically, which results in faster downloads. * Included support for the Simulink library browser. * Subsystem names are no longer 'secretly' abbreviated, thus removing one source of confusion and irritation. (The abbreviated system names used to be necessary to avoid problems with the old M-file format for graphical Simulink systems, as used by Simulink versions 1.x. With the new MDL-file format this is no longer useful.) As an added benefit, the * Updated FDCINIT.M to prevent errors when running on Linux. * Replaced FDCHELP.M by the new and more flexible tool BROWSE.M. * Replaced LOADER.M and INCOLOAD.M by the more generic tool FDCLOAD.M, which is supported by the functions DATLOAD.M, LINLOAD.M, MATLOAD.M, and TRILOAD.M. (DATLOAD.M more or less fulfils the functions of LOADER.M, while TRILOAD.M, LINLOAD.M, and MATLOAD.M more or less fulfil the functions of INCOLOAD.M.) The load utilities use a graphical filebrowser window and now also allow the specification of a default file. The initialization of xfix in LOADER.M has been moved to the aircraft model itself. * Replaced SETDIR.M by the more flexible utility FDCDIR.M. * Upgraded FDCTOOLS to the library format. Replaced several blocks by improved versions. (Note: a much improved version of the entire library is available as separate download from http://www.dutchroll.com. It is called DUBSI, or 'Dutchroll Blockset for Simulink', and it is planned to include this entire blockset in a next version of the FDC toolbox.) * Moved all Matlab programs to the new PROGRAMS subdirectory (except those which are clearly related to systems from other subdirectories). * Moved the default-initialization of the variable xfix from the load routine (formerly called LOADER) to the InitFcn property of the xfix Gain block (in the aircraft model) itself. * Clarified meaning of button blocks in OLOOP1, OLOOP2, and OLOOP3. Removed the MODBUILD button-block. Removed individual button-libraries FDCLIB7, FDCLIB8, and FDCLIB9; instead stored all blocks in the library FBUTTONS. * Included a new Matlab script PLOTCOEFF.M, which can be used to assess some basic properties of the aerodynamic and propulsive forces & moments models of the Beaver aircraft. PLOTCOEFF makes use of the (also new) Simulink system AEROPROPCOEFF.MDL.
* Updated the systems OLOOP1, OLOOP2, and OLOOP3 with Manual Switch blocks. * Deleted OLOOP1T, OLOOP2T, and OLOOP3T tutorials. These tutorials were not very useful anyway, but they did require quite some maintenance with each new update of the FDC toolbox; it is planned to substitute HTML helpfiles for these tutorials in a future version of the FDC toolbox. * Updated the autopilot systems with new, masked, Scheduled Gain blocks and replaced Demux/Ground/Scope sequence by Selector/Scope. * The block 'actuator & cable dynamics' from the APILOT systems has been updated. The old version of this block used to take into account a separate multiplication factor 2 for the Cail matrix, whereas the updated version implements this factor in the Cail matrix itself. As a consequence, the actmod1.dat, actmod2.dat, and actmod3.dat files have been updated too. IMPORTANT: DO NOT USE THE UPDATED BLOCK WITH THE OLD 'ACTMOD' DATAFILES, OR VICE VERSA! * Corrected turn-coordination control law in RAH and PAHRAH systems. Updated PAH, RAH, and PAHRAH with simplified aircraft model output handling. * The autopilot initialization routine APINIT.M has been greatly simplified. It no longer tries to account for all possible situations; instead it loads default aircraft model data, asks the user to load an appropriate initial flight condition, and automatically determines the most suitable actuator & cable model parameters. This is less flexible, but a whole lot easier than the cumbersome menu structure of the old situation. The ILS and VOR initialization have been removed (ILSINIT and VORINIT need to be called separately now), and the FIXSTATE option has been removed from the standard autopilot initialization routine (instead, a separate FIXSTATE button has been included in the autopilot systems). * The ILS initialization routine ILSINIT now makes an 'educated guess' to identify a condition which ensures that the glideslope is captured approximately 30 seconds after localizer capture. This makes it easier to do multiple ILS simulations, but more sophisticated initialization routines are still planned for future FDC versions. * The re-drawn Simulink systems and new color-conventions give the models a more appealing and more 'professional' appearance. * Improved the lay-out of the HTML helpfiles; corrected some small errors in the help texts, and replaced obsolete FDC 1.2 information. * Removed 8-character limit for subdirectory names in FDCINIT.M. * Removed some graphical menu's from applications that were in fact designed with a text-based user-interface (for the command window). In this case, consistent behaviour was deemed more important than a fancy GUI, although this is only an intermediate solution, in anticipation on a GUI-centered approach for FDC 2. * Removed COMMENT.M: it was outdated and not funny anymore. * Removed NSWITCH.M: it had become obsolete, as a similar block is now available in the standard Simulink library 'Nonlinear'. * Removed RECOVER.M: had become obsolete, as the Simulink bug that it
fixed has apparantly been solved in Simulink versions 2.0 and newer. * Removed FDC_WELC.M, FDC_STRT.M, and 1STRUN.M, and the corresponding MAT-files. Created new splash-screen FDC_SPLASH.M (if desired, the splashscreen can be suppressed easily by commenting out the fdc_splash command in FDC.M). * In the previous version of the FDC toolbox, the wind blocks BLWIND and CWIND yielded only approximate results (contrary to what was suggested in the user-manual), as the applied expressions were valid only for wings-level horizontal flight (and even then only approximately). In this new release, both blocks have been completely overhauled; they are now valid for all possible attitudes of the aircraft. Also, BLWIND now has a more convenient masked user-interface. * Included protection against 'division by zero' warnings for the QDR and Cone of Silence computations in the VOR block * Fixed several other bugs from the previous FDC version. (Thanks to all people who have sent feedback; in particular thanks to Scott Poll for his very detailed analysis of the FDC systems and tools.) * Removed some strange left-overs from FDC 1.1, the strangest of which was a 'hidden' obsolete VOR library that had remained unnoticed for 8 (!) years. * This version has been re-licensed under the Open Software License. This license is similar in spirit as the previously used DOSSL, but has a sound juridical basis and is approved by the Open Source Intitiative (OSI). See http://www.opensource.org for more details about this license and about Open Source licenses in general. See LICENSE.TXT for the complete license terms.
FDC 1.3.3 ========= * This is the first release that has been made available on SourceForge. It is identical to FDC 1.3 SR2, but has been re-licensed under the Dutchroll Open Source Software License (DOSSL) version 1.0 (described in the LICENSE.TXT document of this release). * New version numbering: the Service Release logic has been replaced by a more straightforward scheme that uses a third number to denote minor changes. Working backwards, this yields: FDC 1.3 -> FDC 1.3.0 FDC 1.3 SR1 -> FDC 1.3.1 FDC 1.3 SR2 -> FDC 1.3.2 and consequently, this new minor release is called FDC 1.3.3. FDC 1.3 SR2 =========== * Corrected some minor bugs and further improved behavior on non-Windows platforms. FDC 1.3 SR1
=========== * Converted the filenames of the HTML-helpfiles to lower-case and fixed the HTML-links accordingly in order to solve HTML referencing problems on non-Windows computers. As far as I could tell, the HTML-links in the Simulink systems were typeset in lower-case already, except for the block BLWIND in the library WINDLIB, but the links inside the HTML-files themselves all needed to be updated. If you still encounter link problems, please contact the author. * Included the missing REFSGNLS.HTM file. * Enhanced the font-lists within the HTML-helpfiles for non-Windows platforms. Also decreased the fontsize. The results seem to be quite good on web-browsers such as IE3, IE4, Netscape 3, and Netscape 4. Older browsers may have more problems with the lay-out, but the results will still be acceptable. If necessary, use the font-size option in your browser. * Replaced some DOS-specific path and file-separators which were left unnoticed in the first release of FDC 1.3 by generic 'filesep' and 'pathsep' commands. FDC 1.3 ======= * The user-interface of the load routines LOADER and INCOLOAD has been improved by applying the function UIGETFILE to specify the filename and path. * The user-interface of the save routines within ACTRIM and ACLIN has been improved by applying UIPUTFILE to specify the filename and path. * Previous versions of the FDC toolbox used the block-diagram of the aircraft model as an S-function. Unfortunately, the ability to use a block diagram as an S-function wasn't implemented in Simulink 2.0. The Mathworks claims that there is no workaround and that work is in progress to reimplement this functionality or an equivalent for a later release, but that doesn't solve the problem. For that reason, the S-function blocks that call the aircraft model from the systems OLOOP1, OLOOP2, OLOOP3, APILOT1, APILOT2, and APILOT3 have been replaced by a masked subsystem-equivalent of the S-function BEAVER. Actually, this change has several advantages over the original version, in particular since the potential disadvantages of this method have largely been eliminated by other new Simulink options such as the improved blocklibrary support. The most noticable consequences of the use of a subsystem-equivalent of the S-function BEAVER are: - The size of the systems OLOOP1, OLOOP2, OLOOP3, APILOT1, APILOT2, and APILOT3 has been increased considerably. Luckily, downloading is still quite fast due to the new MDL file-format. - The input/output connections in the block-diagrams were streamlined, although care has been taken to maintain system compatibility by using the same input/output signals as before. In fact, a more radical simplification of the input/output relations of the aircraft model can be obtained here, but that will be postponed for a future release of the toolbox. * A completely new on-line help facility, based upon HTML language, has been created. As in FDC 1.2, double-clicking on title blocks in Simulink diagrams opens the on-line help facility, but the new version uses a
web-browser to show the help texts (note: the on-line help facility won't function without a web-browser!). Some advantages: - fundamentally improved lay-out and enhanced readability - hyperlinks provide connections to related subjects in the on-line help database Moreover, additional help-texts for APINIT, APMODE, NAVLIB, WINDLIB, and RECOVER have been created, and a large number of small errors and omissions in the old help texts (*.HLP) have been fixed. In addition, pressing the HELP button of a masked Simulink block from the FDC toolbox now provide an automatic link to your web-browser. The HELP subfolder of the FDC toolbox still contains the old *.HLP files (even slightly improved ones) for compatibility reasons. Note: typing fdchelp('index') at the command-line will reveal the indexpage of the HTML-helpfiles for FDC 1.3. * Clicking the HELP button of masked subsystems now provides a direct link to the new HTML helpfiles. Much more comfortable than before! * Many small editorial changes to the models and tools help improve their readability. * Autopilot systems: button-blocks now contain the names of the Matlab routines which will run after the blocks are double clicked. Subsystem `Computational Delay & Limiters' has got its own on-line help text. * Graphical systems now stored in the new MDL format of Simulink 2. The `button'-library BUTTONS has been renamed to FBUTTONS to prevent clashes with the new Matlab 5 routine BUTTONS.M. * FDCLIB, NAVLIB, and WINDLIB are now saved as Simulink libraries instead of 'ordinary' Simulink models (also a new feature of Simulink 2). * To prevent Simulink from issuing warning messages about blocks which were purposedly left unconnected, the ground and termination blocks from Simulink 2 have been applied. This is for instance clearly visible in the systems OLOOP1, OLOOP2, and OLOOP3 and the autopilot systems. If you don't mind the warning messages you may delete these blocks, since their appearance in the graphical systems is actually quite ugly... * Several blocks from the Simulink block-diagrams were replaced by new Simulink 2 versions. * Removed revision dates from title blocks of subsystems. Revision date is now only shown in masked subsystems and top-level (saves me a lot of time and prevents confusing mistakes). Replaced title blocks for autopilot control modes by simple blue text-line and added similar lines to autopilot-blocks which previously didn't have a title-block at all. * All graphical block-diagrams are now optimized for a screen-resolution of 800x600 pixels or more (was 640x480 or more). * Formatted most Mux blocks as thin black bars (making the systems easier to understand). * Added revision history lists to the Matlab programs.
* The autopilot initialization routines have been improved by eliminating command-window messages where possible (not yet realized for places where user inputs are required). * Installation routine has been streamlined, using new self-extracting ZIP technology for MS-Windows. Default destination directory for the installation will now be C:\MATLAB\TOOLBOX\FDC13 (can be changed easily during the installation, e.g. if your Matlabroot is not equal to C:\MATLAB) and default directory used by FDC initialization routines is set to MATLABROOT\TOOLBOX\FDC13. * CONTENTS.TXT file from the subfolder DOC now only contains a file-list. More information is available in the CONTENTS.M files, which will be shown if you use HELPWIN at the command-line and double-click the references to the FDC subfolders. * FDCINIT.M now shows graphically more appealing welcome screen, which isn't as irritating for new users as the old welcome-screens. Furthermore, a menu is displayed after initialization, guiding the user to the main FDC library (FDCLIB) or the on-line help-texts as desired. Many smaller changes in this utility have improved the path-definitions for the FDC toolbox (hopefully eliminating some of the compatibility problems experienced by users who ran FDC on a UNIX machine or MAC). FDC 1.2.1 ========= * This is the first release that has been made available on SourceForge. It is largely identical to FDC 1.2, but it contains some minor changes in the user-interface and it includes HTML helpfiles (although the latter are not actually integrated in the FDC software; they are an 'add-on' only). * FDC 1.2.1 has been re-licensed under the Dutchroll Open Source Software License (DOSSL) version 1.0 (described in the LICENSE.TXT document of this release). FDC 1.2 ======= This is the first version of the toolbox that was actually called 'Flight Dynamics and Control toolbox'. It contained the following new features: * FDC 1.2 was designed for Matlab 4.0 / Simulink 1.2c (or newer) instead of Matlab 3.5k / Simulink 1.2. * The masked blocks did not use 'hidden' parameters, read from global variables in the workspace, contrary to the previous versions. * The help texts were improved once again. Toolbox-help in 'Matlab 4.0'style (contents.m files) and new help-files for the autopilot simulation models were included. * The autopilot simulation models were improved in order to make them better accessible by the users. The autopilot-parameter definition routines were made more user-friendly than before and the on-line help texts for these models were improved. * Three new examples of control-law simulations were added. These systems (PAH.M, RAH.M, and PAHRAH.M) represented an interim step between linear
autopilot design and the full-featured non-linear autopilot models from the systems APILOT1 to APILOT3. The routine PRAHINIT.M was included to help definining the parameters for these example systems. * The Mode-controller blocks from the autopilot simulation models was renewed completely, together with the Matlab functions GSSWITCH.M, NAVSWTCH.M, and LOCSWTCH.M, which are called by S-function blocks in the Mode Controller subsystem. Some of the mode-definition vectors were re-defined in the new mode-controller and the old initialization routine APSTART.M was replaced by APMODE.M. * A user-menu APMENU.M was included in order to help the user in selecting the appropriate autopilot model. * New Matlab macros RESULTS.M and RESPLOT.M were included to facilitate the post-processing of simulation results. * The screen-formatting of the routines ACLIN and ACTRIM was improved by applying a slightly changed version of the Matlab function NUM2STR, called NUM2STR2. * Complete lists of variables were added to the source codes of ACLIN and ACTRIM. The source-codes themselves were better documented. * Several blocks from the library FDCTOOLS (previously called TOOLS) were improved. This library was equipped with a user-friendly n-switch generator which automatically created graphical switch-blocks with n inputs, where n could be specified by the user during the blockgeneration process. * Several minor and some major bugs in the Matlab programs from the FDC toolbox were fixed. The package was made more 'fool-proof'. * The program documentation files (*.TXT) was gathered in a new subdirectory DOC, leaving only the FDC initialization and installation routines in the root directory of the toolbox. * The installation routine was improved, allowing installation into a different destination directory than C:\FDC12. The self-extracting ZIP-file that contained the FDC toolbox distribution files was hidden from the user to prevent the files from being installed to a wrong directory. * A small routine RECOVER.M was created to recover simulation results that were not properly sent to the Workspace by Simulink. * The initialization routine now added the root-directory of the FDC toolbox to the Matlab path in order to allow several routines from FDC 1.2 to find the default directory settings in the file MODINIT.INI, thus reducing the number of 'File not found' errors. * A start was made to create an object-oriented implementation of the FDC toolbox by putting some often-used parts of programs into general-purpose subroutines, but further improvements are still necessary. * Created slightly modified Simulink models for Matlab 4.2/Simulink 1.3. Version 1.1 (beta) ==================
This version was called BEAST 1.1 (beta), which meant 'Beaver Simulation Toolbox' version 1.1. It was never 'officially' released. Compared to version 1.0 it contained the following new and/or improved features: * Better on-line help texts for the graphical Simulink systems. These texts now contained complete lists of variables and units of measurements. The number of help texts was increased considerably. Moreover, the fileextension for these help texts was changed from .M to .HLP. * Double-clicking title-blocks in graphical Simulink systems now listed the accompagnying help-texts in the Matlab command-window. * New file-extensions were introduced: .DAT (parameter files), .HLP (helpfiles), .LIN (linearized models), and .TRI (trimmed-flight conditions). This clarified the file-structure of the toolbox. * The user-interface of ACTRIM and ACLIN was considerably improved. * The trim-routine was enhanced with the option to specify the manifold pressure in stead of the flight path angle. * The old model library ACLIB was replaced by the new model library BEASTLIB and enhanced with many explanatory systems. All examples were now accessible through the main library. * New versions of the open-loop example systems from version 1.0 were created, plus 'tutorial' systems which gave a step-by-step explanation about the meaning of all blocks from these examples. * The 'button'-blocks were changed in order to show which M-file they would start when being double-clicked. * The structure of the aircraft model BEAVER was improved by adding a new subsystem 'Additional Outputs' to group the output blocks which could not logically be placed elsewhere, and by putting the help sines and cosines in a feedback-loop to make them available for ALL other blocks within the system. Also, the subsystem 'Aircraft Equations of Motion' was restructured in a more logical way. Feedback-loops in the system BEAVER were highlighted by a magenta color. * Some signal names which could have led to confusion in version 1.0 were changed (e.g. FMa in stead of Fa, to denote Forces AND Moments). * Some bugs in the blocks ACCEL, FLPATH, and XDOTCORR of the old version of the system BEAVER were fixed in BEAST 1.1 (bugs reported by Zainal Abidin, Delft University of Technology). Version 1.0 =========== The first usable version of the FDC toolbox that was presented in public as part of the MSc-thesis of the author. At the time of publishing it was still nameless.
------------------------------------------------------------------------The FDC toolbox. Copyright M.O. Rauw, 1994-2004. All rights reserved. This software is licensed under the Open Software License, version 2.1. See the file copying.txt in the DOC subdirectory for detailed information
about the terms of use. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Updated the systems OLOOP1, OLOOP2, and OLOOP3 with Manual Switch blocks. * Deleted OLOOP1T, OLOOP2T, and OLOOP3T tutorials. These tutorials were not very useful anyway, but they did require quite some maintenance with each new update of the FDC toolbox; it is planned to substitute HTML helpfiles for these tutorials in a future version of the FDC toolbox. * Updated the autopilot systems with new, masked, Scheduled Gain blocks and replaced Demux/Ground/Scope sequence by Selector/Scope. * The block 'actuator & cable dynamics' from the APILOT systems has been updated. The old version of this block used to take into account a separate multiplication factor 2 for the Cail matrix, whereas the updated version implements this factor in the Cail matrix itself. As a consequence, the actmod1.dat, actmod2.dat, and actmod3.dat files have been updated too. IMPORTANT: DO NOT USE THE UPDATED BLOCK WITH THE OLD 'ACTMOD' DATAFILES, OR VICE VERSA! * Corrected turn-coordination control law in RAH and PAHRAH systems. Updated PAH, RAH, and PAHRAH with simplified aircraft model output handling. * The autopilot initialization routine APINIT.M has been greatly simplified. It no longer tries to account for all possible situations; instead it loads default aircraft model data, asks the user to load an appropriate initial flight condition, and automatically determines the most suitable actuator & cable model parameters. This is less flexible, but a whole lot easier than the cumbersome menu structure of the old situation. The ILS and VOR initialization have been removed (ILSINIT and VORINIT need to be called separately now), and the FIXSTATE option has been removed from the standard autopilot initialization routine (instead, a separate FIXSTATE button has been included in the autopilot systems). * The ILS initialization routine ILSINIT now makes an 'educated guess' to identify a condition which ensures that the glideslope is captured approximately 30 seconds after localizer capture. This makes it easier to do multiple ILS simulations, but more sophisticated initialization routines are still planned for future FDC versions. * The re-drawn Simulink systems and new color-conventions give the models a more appealing and more 'professional' appearance. * Improved the lay-out of the HTML helpfiles; corrected some small errors in the help texts, and replaced obsolete FDC 1.2 information. * Removed 8-character limit for subdirectory names in FDCINIT.M. * Removed some graphical menu's from applications that were in fact designed with a text-based user-interface (for the command window). In this case, consistent behaviour was deemed more important than a fancy GUI, although this is only an intermediate solution, in anticipation on a GUI-centered approach for FDC 2. * Removed COMMENT.M: it was outdated and not funny anymore. * Removed NSWITCH.M: it had become obsolete, as a similar block is now available in the standard Simulink library 'Nonlinear'. * Removed RECOVER.M: had become obsolete, as the Simulink bug that it
fixed has apparantly been solved in Simulink versions 2.0 and newer. * Removed FDC_WELC.M, FDC_STRT.M, and 1STRUN.M, and the corresponding MAT-files. Created new splash-screen FDC_SPLASH.M (if desired, the splashscreen can be suppressed easily by commenting out the fdc_splash command in FDC.M). * In the previous version of the FDC toolbox, the wind blocks BLWIND and CWIND yielded only approximate results (contrary to what was suggested in the user-manual), as the applied expressions were valid only for wings-level horizontal flight (and even then only approximately). In this new release, both blocks have been completely overhauled; they are now valid for all possible attitudes of the aircraft. Also, BLWIND now has a more convenient masked user-interface. * Included protection against 'division by zero' warnings for the QDR and Cone of Silence computations in the VOR block * Fixed several other bugs from the previous FDC version. (Thanks to all people who have sent feedback; in particular thanks to Scott Poll for his very detailed analysis of the FDC systems and tools.) * Removed some strange left-overs from FDC 1.1, the strangest of which was a 'hidden' obsolete VOR library that had remained unnoticed for 8 (!) years. * This version has been re-licensed under the Open Software License. This license is similar in spirit as the previously used DOSSL, but has a sound juridical basis and is approved by the Open Source Intitiative (OSI). See http://www.opensource.org for more details about this license and about Open Source licenses in general. See LICENSE.TXT for the complete license terms.
FDC 1.3.3 ========= * This is the first release that has been made available on SourceForge. It is identical to FDC 1.3 SR2, but has been re-licensed under the Dutchroll Open Source Software License (DOSSL) version 1.0 (described in the LICENSE.TXT document of this release). * New version numbering: the Service Release logic has been replaced by a more straightforward scheme that uses a third number to denote minor changes. Working backwards, this yields: FDC 1.3 -> FDC 1.3.0 FDC 1.3 SR1 -> FDC 1.3.1 FDC 1.3 SR2 -> FDC 1.3.2 and consequently, this new minor release is called FDC 1.3.3. FDC 1.3 SR2 =========== * Corrected some minor bugs and further improved behavior on non-Windows platforms. FDC 1.3 SR1
=========== * Converted the filenames of the HTML-helpfiles to lower-case and fixed the HTML-links accordingly in order to solve HTML referencing problems on non-Windows computers. As far as I could tell, the HTML-links in the Simulink systems were typeset in lower-case already, except for the block BLWIND in the library WINDLIB, but the links inside the HTML-files themselves all needed to be updated. If you still encounter link problems, please contact the author. * Included the missing REFSGNLS.HTM file. * Enhanced the font-lists within the HTML-helpfiles for non-Windows platforms. Also decreased the fontsize. The results seem to be quite good on web-browsers such as IE3, IE4, Netscape 3, and Netscape 4. Older browsers may have more problems with the lay-out, but the results will still be acceptable. If necessary, use the font-size option in your browser. * Replaced some DOS-specific path and file-separators which were left unnoticed in the first release of FDC 1.3 by generic 'filesep' and 'pathsep' commands. FDC 1.3 ======= * The user-interface of the load routines LOADER and INCOLOAD has been improved by applying the function UIGETFILE to specify the filename and path. * The user-interface of the save routines within ACTRIM and ACLIN has been improved by applying UIPUTFILE to specify the filename and path. * Previous versions of the FDC toolbox used the block-diagram of the aircraft model as an S-function. Unfortunately, the ability to use a block diagram as an S-function wasn't implemented in Simulink 2.0. The Mathworks claims that there is no workaround and that work is in progress to reimplement this functionality or an equivalent for a later release, but that doesn't solve the problem. For that reason, the S-function blocks that call the aircraft model from the systems OLOOP1, OLOOP2, OLOOP3, APILOT1, APILOT2, and APILOT3 have been replaced by a masked subsystem-equivalent of the S-function BEAVER. Actually, this change has several advantages over the original version, in particular since the potential disadvantages of this method have largely been eliminated by other new Simulink options such as the improved blocklibrary support. The most noticable consequences of the use of a subsystem-equivalent of the S-function BEAVER are: - The size of the systems OLOOP1, OLOOP2, OLOOP3, APILOT1, APILOT2, and APILOT3 has been increased considerably. Luckily, downloading is still quite fast due to the new MDL file-format. - The input/output connections in the block-diagrams were streamlined, although care has been taken to maintain system compatibility by using the same input/output signals as before. In fact, a more radical simplification of the input/output relations of the aircraft model can be obtained here, but that will be postponed for a future release of the toolbox. * A completely new on-line help facility, based upon HTML language, has been created. As in FDC 1.2, double-clicking on title blocks in Simulink diagrams opens the on-line help facility, but the new version uses a
web-browser to show the help texts (note: the on-line help facility won't function without a web-browser!). Some advantages: - fundamentally improved lay-out and enhanced readability - hyperlinks provide connections to related subjects in the on-line help database Moreover, additional help-texts for APINIT, APMODE, NAVLIB, WINDLIB, and RECOVER have been created, and a large number of small errors and omissions in the old help texts (*.HLP) have been fixed. In addition, pressing the HELP button of a masked Simulink block from the FDC toolbox now provide an automatic link to your web-browser. The HELP subfolder of the FDC toolbox still contains the old *.HLP files (even slightly improved ones) for compatibility reasons. Note: typing fdchelp('index') at the command-line will reveal the indexpage of the HTML-helpfiles for FDC 1.3. * Clicking the HELP button of masked subsystems now provides a direct link to the new HTML helpfiles. Much more comfortable than before! * Many small editorial changes to the models and tools help improve their readability. * Autopilot systems: button-blocks now contain the names of the Matlab routines which will run after the blocks are double clicked. Subsystem `Computational Delay & Limiters' has got its own on-line help text. * Graphical systems now stored in the new MDL format of Simulink 2. The `button'-library BUTTONS has been renamed to FBUTTONS to prevent clashes with the new Matlab 5 routine BUTTONS.M. * FDCLIB, NAVLIB, and WINDLIB are now saved as Simulink libraries instead of 'ordinary' Simulink models (also a new feature of Simulink 2). * To prevent Simulink from issuing warning messages about blocks which were purposedly left unconnected, the ground and termination blocks from Simulink 2 have been applied. This is for instance clearly visible in the systems OLOOP1, OLOOP2, and OLOOP3 and the autopilot systems. If you don't mind the warning messages you may delete these blocks, since their appearance in the graphical systems is actually quite ugly... * Several blocks from the Simulink block-diagrams were replaced by new Simulink 2 versions. * Removed revision dates from title blocks of subsystems. Revision date is now only shown in masked subsystems and top-level (saves me a lot of time and prevents confusing mistakes). Replaced title blocks for autopilot control modes by simple blue text-line and added similar lines to autopilot-blocks which previously didn't have a title-block at all. * All graphical block-diagrams are now optimized for a screen-resolution of 800x600 pixels or more (was 640x480 or more). * Formatted most Mux blocks as thin black bars (making the systems easier to understand). * Added revision history lists to the Matlab programs.
* The autopilot initialization routines have been improved by eliminating command-window messages where possible (not yet realized for places where user inputs are required). * Installation routine has been streamlined, using new self-extracting ZIP technology for MS-Windows. Default destination directory for the installation will now be C:\MATLAB\TOOLBOX\FDC13 (can be changed easily during the installation, e.g. if your Matlabroot is not equal to C:\MATLAB) and default directory used by FDC initialization routines is set to MATLABROOT\TOOLBOX\FDC13. * CONTENTS.TXT file from the subfolder DOC now only contains a file-list. More information is available in the CONTENTS.M files, which will be shown if you use HELPWIN at the command-line and double-click the references to the FDC subfolders. * FDCINIT.M now shows graphically more appealing welcome screen, which isn't as irritating for new users as the old welcome-screens. Furthermore, a menu is displayed after initialization, guiding the user to the main FDC library (FDCLIB) or the on-line help-texts as desired. Many smaller changes in this utility have improved the path-definitions for the FDC toolbox (hopefully eliminating some of the compatibility problems experienced by users who ran FDC on a UNIX machine or MAC). FDC 1.2.1 ========= * This is the first release that has been made available on SourceForge. It is largely identical to FDC 1.2, but it contains some minor changes in the user-interface and it includes HTML helpfiles (although the latter are not actually integrated in the FDC software; they are an 'add-on' only). * FDC 1.2.1 has been re-licensed under the Dutchroll Open Source Software License (DOSSL) version 1.0 (described in the LICENSE.TXT document of this release). FDC 1.2 ======= This is the first version of the toolbox that was actually called 'Flight Dynamics and Control toolbox'. It contained the following new features: * FDC 1.2 was designed for Matlab 4.0 / Simulink 1.2c (or newer) instead of Matlab 3.5k / Simulink 1.2. * The masked blocks did not use 'hidden' parameters, read from global variables in the workspace, contrary to the previous versions. * The help texts were improved once again. Toolbox-help in 'Matlab 4.0'style (contents.m files) and new help-files for the autopilot simulation models were included. * The autopilot simulation models were improved in order to make them better accessible by the users. The autopilot-parameter definition routines were made more user-friendly than before and the on-line help texts for these models were improved. * Three new examples of control-law simulations were added. These systems (PAH.M, RAH.M, and PAHRAH.M) represented an interim step between linear
autopilot design and the full-featured non-linear autopilot models from the systems APILOT1 to APILOT3. The routine PRAHINIT.M was included to help definining the parameters for these example systems. * The Mode-controller blocks from the autopilot simulation models was renewed completely, together with the Matlab functions GSSWITCH.M, NAVSWTCH.M, and LOCSWTCH.M, which are called by S-function blocks in the Mode Controller subsystem. Some of the mode-definition vectors were re-defined in the new mode-controller and the old initialization routine APSTART.M was replaced by APMODE.M. * A user-menu APMENU.M was included in order to help the user in selecting the appropriate autopilot model. * New Matlab macros RESULTS.M and RESPLOT.M were included to facilitate the post-processing of simulation results. * The screen-formatting of the routines ACLIN and ACTRIM was improved by applying a slightly changed version of the Matlab function NUM2STR, called NUM2STR2. * Complete lists of variables were added to the source codes of ACLIN and ACTRIM. The source-codes themselves were better documented. * Several blocks from the library FDCTOOLS (previously called TOOLS) were improved. This library was equipped with a user-friendly n-switch generator which automatically created graphical switch-blocks with n inputs, where n could be specified by the user during the blockgeneration process. * Several minor and some major bugs in the Matlab programs from the FDC toolbox were fixed. The package was made more 'fool-proof'. * The program documentation files (*.TXT) was gathered in a new subdirectory DOC, leaving only the FDC initialization and installation routines in the root directory of the toolbox. * The installation routine was improved, allowing installation into a different destination directory than C:\FDC12. The self-extracting ZIP-file that contained the FDC toolbox distribution files was hidden from the user to prevent the files from being installed to a wrong directory. * A small routine RECOVER.M was created to recover simulation results that were not properly sent to the Workspace by Simulink. * The initialization routine now added the root-directory of the FDC toolbox to the Matlab path in order to allow several routines from FDC 1.2 to find the default directory settings in the file MODINIT.INI, thus reducing the number of 'File not found' errors. * A start was made to create an object-oriented implementation of the FDC toolbox by putting some often-used parts of programs into general-purpose subroutines, but further improvements are still necessary. * Created slightly modified Simulink models for Matlab 4.2/Simulink 1.3. Version 1.1 (beta) ==================
This version was called BEAST 1.1 (beta), which meant 'Beaver Simulation Toolbox' version 1.1. It was never 'officially' released. Compared to version 1.0 it contained the following new and/or improved features: * Better on-line help texts for the graphical Simulink systems. These texts now contained complete lists of variables and units of measurements. The number of help texts was increased considerably. Moreover, the fileextension for these help texts was changed from .M to .HLP. * Double-clicking title-blocks in graphical Simulink systems now listed the accompagnying help-texts in the Matlab command-window. * New file-extensions were introduced: .DAT (parameter files), .HLP (helpfiles), .LIN (linearized models), and .TRI (trimmed-flight conditions). This clarified the file-structure of the toolbox. * The user-interface of ACTRIM and ACLIN was considerably improved. * The trim-routine was enhanced with the option to specify the manifold pressure in stead of the flight path angle. * The old model library ACLIB was replaced by the new model library BEASTLIB and enhanced with many explanatory systems. All examples were now accessible through the main library. * New versions of the open-loop example systems from version 1.0 were created, plus 'tutorial' systems which gave a step-by-step explanation about the meaning of all blocks from these examples. * The 'button'-blocks were changed in order to show which M-file they would start when being double-clicked. * The structure of the aircraft model BEAVER was improved by adding a new subsystem 'Additional Outputs' to group the output blocks which could not logically be placed elsewhere, and by putting the help sines and cosines in a feedback-loop to make them available for ALL other blocks within the system. Also, the subsystem 'Aircraft Equations of Motion' was restructured in a more logical way. Feedback-loops in the system BEAVER were highlighted by a magenta color. * Some signal names which could have led to confusion in version 1.0 were changed (e.g. FMa in stead of Fa, to denote Forces AND Moments). * Some bugs in the blocks ACCEL, FLPATH, and XDOTCORR of the old version of the system BEAVER were fixed in BEAST 1.1 (bugs reported by Zainal Abidin, Delft University of Technology). Version 1.0 =========== The first usable version of the FDC toolbox that was presented in public as part of the MSc-thesis of the author. At the time of publishing it was still nameless.
------------------------------------------------------------------------The FDC toolbox. Copyright M.O. Rauw, 1994-2004. All rights reserved. This software is licensed under the Open Software License, version 2.1. See the file copying.txt in the DOC subdirectory for detailed information
about the terms of use. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
