Controlling Mechatronic Set-up Using Real-time Linux and CTC ++

The development of control software for mechatronic systems is presented by means of a case study: a 2 DOF mechanical rotational set-up usable as a camera-positioning device. The control software is generated using the code generation facility of 20-SIM, thus guaranteeing the generated code being the same as verified by simulation during the controller design phase. We use CTC++ (Communicating Threads for C++) as Communication Abstraction Layer to facilitate the conversion process from the block diagram describing the controller towards the control computer code. Furthermore, CTC++ enables the use of distributed and different processors as target computer, since distributivity and heterogeneity are explicitly accounted for in the CTC++ library. CTC++ provides the tools to make the application realtime. Real-time Linux provides us the real-time operating system resources that are needed to create a real-time environment for the real-time application.