Using Multiple Simulations tool in Simulink

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone may be able answer a question I have about using the Multiple Simulations tool in Simulink.

The Antenna block I would like to enable multiple simulation on has as an input azimuth and elevation angles towards which the input signal power wave arrives, specified as a finite real row vector of length 1-by-2 or finite real matrix of length m-by-2 (since R2023a) with each element unit in degrees or radians. m is an integer between in the range [2, 100].

I have tried entering a matrix of values I wish to form a multiple simulation for, namely [90 2;85 2;80 2;75 2;70 2;65 2;60 2;55 2;50 2]

However, during the simulations, it just generates the error "Expected Direction of arrival to be an array with number of columns equal to 2"

Does anybody know how to enter the values into the mulltiple simulation design study so it works or am I doing something obviously stupid here!

Best regards,

Andy

Answer 1

[R]

Hi Andy,

The detailed explanation and the model were a big help. I was able to reproduce the error and debug it. When giving the input values as a 9-by-2 array, the Multiple Simulations tool considers it as one array with 18 values. This can be verified by the # Sims property of the design study being 18. To work around this, use a cell array as input instead. The following input worked for me:

{[90 2],[85 2],[80 2],[75 2],[70 2],[65 2],[60 2],[55 2],[50 2]}

Again, this can be verified by the # Sims propery of the design study being 9.

I hope this helps you measure the antenna power output!

Best,

Raghvi

[Andy]

That's brilliant Raghvi - it works. Thank you very much for taking the time to sort this out.

Best regards,

Andy

Answer 2

[Rishi]

]Hi Andy,

I understand from your query that you want to know how to use the Multiple Simulations tool in Simulink.

You can find a step-by-step guide on how to use Multiple Simulations tool in the below example:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2023a/simulink/slref/multiplesimulations.html

To know more about Multiple Simulations, you can refer to the following documentation:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2023a/simulink/ug/multiple-simulations-panel-example.html

Hope it helps!

[Andy]

Hi Rishi,

Thank you for your reply. My problem, I think, lies with how to use the antenna block with the Multiple simulation tool. For some reason it is not allowing me to enter the values for the antenna namely [90 2;85 2;80 2;75 2;70 2;65 2;60 2;55 2;50 2].

I don't think I have the antenna block configured correctly.

Best regards,

Andy

[R]

Hi Andy,

I tried reproducing the issue but it works for me in MATLAB R2023b. Can you share the model, reproduction steps and the version of MATLAB you are using so that other contributors can investigate the issue in detail?

Answer 3

[Andy]

Hi Raghvi,

Thanks for getting back to me once again. I have been using Matlab 2023b for the modelling. I have attached the code and simulink model below.

What I'm trying to do is reproduce an antenna test range. I have two antennas that are built from the code, the first is the antenna I wish to test (I just put a simple 4 patch array at 2.45GHz for simplicity) and the recieve antenna is a horn antenna, again at 2.45GHz.

What we do in the lab is apply a power signal to the antenna we wish to test - then using the horn antenna, we sweep through an arc of 180 degees, measuring the power through the sweep. This allows a plot of the radiated power in the azimuth plane.

It was suggested that I may be able to use Simulink RF blockset combined with the antenna toolbox to emulate the above process. The simulation seem to work fine, however as I stated in my previous question, when I try to use the multiple simulation tool I run into problems.

All I wish to do is sweep through from 0 to 90 degrees in the azimuth plane, using the Muliple Simultions tool in Simulink and measure the antenna power output!

Hoping you can help.

Best regards,

Andy