Developing Safety Solutions for Swaying Payloads with Simulink
Derek Sikora, Vita Inclinata Technologies, Inc.
See how startup Vita Inclinata used Model-Based Design to develop load stability systems for helicopters and cranes, stabilizing payloads at the flip of a switch.
The Vita Inclinata team built system models with Simulink® to capture different dynamic effects, including aircraft motion, hoist effects, and external disturbances such as wind. Using hardware-in-the-loop, they simulated full environmental scenarios and fed the synthetic data into their load stability system. This allowed them to design, build, and test better systems—faster.
Through the MathWorks Startup Program, Vita Inclinata had access to MATLAB® at a startup-friendly price and engineering support from MathWorks experts, which helped them to research projects, develop prototypes, and bring their products to production. By adopting an expanded toolchain through the MathWorks Startup Program, the company saw an exponential increase in their return on investment.
Published: 17 Feb 2021
Turning on our system below a 22,000 pound fully outfitted Black Hawk, the system is going to work. We build load stability systems, a helicopter carrying a payload, or a person, or a crane carrying cargo, we can stabilize those objects at the flip of a switch. We were part of a TechStar's cohort out of Boston. So I'm on my computer actually writing algorithms in SILAB and a MathWorks representative came in. He said, Oh, and by the way, we have this startup program and my eyes just shot up.
And then from there just off to the races, to remodeling aircraft motion, dynamic hoist simulated disturbances such as wind, pilot attenuation on the aircraft. So the next big step we actually took was building a hardware in the loop. We would use this Simulink desktop real-time modules and generate synthetic data to make our system dream that it was flying.
It's like having an entire test team working for you in your sleep. It's all value. Our return on investment just exponentially went up as we brought more of the MathWorks tool set into our operating principles.