MexBIOS Development Studio – Computer-Aided Design system for designing digital control devices
Novel specialized software product MexBIOS Development Studio enables computer-assisted development of the embedded software for microcontrollers.
MexBIOS Development Studio can be used efficiently by developers of the control systems for electric motors, frequency converters, servo drives, motion control system, workflow automation devices, as well as in colleges and universities for learning programming and simulation of the complex control system.
The software product includes:
• MexBIOS Development Studio visual programming system;
• library of ready-to-use functions and templates (which is individual for each platform of the microcontroller);
• real-time task execution system for the microcontroller.
The software product can be used for development of the programs «from scratch», as well as for integration into ready-made control systems to enhance their functionality, i.e. software adaptation to the user demands.
The software product enables to embed into the microprocessor device your own programming system, which allows flexibly adapting the device to the user demands.
MexBIOS Development Studio visual programming system allows achieving the following goals:
1. development of the control object models for debugging the software;
2. development of main control program modules by means of text programming.
3. development of the control algorithms by visual technique, by using the ready-to-use program templates and the user library blocks. Visual programming allows setting events, building algorithms and block diagrams, «state machine», declaring your own variables. As ready-to-use program modules there are available drivers for the microcontroller periphery, digital controllers and filters, logic elements, communication modules via industrial protocols.
4. algorithm verification in simulation mode for the developed models of control objects (the system includes models of main types of electric motors).
5. loading the developed algorithms and block diagrams into microcontroller, in which «start project», task execution system and procedure library are pre-installed. The «start project» is a standard software project, in which there is a call of the task execution system. The task execution system in its turn executes the user algorithms based on the configuration file that is generated in the visual programming environment. This approach enables to the user to integrate the system into the software projects that already exist, where as a «start project» the user uses the software that already exists.
6. algorithm debugging in the microcontroller that is integrated into the control system, the variables editing and viewing, as well as the algorithm change “on the fly” are available. The last one is able because of presence of an interpreter in the task execution system, and the computation speed does not decrease pratically, cause the interpreter operates in fact with the pre-compiled functions.
7. generation of virtual control panels with animation for ease of debugging and control.
8. communication with standard devices via serial interfaces.
9. saving the developed algorithms as either a configuration file or their generating as a text file in C programming language.
The devices that are developed according to MexBIOS technology have open software platform, by means of which the user is able to integrate the control algorithms into the device. Such functionality is the pre-condition to reduce the costs for the reengineering after change of the workflow demands.
The software product includes ready-to-use templates for control systems of electric motors in position, speed and torque modes with different types of sensors (including sensorless systems) that were pre-tested in laboratory and various industrial conditions. The proposed templates allow fast developing the frequency converters and servo drives.
The manufacturer of the software environment provides consulting services in the software use for different applications, as well as in support of the development. The product is available for downloading.
Fig. 1. Variables declaration, Modbus RTU communication protocol connection
Fig. 2. Utilization of graphic controls
Fig. 3. Programming by means of block diagrams
Fig.4. Programming by using the «State Machine»
Fig. 5. Generation of the user animation interface
Fig.6. Algorithm building
Fig. 7. Interface for development of own program module