Software for Control System Analysis and Simulation Note that there is a plethora of software available for analysis and simulation of control and dynamic systems.This list is a very short list compiled as it relates to software that is available either for free (unde the GNU licensing) or for commercial software available in the MAE CAD lab or inexpensively at UTA. A list of numerical analysis software could be found at wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_numerical_analysis_software.

  • Scilab is a free (under the GNU licensing agreement) general purpose numerical analysis and visualization software system developed at INRIA in France 
    Scilab is similar to MATLAB in usage and structure. You can find more info at http://www.scilab.org. Useful commands in Scilab for system analysis and simulation are: csim, step, impl, initial, ode, syslin 
    Scilab resources: Scilab resources are available at many places on the internet;
Scilab tutorial
Scilab control tutorial
Scilab – Scicos tutorial (chapter 7)
Scilab for Matlab Info

  • LabVIEW and MathScript (http://www.ni.com): Software/hardware interface software with extensive numerical analysis capabilities. MathScript can be executed either as standalone or as part of a LabVIEW program (VI). If you are interested in obtaining a copy of NI based products let me know.
  • MATLAB and Simulink (http://www.mathworks.com) is a general purpose numerical analysis and visualization tool. It is available in the MAE CAD lab and university computer labs. 
    Useful commands in Matlab for system analysis and simulation are 
    lsim, step, impulse, initial, ode23, ode45
    Simulation of Non-Linear Systems (MATLAB Template) nonlinear.m
  • Mathematica (http://www.wolfram.com) is a computer algebra system that could be used to perform both numerical and symbolic computations. 
    You could find controls system analysis related information through a web search using appropriate keywords (mathematica and controls). Let me know what you find and I will post it if appropriate
  • Octave is a free (under the GNU licensing agreement) general purpose numerical analysis and visualization software system. This software is similar to MATLAB and Scilab in usage and structure. You can find more info at http://www.octave.org. There is a manula in PDF format that is installed when you download and install the software that you can use. QtOctave is a graphical user interface (GUI) to Octave and I would advice that you install this GUI if you were to use Octave.
    Octave resources:
    • QtOctave is a graphical user interface (GUI) to Octave developed by Pedro Luis Lucas Rosado. I would advice that you install this GUI if you were to use Octave (https://forja.rediris.es/projects/csl-qtoctave/). 
    • wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnu_Octave).
  • Maple (http://www.maplesoft.com) a computer algebra system that could be used to perform both numerical and symbolic computations. It is useful in evaluating closed form expressions for manipulators.
    You could find controls system analysis related information through a web search using appropriate keywords (mathematica and controls). Let me know what you find and I will post it if appropriate

    MapleSim is a Maple add-on for multi-domain system modeling, simulation and analysis. It provides resources to develop pictorial representation of electromechanical systems using icons and then simulate the system and in addition obtain the dynamic equations in Maple format for further control analysis.
  • VisSim is another graphical programming language for the analysis and simulation of control/dynamic systems. A VisSim tutorial on the simulation of a motion control system is provided here.