Citation jets from the Cessna Aircraft Company are known for their innovative technology and passenger comfort. When test pilots reported an issue with the aircraft's antiskid brake control system, Cessna engineers jumped at the chance to improve the product. The issue was intermittent, however, making it difficult to isolate and replicate.
Cessna engineers identified and addressed the issue by using MathWorks tools to develop a software model of the aircraft and run real-time hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) tests that simulated system behavior under a variety of conditions.
"HIL testing using MathWorks tools enabled us to quickly detect root causes and study improvements for future antiskid systems without using valuable flight time on actual aircraft," says Alan Johnson, lead engineer at Cessna.