Case Study: CARCO Electronics achieves 30% reduction in development costs with MathWorks

CARCO Electronics Reduces Development Costs by 30%

CARCO Electronics needed to build a six-degrees-of-freedom motion test system capable of reproducing low-amplitude, high-frequency dynamics up to 1000 Hz, a challenge requiring a very stiff yet lightweight mechanical structure and a controller with extremely fast response. To meet this, CARCO turned to MathWorks and its products — including MATLAB, Simulink, Simscape Multibody, Simulink Coder, and Simulink Real-Time — to model and analyze the integrated mechanical and control system before prototyping.

Using MathWorks tools, CARCO modeled the mechanics, developed and optimized a multiaxis controller in Simulink, generated ANSI C code with Simulink Coder, ran real-time tests with Simulink Real-Time, and verified dynamics with Simscape Multibody. The result: development costs fell by 30% (per Carnegie Mellon’s SEI study), design time was reduced by more than two months, and the controller was optimized to specifications, enabling CARCO to validate performance before building costly prototypes.

CARCO Electronics

Robert Peterson

Vice President of Engineering