Case Study: Lotus Engineering achieves 30% faster development and production-quality diesel-emission control software with MathWorks

Lotus Engineering Develops Control Systems Software to Reduce Diesel Emissions

Lotus Engineering faced a tight-schedule challenge to help a client meet stringent 2007 EPA diesel emissions standards without redesigning the engine, instead using exhaust aftertreatment components (oxidation catalyst, diesel particulate filter, NOx trap) and complex control strategies for active/passive regeneration, temperature protection, and desulfurization. To manage this complexity, Lotus Engineering turned to MathWorks and its Model-Based Design tools, including Simulink, Stateflow, MATLAB and Embedded Coder.

Using MathWorks tools, Lotus modeled and simulated control algorithms, integrated legacy code, and automatically generated production-intent code (deployed to a Motorola MPC563 MCU), converting models to fixed point for target performance; MathWorks training and consulting also supported the effort. The result was a rapid proof-of-concept within a month, a 30% reduction in development time, higher-quality production code that’s easier to iterate and validate on-track, and ongoing plans to model a complete engine control unit.