Case Study: MBDA achieves real‑time six‑degrees‑of‑freedom motion testing and halves development time with MathWorks Model‑Based Design (MATLAB & Simulink)

MBDA Develops Six-Degrees-of-Freedom Motion Test Platform to Demonstrate Tracking Antenna Controller

MBDA needed to demonstrate a tracking antenna controller in a dynamic, real‑time environment to convince its customer that satellite communications would be maintained during a rocket flight. Facing a tight deadline and only two engineers, MBDA turned to MathWorks and its Model‑Based Design toolchain—including MATLAB and Simulink—to avoid costly flight tests and rapidly develop a six‑degrees‑of‑freedom motion test platform.

Using MathWorks products (MATLAB, Simulink, Simulink Coder, and Simulink Real‑Time), MBDA built a real‑time hardware‑in‑the‑loop system that ran a combined rocket and antenna controller model on a target PC to drive an industrial robot motion platform; Monte Carlo simulations and generated code accelerated verification. The approach halved development time (≈50% reduction), uncovered and fixed errors early, minimized expensive flight tests, and demonstrated end‑to‑end satellite tracking throughout a full simulated mission, boosting customer confidence.

MBDA

Tonino Genito

Department Head