Q&A with Versicor on Why They Chose Model-Based Design

"We have found that using Model-Based Design to develop control software is up to six times faster than a traditional, hand-coding approach."

Challenge

Enable medical device manufacturers to rapidly develop control systems and achieve regulatory certification

Solution

Use Model-Based Design to design, verify, implement, and document control software

Results

  • Design and implementation completed six times faster
  • Early verification of design and code
  • Integrated, end-to-end development

Versicor is an electronics, software, and controls development company headquartered in Royal Oak, Michigan. Its flagship product is an electronics and controls platform that enables new and established companies to speed the development of software for the medical device, clean tech, and transportation industries.

Christie Coplen, president of Versicor, explains why her company has adopted Model-Based Design with MATLAB® and Simulink®.

What led you to look for a new way of working?

Our goal is to streamline how medical device, clean tech, and transportation companies go from idea to prototype to finished product. For instance, many medical device manufacturers employ a design process that involves costly rework as a device moves to production. Initial control algorithms are often rewritten to create the first hardware prototype and then rewritten for the production processor. This inefficiency makes it difficult to rapidly produce new devices and secure regulatory approval.

Why did you select Model-Based Design?

We wanted to enable our medical device, clean tech, and transportation clients to apply the approach that engineers use in the automotive and aerospace industries to develop high-integrity software. At the same time, we wanted to make it as easy as possible for our clients to implement a new workflow. So, we were looking for a single set of tools that they could use to design, verify, implement, and document control software. The approach and the tools had to be in widespread use across the industry and familiar to new engineering graduates.

What results have you seen so far?

We have found that using Model-Based Design to develop control software is up to six times faster than a traditional, hand-coding approach. One of our clients transitioned from a concept to algorithm development and implementation on an embedded processor in a matter of hours.

With Model-Based Design our clients can implement their idea or algorithm directly in a model, without relying on a software programmer. They can modularize the design, reuse it, and implement it on a production processor to quickly see tangible results.

Model-Based Design enables early verification of designs—a big selling point for our clients. There are financial and tangible benefits to getting bugs out early, particularly in the medical devices industry.

Model-Based Design with MATLAB and Simulink enables our clients to develop on production hardware from the start. They use a single environment for initial mathematical analysis, system modeling, design simulation, and embedded code generation.

Next Steps

Versicor clients have already started using Model-Based Design with MATLAB and Simulink to speed the development of embedded control systems. Clients who previously relied on programmers to write C code by hand are now modeling their systems in Simulink and Stateflow®, generating code with Embedded Coder®, and verifying the code on embedded processors. Versicor is working with its medical device clients to simplify the FDA certification process using Polyspace® test results and other documentation required for approval.