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  Department of Automatic Control

TrueTime is a Matlab/Simulink-based simulator for real-time control systems. TrueTime facilitates co-simulation of controller task execution in real-time kernels, network transmissions, and continuous plant dynamics. Features of the simulator include

  • Written in C++ MEX, event-based simulation
  • External interrupts
  • Possibility to write tasks as M-files or C++ functions. It is also possible to call Simulink block diagrams from within the code functions
  • Network block (Ethernet, CAN, TDMA, FDMA, Round Robin, Switched Ethernet, FlexRay and PROFINET)
  • Wireless network block (802.11b WLAN and 802.15.4 ZigBee)
  • Battery-powered devices, Dynamic Voltage Scaling, and local clocks
  • Stand-alone network interface blocks

News

  • 2009-10-15
    TrueTime 2.0 beta 4 has been released. A bug regarding empty error messages has been fixed; the soccer example has been updated and included; two more network protocols - FlexRay and PROFINET - have been added. WARNING: The new network protocols are experimental and are very likely to contain bugs.
  • 2009-09-18
    TrueTime 2.0 beta 3 has been released. Bug fixes include network block random number generation under Windows, block masks, ttSetPeriod, and more. Network and AODV examples included. See the HISTORY file for a complete list of updates.
  • 2009-05-11
    TrueTime 2.0 beta 2 has been released. A serious bug has been fixed that did not allow multiple kernel blocks within the same Simulink model. For further changes, see the HISTORY file.
  • 2009-01-14
    TrueTime 2.0 beta 1 has been released. The most important change is that the simulator will be released under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE. Other changes include:
    • Automatic connections between Kernel and Network blocks
    • Improved configuration of the Kernel block via the mask dialogue
    • New syntax for several real-time primitives
    • New implementation of handlers
    • New Ultrasound Network block (for simulation of mobile robot localization)
    • Improved stand-alone network blocks to handle vector signals
    • Full built-in support for CBS scheduling
    • And much, much more.
    Please note that TrueTime 2.0 only exists in a beta version so far. Bugs are likely. So far, only four examples are included in the distribution. The manual needs to be updated further. Models developed in TrueTime 1.5 and earlier cannot be run in TrueTime 2.0 without some modifications.
  • 2007-01-05
    TrueTime 1.5 has been released. The new version has dramatically improved performance in the network blocks and features new stand-alone network interface blocks (ttSendMsg/ttGetMsg).

Reference Manuals

Martin Ohlin, Dan Henriksson, Anton Cervin: "TrueTime 1.5—Reference Manual".   Manual, Department of Automatic Control, Lund University, Sweden, January 2007.

Anton Cervin, Dan Henriksson, Martin Ohlin: TrueTime 2.0 beta 1 - Reference Manual".   Department of Automatic Control, Lund University, Sweden, January 2009.

Software

TrueTime is Matlab-based and requires Matlab 6.1 (R12.1) with Simulink 4.1 or later. Control System Toolbox 5.1 or later is required to run some of the examples.

TrueTime has only been tested under Linux and Windows, but will probably run on other platforms as well. Please note:

  • The Simulink blocks were saved under Simulink 4.1
  • The blocks and kernel functions were compiled in Matlab 7.6 (R2008a) using gcc 4.1.2 under Linux 2.6.25.14-69.fc8 and using Visual Studio C++ Express Edition 2008 under Windows XP.
  • If you cannot load the MEX files, you need to compile TrueTime yourself, using the make_truetime Matlab script.
  • If you have trouble compiling the MEX files using Visual Studio C++, see the following guide

TrueTime together with some examples can be downloaded as a compressed archive.

Developers

The following people have contributed to TrueTime (in reverse chronological order):

Main TrueTime Publication

If you write a paper and want to make a reference to TrueTime, please cite the following publication:

Anton Cervin, Dan Henriksson, Bo Lincoln, Johan Eker, Karl-Erik Ĺrzén: "How Does Control Timing Affect Performance? Analysis and Simulation of Timing Using Jitterbug and TrueTime".   IEEE Control Systems Magazine, 23:3, pp. 16--30, June 2003.

All TrueTime Publications

Anton Cervin, Karl-Erik Ĺrzén: "TrueTime: Simulation Tool for Performance Analysis of Real-Time Embedded Systems".   In Pieter J. Mosterman, Gabriela Nicolescu (Eds.): Model-Based Design for Embedded Systems, CRC Press, November 2009.

Philip Reuterswärd, Johan Ĺkesson, Anton Cervin, Karl-Erik Ĺrzén: "TrueTime Network—A Network Simulation Library for Modelica".   In Proceedings of the 7th International Modelica Conference 2009, Modelica Association, September 2009.

Gonzalo Farias, Anton Cervin, Karl-Erik Ĺrzén, Sebastián Dormido, Francisco Esquembre: "Multitasking Real-Time Control Systems in Easy Java Simulations".   In Proc. 17th IFAC World Congress, Seoul, Korea, July 2008.

Gonzalo Farias, Karl-Erik Ĺrzén, Anton Cervin: "Interactive Real-Time Control Labs with TrueTime and Easy Java Simulations".   In Proc. International Multiconference on Computer Science and Information Technology, International Workshop on Real Time Software, Wisla, Poland, October 2007.

Daniel Kusnadi: "TrueTime in Scicos".   Master's thesis ISRN LUTFD2/TFRT--5799--SE, Department of Automatic Control, Lund University, Sweden, June 2007.

Anton Cervin, Martin Ohlin, Dan Henriksson: "Simulation of Networked Control Systems Using TrueTime".   In Proc. 3rd International Workshop on Networked Control Systems: Tolerant to Faults, Nancy, France, June 2007. Invited talk

Martin Ohlin, Dan Henriksson, Anton Cervin: "TrueTime 1.5—Reference Manual".   Manual, Department of Automatic Control, Lund University, Sweden, January 2007.

Martin Ohlin, Dan Henriksson, Anton Cervin: "TrueTime 1.4—Reference Manual".   Manual, Department of Automatic Control, Lund University, Sweden, September 2006.

Martin Andersson, Dan Henriksson, Anton Cervin, Karl-Erik Ĺrzén: "Simulation of Wireless Networked Control Systems".   In Proceedings of the 44th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control and European Control Conference ECC 2005, Seville, Spain, December 2005.

Martin Andersson, Dan Henriksson, Anton Cervin: "TrueTime 1.3—Reference Manual".   Manual, Department of Automatic Control, Lund University, Sweden, June 2005.

Dan Henriksson, Anton Cervin: "TrueTime 1.2—Reference Manual".   Manual, Department of Automatic Control, Lund University, Sweden, October 2004.

Dan Henriksson, Anton Cervin, Karl-Erik Ĺrzén: "TrueTime: Real-time Control System Simulation with MATLAB/Simulink".   In Proceedings of the Nordic MATLAB Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, October 2003.

Anton Cervin, Dan Henriksson, Bo Lincoln, Johan Eker, Karl-Erik Ĺrzén: "How Does Control Timing Affect Performance? Analysis and Simulation of Timing Using Jitterbug and TrueTime".   IEEE Control Systems Magazine, 23:3, pp. 16--30, June 2003.

Dan Henriksson, Anton Cervin: "TrueTime 1.1—Reference Manual".   Technical report ISRN LUTFD2/TFRT--7605--SE, Department of Automatic Control, Lund Institute of Technology, March 2003.

Anton Cervin, Dan Henriksson, Bo Lincoln, Karl-Erik Ĺrzén: "Jitterbug and TrueTime: Analysis Tools for Real-Time Control Systems".   In Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Real-Time Tools, Copenhagen, Denmark, August 2002.

Dan Henriksson, Anton Cervin, Karl-Erik Ĺrzén: "TrueTime: Simulation of Control Loops Under Shared Computer Resources".   In Proceedings of the 15th IFAC World Congress on Automatic Control, Barcelona, Spain, July 2002.

Anton Cervin: "The Real-Time Control Systems Simulator—Reference Manual".   Technical report ISRN LUTFD2/TFRT--7592--SE, Department of Automatic Control, Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden, April 2000.

Johan Eker, Anton Cervin: "A Matlab Toolbox for Real-Time and Control Systems Co-Design".   In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Real-Time Computing Systems and Applications, Hong Kong, P.R. China, December 1999. Best student paper award.

The Old Version of the Simulator

The old version of the simulator (1999) is still available here.

truetime@control.lth.se
Last modified: 2009-10-15