Daikin Increases Development Efficiency Using Production Code Generation for Air Conditioner Controls

Daikin Industries, a Japanese air conditioner manufacturer, recognizes the growing global demand for cooling and heating solutions. In alignment with its commitment to expanding access to HVAC systems while upholding environmental sustainability, Daikin has prioritized advancements in inverter technology. These innovations enable significant reductions in energy consumption compared to conventional air conditioning units. However, the process of designing motor drivers for inverter ACs is time intensive. Using MATLAB^®, Simulink^®, and Embedded Coder^® for modeling and production code generation, Daikin engineers have improved the efficiency of motor control development.

The decision to use MATLAB and Simulink for model-based development and automatic code generation was driven by the need to enhance development efficiency and skill transfers. Due to the complexity of fan and motor combinations and the need for new fan and compressor motor control logic, the Daikin team used Simulink tools to create standards to stabilize and improve model quality using the MAAB guidelines as a reference. The team also applied production code generation to the development of the motor control system, with technical support from MathWorks engineers, which reduced implementation errors by better detecting underflow and overflow.

Integrating MATLAB and Simulink tools in the development process has enabled Daikin engineers to streamline their design process while simultaneously reducing the need for tedious manual coding and updates of motor control logic. Introducing these improvements—as well as complying with MAAB guidelines—has enabled the reduction of ROM/RAM usage and load factor by approximately 40%.