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Purpose of the Guidelines and Template

MathWorks® Advisory Board (MAB) guidelines stipulate important basic rules for modeling in Simulink® and Stateflow®. The overall purpose of these modeling guidelines is to allow for a simple, common understanding by modelers and consumers of control system models.

The main objectives of these guidelines are:

  • Readability

    • Improve graphical understandability

    • Improve readability of functional analysis

    • Prevent connection mistakes

    • Comments, etc.

  • Simulation and verification

    • Mechanism to enable simulation

    • Testability

  • Code Generation

    • Improve the efficiency of code generation (ROM, RAM efficiency)

    • Ensure the robustness of generated code

Note

Model runtime errors and recommendations that cannot be implemented are outside of the scope of these rules.

Guidelines are documented by using a standard template. Use of this template is recommended when creating original guidelines.

Note

This template specifies the minimum requirements that are needed to understand a guideline. New items can be added to the template as long as they do not duplicate existing information.

Section HeadingFormatSection Description
Rule ID: TitleXX_nnnn: Title of the guideline (unique, short)

A rule ID, which is used to identify the guideline, consists of two lower case letters and a four-digit number. The letter and number combination is separated by an underscore. For example, xx_nnnn.A rule ID is permanent and will not change.

Note

The two-letters in the rule ID identify the guideline author.

Sub ID Recommendations

NA-MAAB: x, y, z

JMAAB: x, y, z

Specifies guideline sub IDs that are recommended for use by the NA-MAAB (North American MathWorks Automotive Advisory Board) and JMAAB (Japan MathWorks Automotive Advisory Board) modeling standards organizations. Each organization is a region-specific consortium of automotive OEMs and suppliers; NA-MAAB represents North America and Europe. JMAAB represents Japan.

MATLAB® VersionsAll
RX, RY, RZ
RX and earlier
RX and later
RX through RY

MAB guidelines support all versions of MATLAB and Simulink products. When a rule applies only to a specific version(s), the version is identified in the MATLAB Version field by using one of these formats:

  • All — All versions of MATLAB

  • RX, RY, RZ — A specific version of MATLAB

  • RX and earlier — Versions of MATLAB until version RX

  • RX and later — Versions of MATLAB from version RX to the current version

  • RX through RY — Versions of MATLAB between RX and RY

Rule > Sub ID

Specifies the condition(s) of the rule by using Sub IDs. There can be multiple sub IDs per rule ID.

The subsections for a Sub ID include:

  • Custom Parameter

  • (Optional) Exclusion

  • (Optional) Example

Specifies the condition(s) of the rule. Sub IDs are designated as either:

  • Selectable ― Consist of one lower-case letter (alphabetical order). The choice of whether to adopt a selectable sub ID is left to the user.

  • Mutually Exclusive ― Consist of one lower case letter (alphabetical order) and a single-digit number. When choosing to accept or reject a mutually exclusive sub ID, only one option can be selected.

For example, Sub IDs for guideline xy_0000 are:

  • xy_0000a ― Represents a selectable (user’s choice) option

  • xy_0000b1

    xy_0000b2

    ― Mutually Exclusive (if using, choose from xy_0000b1 or xy_0000b2)

For rules that include custom parameters, the chosen value is specific for the project with regard to the item being described. Example of objects and values are provided in the description field. However, a project’s processes, condition of the control target, and skill levels of the engineers should be comprehensively evaluated when specifying a custom parameter.

RationaleMotivation for the Sub IDs

Provides reasoning for the use of the guideline with regard to readability, verification efficiency, efficiency of code after code generation, etc.

Verification

Verification methods

Method(s) that verify compliance of the model with guideline conditions, such as:

  • Model Advisor check

  • Manual verification method

Last ChangeR<year>MATLAB revision in which the content of the guideline was last updated. For example, R2020a.
See AlsoReferences

Additional information that can be helpful to better understand the guideline.