Run Simulink repeatedly from Matlab

I am going to be running a simulation repeatedly varying a few parameters.

I will have to do hundreds of iterations. I do not want to compile every time. My Simulink contains external calls. Currently, the parameters that I will vary are put in the workspace by an initialization script.

What is the best practice for running simulations using Simulink repeatedly when modifying parameters from Matlab?

Answer 1

[Sebastian Castro]

The best approach is to use Fast Restart simulation: https://www.mathworks.com/help/simulink/ug/fast-restart-workflow.html

Fast restart will let you run simulations repeatedly without recompiling, as long as the variables you're changing do not affect the model in any way. For example, you can change tunable parameters, inputs, etc. but not structural things such as sample times, data types, dimensions, etc.

To do this from the command line, you can just do:

for idx = 1:100
  myParams = externalFunction(idx);
  simout = sim('modelName','FastRestart','on');
end

- Sebastian

[Audrow Nash]

Thank you.

[Audrow Nash]

How does Fast Restart work with SimState?

The second step in your link says to save a SimState. When I try to save a SimState, I get the following error:

The following parameters are not supported by the sim command when Fast Restart is enabled: 'SaveFinalState, FinalStateName, SaveCompleteFinalSimState'

Here is a snippet of my code:

set_param(simulation,'FastRestart','on')

% Create a SimState at the final time of 0
% (as soon as the simulator starts)
simOut = sim(simulation,'StopTime','0',...
       'SaveFinalState', 'on',...
       'FinalStateName','xFinal',...
       'SaveFormat','Structure');

% Adjust simulator over iterations
for i = 1:100

      % Adjust parameters in the workspace

      simOut1 = sim(simulation,'StartTime', ...
                    '0', 'StopTime', '5',...
                'SaveFinalState', 'off', ...
                'LoadInitialState', 'on', ...
                    'InitialState', 'xFinal');
end