MathWorks has introduced Release 2020b of the MATLAB and Simulink product families. New capabilities in MATLAB simplify working with graphics and apps, and Simulink updates focus on expanded access and speed, including the launch of Simulink Online for access through web browsers.
R2020b also introduces new products that build on artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, speed up autonomous systems development, and accelerate creation of 3D scenes for automated driving simulation. More details are available in the Release 2020b video.
Among the hundreds of new and updated features, MATLAB adds new bubble and swarm charts, the ability to diff and merge App Designer apps with the MATLAB Comparison Tool, and customizable figure icons and components to MATLAB apps. Also, in addition to Simulink Online to view, edit and simulate Simulink models through web browsers, R2020b adds the ability to generate code up to 2X faster for referenced model hierarchies in Simulink and includes new automerge functionality that helps automate continuous integration workflows.
Additional Release 2020b Highlights
AI and Deep Learning
The new Deep Learning HDL Toolbox provides algorithm developers and hardware designers with functions and tools to prototype and implement deep learning networks on FPGAs and SoCs. It provides prebuilt bitstreams for running deep learning networks on supported Xilinx and Intel FPGA and SoC devices. Profiling and estimation tools help to customize a deep learning network by exploring design, performance and resource use tradeoffs. By using Deep Learning HDL Toolbox, engineers can customize the hardware implementation of their deep learning network and generate portable, synthesizable Verilog and VHDL code for deployment on any FPGA with HDL Coder and Simulink.
Starting in R2020b, Deep Learning Toolbox supports Simulink with Image Classification and Network Prediction blocks to help simulate and generate code for deep learning models. Updates to the Experiment Manager app support training of multiple deep learning networks in parallel and tuning of hyperparameters using Bayesian optimization. The Deep Network Designer app can now train networks for image classification, semantic segmentation, multiple-input, out-of-memory, image-to-image regression and other workflows.
Autonomous Systems
Two new products and a major update for autonomous systems are included in R2020b. Lidar Toolboxis a new product that provides algorithms, functions and apps for designing, analyzing and testing lidar processing systems. UAV Toolbox is another new product that provides tools and reference applications for designing, simulating, testing and deploying unmanned aerial vehicle and drone applications. Updates to Sensor Fusion and Tracking Toolbox include the ability to track objects using the grid-based random finite set (RFS) tracker and the ability to create trajectories using earth-centered waypoints.
Automotive
For the automotive industry, the new RoadRunner Scene Builder product, part of the RoadRunner product family, automates the creation of road networks from HD Maps. AUTOSAR Blockset updates enable the use of schema version 4.4 for import and export of ARXML files and generation of AUTOSAR-compliant C code. It also offers Linux executables for adaptive models, helping to create an AUTOSAR adaptive executable to run as a standalone application. Vehicle Dynamics Blockset now includes the ability to implement 6DOF trailers and vehicles with three axles and Simulink 3D blocks that offer the ability to visualize tractors and trailers in the Unreal Engine 3D environment.
R2020b is available immediately worldwide.
Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.
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