EICASLAB offers the possibility to address distributed control architectures at different hierarchical levels of any level of complexity. 

The final goal of EICASLAB consists in generating the Real-Time Software Code to be transferred in the final hardware network of targets (that should be composed of microcontrollers, DSPs…) that will pilot the plant to be controlled. 

To test and validate the overall Real-Time Software code, before transferring it in the final target, EICASLAB offers a powerful ACG Rapid Prototyping Module, based on a Real-Time Scheduler and Multi-threading  programming techniques, that - starting from the control system architectures designed in EICASLAB – is able to generate a special Real-time software code to be transferred on a PC with a Linux Real-Time Operative System directly connectable to the plant to be controlled.

Using the PC, the control engineer can directly pilot the plant through a powerful HMI (Human-Machine Interface), can visualize on the PC screen the dynamic behaviour of the variables of his own interest, can record on the PC disk all the data to be then post-analysed through the EICASLAB POST tool, can repeat the experimental trials starting from the recorded experimental data through the Slow-Motion tool available in EICASLAB.

The control engineer can also repeat the experimental trials starting from the recorded experimental data through the Slow-Motion tool available in EICASLAB.

The Rapid Prototyping technique is fundamental for minimizing time and costs in the control tuning in field.

In 2008 EICAS Automazione worked at adapting such Rapid Prototyping Module to benefits of advantages offered by the introduction of the Multi-Core technology.

An advanced core management has been introduced in the Real-time software code generated through Rapid Prototyping Module, making the Module able to enhance real-time performance and consequently giving the possibility to address the prototyping of control architectures of high level of complexity.

Let us consider for instance a control architecture distributed in n processor and a PC devoted to Rapid-Prototyping equipped with k-core: the control engineer can subdivide the real-time software code of the n-processor in the k-core so to be able to reproduce with just only a PC the overall final system architecture.

EICAS – as an additional service to EICASLAB users – offers  a Real-Time Rapid Prototyping Platform, composed of a PC with on-board installed the Linux RTAI O/S,  the EICASLAB suite and all the necessary interfaces to run the most sophisticated Real-Time Prototyping techniques