The Matlab ODS Toolbox enables the Matlab client to read/write ASAM ODS sources. Next to applying individual algorithms to testing data with the Matlab client, the toolbox targets to integrate developed algorithms as reusable classes into the Test Data Management system. With the major benefit of the possibility to extend existing function scopes of the toolbox by classes that are mapped to a specific MIME type of the data source, the Matlab ODS Toolbox allows the integration of automized analysis with Matlab.
With the Matlab OO Toolbox, an interpreter from MATLAB is used to instantiate optional classes by a name derived from MIME type dynamically. Therefore, the inheritance hierarchy information is available and specialized objects such as an AoMeasurement can be transformed into analog Matlab structures. More information about the Matlab ODS Toolbox can also be found at Mathworks.
The Matlab ODS Toolbox 2.0 provides the general capability to integrate the Matlab Client into the Test Data Management System. Matlab is reading data that is located within the Test Data Database and cache required content in-memory in known Matlab structures.
Any information can be manipulated, added, or deleted with Matlab's tools.
The result can be committed and written back to a (new) file with the updated information. When using a database, Matlab will read directly from it, no data exports are required. Data security is guaranteed by the ASAM ODS Server.
Manatee Web Applicatin and Matlab Client UI
Many features of Test Data Management might not be accessible with Matlab as a sole client. Therefore, we integrated Matlab into our Manatee Web Application to combine the benefits of both worlds. The Matlab ODS Toolbox provides
To identify measurements of interest, users may utilize the Manatee Web Application to browse, search, query, and view data based on their task. If a measurement is successfully identified, Matlab can be loaded from the Manatee Web Application directly. Even single channels can be loaded into the Matlab workspace.
Using Matlab usually refers to a single user operation starting with the Matlab application and a pre-defined analysis. Often, the effort is not the analysis development itself but its application to the data.
In Test Data Management one of the most common use-cases is applying the same kind of validation or analysis script to newly recorded data from the acquisition system. With the Matlab ODS Toolbox and our Merlin Analysis Server, we can do so! Our ODS servers/platform come with a notification service to trigger analysis.
Using ASACommander: Analysis, engineers can upload Matlab scripts into a defined evaluation. Upon a manual or automated trigger, Merlin will execute the script on the corresponding input data. The results can be handled by the system as well: New calculated values or channels, graphical illustrations, or reports can be added to the measurement.
Schematical Illustration of the Merlin Analysis Dataflow
The ATFx file format is an XML format defined by the ASAM ODS working group and contains a test or measurement. The content of this file is concluded. Therefore, all content is fully described and channel data is contained corresponding units, quantities, and physical dimensions. The model information in the ATFx file defines all necessary tags and attribute names of the schema. Also, with the ATFx file being a textbase format, it can reference content in one or multiple binary files that contain the channel data. Thus, a measurement may consist out of one ATFx file and multiple binary files. The ATFx file format is primarily used as transport format and is therefore accepted as input for ODS server import processes.
While integrating ATFx-files into Matlab fulfills the use-case for file-based data exchange and algorithm development, the main use-case of automated analysis requires an ASAM ODS database connection.
This work package incorporates the features of the "Integrating ATFx Files to Matlab (read/write)" but fulfills the requirements of an ASAM ODS server connection. Again, application models vary for each domain and project and the number of tests in especially enterprise solutions will be high. The Matlab OO Toolbox will be able to read and write from ASAM ODS Databases will keeping the performance of a local file.
If data can be read transparently from any ASAM ODS data source, it is also possible to write it to any ASAM ODS destination. Also, as long as the ASAM ODS structure is maintained, any other MATLAB procedure may produce the data. As a consequence, importing to ODS services, exporting from ODS services as well as the data exchange between ASAM ODS services and third party sources are possible. To manage different sources they must be transparent to the user. On startup, each user has to determine which service the Matlab OO Toolbox is connecting to. This is a built-in feature of the Matlab OO Toolbox. There are multiple data exchange scenarios between ODS database, ODS ATFx files, MATLAB procedures, and data formats.
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