Stateflow

Chapter 1
Introduction

Overview

What Is Stateflow?

Stateflow is a powerful graphical design and development tool for complex control and supervisory logic problems. Using Stateflow you can:

• Visually model and simulate complex reactive systems based on finite state machine theory.
• Design and develop deterministic, supervisory control systems.
• Easily modify your design, evaluate the results, and verify the system's behavior at any stage of your design.
• Automatically generate integer or floating-point code directly from your design (requires Stateflow Coder).
• Take advantage of the integration with the MATLAB and Simulink environments to model, simulate, and analyze your system.

Stateflow allows you to use flow diagram notation and state transition notation seamlessly in the same Stateflow diagram. Flow diagram notation is essentially logic represented without the use of states. In some cases, using flow diagram notation is a closer representation of the system's logic and avoids the use of unnecessary states. Flow diagram notation is an effective way to represent common code structures like for loops and if-then-else constructs.

Stateflow also provides clear, concise descriptions of complex system behavior using finite state machine theory, flow diagram notations, and state-transition diagrams. Stateflow brings system specification and design closer together. It is easy to create designs, consider various scenarios, and iterate until the Stateflow diagram models the desired behavior.

Installing Stateflow

Examples of Stateflow Applications