Name: Darryl Dave G.

Ditucalan
Course and Year: BS ECE 4th
EE 179.1 Section: M456
Laboratory Schedule: 1:00PM 4:00PM M

Activity 1: Introduction to SCILAB

Abstract
<100-300 words well-chosen words>

1 Objectives

To introduce students to a mathematical software that can be used to

simulate control systems.

2 List of equipment/software

vPersonal Computer
Installation of SCILAB

3 SCILAB Environment and Features Overview

Scilab is a free and open-source mathematical software. It can be used to simulate
mathematical applications from basic to advanced engineering systems.
Simulations can be through set of commands entered in the interactive command,
through a script written in the SciNotes, or through XCOS. XCOS is Scilabs
counterpart for Matlabs Simulink.
For this activity, you will be introduced to the basic command line interface as well
as scripting of a set of commands in SciNotes. Some basic features of Scilab such as
variable declarations, operations and flow control will be examined in this activity.
Some commonly used functions will also be introduced.

3.1 Variable
In Scilab, you can easily create and instantiate variables anytime. Unlike the C
language, Scilabs variables are dynamic and dont have to be created before they
are stored with values.
Open you Scilab now and try the following in the console.
--> clear
--> a = 1
The console should respond with the value of a. Now, after the above command, try
doing the following:
--> b = a
The console should respond with the value of b which is just the value of a in the
previous command.

Name: Darryl Dave G. Ditucalan

Course and Year: BS ECE 4th
EE 179.1 Section: M456
Laboratory Schedule: 1:00PM 4:00PM M
1. How about this one?
--> b = aaa
What will be the response of the console?
Since aaa has not been assigned a value yet, it still does not exist.
Another convenient feature of Scilab is that you can assign any datatype to a
variable even after you had previously assigned a different datatype. For example:
--> b = 1
--> b = Hi, this is a string
--> b = [this,is, a, vector/array]
These commands will not produce an error. The datatype of the variables in Scilab
adapt to whatever value you store in it.
You may have noticed that the last command is an array. Arrays in Scilab are values
enclosed in [ and ] with values separated by spaces or commas. You can also
create a matrix by separating rows with a semicolon.
--> an_array = [1, 3, 4]
--> a_matrix = [1, 2; 4, 5]
2. What will you enter in the command line if you want to assign a_matrix

with

[ ]
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9

You can easily declare an array of sequence of numbers using :

--> 1:10
// returns an array of numbers from 1 to 10 with an
interval of 1
--> 1:2:10
// returns an array of numbers from 1 to 10 with an
interval of 2
3.1.1 Polynomial
You can easily create polynomial using the poly function read the help file for
different methods of using the poly function. The simplest way is the following:
--> s= poly(0,s)

//this assign polynomial s^1 to the variable s.

Now you can manipulate this variable similar to number.

Name: Darryl Dave G. Ditucalan

Course and Year: BS ECE 4th
EE 179.1 Section: M456
Laboratory Schedule: 1:00PM 4:00PM M

3. Write the result of (s^2+2*s+1)/(s+1) as shown in the console.

3.2 Operators
Scilab has a lot of operators in addition to basic arithmetic operations. Since Scilab
operates on matrices by default, basic arithmetic operations are applied on
matrices.
Operat
or
+
*
/
\
^

Description
Matrix addition
Matrix subtraction
Matrix Multiplication
Matrix division.

A / B= AB1

Matrix back-division.

A = A1B

Matrix exponential.
Transpose

If you want element-wise operation using those operators, the operator is preceded
with a .
--> a = [1, 2; 3, 4]
--> b = [3, 4; 5, 6]
--> a + b
ans =
4.
6.
8.
10.
4. Do a matrix multiplication and element-wise multiplication on a and b.
What are the results? Are the results equal?

5. What is the result of a?

Accessing an element in an array or matrix is by calling the variable with a

parenthesis. For example, to access the 1st element of b:

Name: Darryl Dave G. Ditucalan

Course and Year: BS ECE 4th
EE 179.1 Section: M456
Laboratory Schedule: 1:00PM 4:00PM M
--> b(1) //this will return 3. Matrix b is treated as a vector reading
top to bottom starting from the left.
This is the same as
--> b(1,1) //accessing element in column 1 row 1. First index is for
the row, the second is for the column.
You can use the $ to indicate the index of the last element.
--> b(1,$) //returns the last element of the first row.
Sub-matrices can be extracted by putting an array or matrix as index. The content
of the matrix index will be the rows/columns that will be included in the sub-matrix.
You can use : to include all elements on that row/column.
--> c = [1, 2 ,3; 4, 5, 6; 7, 8, 9]
--> d = c([1,3],[1,2])
ans =
1.
2.
3.
8.
--> e = c(:,1) //returns all the rows in the first column.
6. What is the result of c(1:3,$)?

3.3 Flow Control

The flow control in Scilab can be done with if then/else statements, select/case ,
return, for loop, do and while loops. In addition, keywords such as break, continue,
pause, abort are also useable to alter the flow of a set of Scilab commands. The
syntax for this is in described in detailed in the Help menu of Scilab. To access the
Help, type help in the command line or click the help button in the menu bar.

3.4 Functions in Scilab

You can create a reuseable set of commands as a function in Scilab. The basic
syntax is the following:
FUNCTION [y1,, yn]= functionname(x1, , xm)
//some statements or commands here
ENDFUNCTION
3.4.1 Some of the commonly used functions in Scilab
Refer to the Help menu for details
1. plot used to plot expressions in Scilab.
2. poly function to create a polynomial.

Name: Darryl Dave G. Ditucalan

Course and Year: BS ECE 4th
EE 179.1 Section: M456
Laboratory Schedule: 1:00PM 4:00PM M
3. roots Solve the roots of a polynomial
4. coeff extract the coefficients of a polynomial.
5. evstr - evaluate a string of Scilab statements or commands
6. csim Simulation of a linear system. (time response)
7. ones Generate a matrix of ones
8. zeros Generate a matrix of zeroes
9. rand generate a matrix of random values
10.eye generate an identity matrix.
11.inv inverse of a matrix
12.diag extract the diagonal of matrix
13.abs absolute value
14.real, imag, complex for complex numbers
15.conj conjugate of a complex
16.pfss partial fraction expansion of a give transfer function
17.syslin system linear definition
18.ss2tf State-space representation to transfer function conversion
19.tf2ss Transfer function to state-space representation
20.ssrand random system generator.

3.5 Batch Commands or Scripting

Scilab has an integrated text editor called SciNotes for creating and editing Scilab
scripts. A set of commands or statements can be written in a Scilab script that can
be ran or executed in a single action. SciNotes has some advance text editing
functionalities for coding like parenthesis matching and syntax highlighting. Open
Scinote by clicking the notebook icon below the menu bar.
After opening the SciNotes, do the following:
7. Write the following in the editor:
a = [0:0.1:2*%pi]
b = this is executed after a=1
plot(a,sin(2*a))
//end
What is the result or the behavior of the above statements in the console
after executing the script?

8. Write a function called myfunct that accepts two parameters A and B.

The function will return the result of (A+B)*B. Execute the script what is
the result?

9. Call the function you created in #8 and pass as parameters the values 3
and 9. What is the result?

Name: Darryl Dave G. Ditucalan

Course and Year: BS ECE 4th
EE 179.1 Section: M456
Laboratory Schedule: 1:00PM 4:00PM M

10. What will your function return if the parameters are [1,2,3] and [4;
6;7]?

11. How about [1, 2, 3 ; 3, 5, 1; 5 6 -1] and [3, -1, 4 ; -3, 5, 1; -5 6 -1]?

12. Do you have to re-execute your function from SciNotes? Why?

3.6 Answers to Questions

1. How about this one?
--> b = aaa
What will be the response of the console?
!--error 4
Undefined variable: aaa

2. What will you enter in the command line if you want to assign a_matrix

with

[ ]
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9

a_matrix = [ 1 2 3; 4 5 6; 7 8 9]

3. Write the result of (s^2+2*s+1)/(s+1) as shown in the console.

ans =
1+s
-----

Name: Darryl Dave G. Ditucalan

Course and Year: BS ECE 4th
EE 179.1 Section: M456
Laboratory Schedule: 1:00PM 4:00PM M
1

4. Do a matrix multiplication and element-wise multiplication on a and b.

What are the results? Are the results equal?

Matrix multiplication:

Element-wise:

3 8
15 24

13 16
29 36

Base from the results above, They are not equal.

5. What is the result of a?
a:

[ ]
1 3
2 4

6. What is the result of c(1:3,$)?

e =
3.
6.
9.
7. Write the following in the editor:
a = [0:0.1:2*%pi]
b = this is executed after a=1
plot(a,sin(2*a))
//end

Name: Darryl Dave G. Ditucalan

Course and Year: BS ECE 4th
EE 179.1 Section: M456
Laboratory Schedule: 1:00PM 4:00PM M

What is the result or the behavior of the above statements in the console
after executing the script?
The first line declares an array of floating numbers representing 0 rad to 2
pi rad with intervals of 0.1 rad. For the 2nd line, we declare a string
variable and for the 3rd line, a plot function is executed with a as the xaxis and sin(2*a) as y-axis in a rectangular plane.
8. Write a function called myfunct that accepts two parameters A and B.
The function will return the result of (A+B)*B. Execute the script what is
the result?
//start of program
function [R]=myfunct(A, B)
R = (A+B)*B
endfunction

9. Call the function you created in #8 and pass as parameters the values 3
and 9. What is the result?

Name: Darryl Dave G. Ditucalan

Course and Year: BS ECE 4th
EE 179.1 Section: M456
Laboratory Schedule: 1:00PM 4:00PM M
-->myfunct(3,9)
ans =

108.

10. What will your function return if the parameters are [1,2,3] and [4;
6;7]?
-->myfunct([1,2,3],[4;6;7])
!--error 8
Inconsistent addition.
at line

2 of function myfunct called by :

myfunct([1,2,3],[4;6;7])

11. How about [1, 2, 3 ; 3, 5, 1; 5 6 -1] and [3, -1, 4 ; -3, 5, 1; -5 6 -1]?
-->myfunct([1,2,3;3,5,1;5,6,-1],[3,-1,4;-3,5,1;-5,6,1])
ans =

- 26.

43.

10.

- 40.

62.

8.

- 36.

60.

14.

12. Do you have to re-execute your function from SciNotes? Why?

No, as long as you dont close the SciLab session and the current directory
youre working in Scilab contains the said function file, then we can
just only execute it once and call it directly. But if you close the
SciLab session and open another session, you must re-execute the
function. Again, you only need to execute it once as long as the
SciLab session is still the same session youre working with, with the
executed function.

Name: Darryl Dave G. Ditucalan

Course and Year: BS ECE 4th
EE 179.1 Section: M456
Laboratory Schedule: 1:00PM 4:00PM M

4 Conclusion
As to my experience in using MatLab, SciLab is pretty much the same with
MatLab. SciLab offers functions and variable handling capabilities, same as
MatLab does, which enables us to perform mathematical task and numerical
method techniques. SciLab is capable in handling arrays and matrices which is
vital in numerical method, finding a solution of an equation,etc. Furthermore, we
can declare a symbolic variable (same as in MatLab) which gives us more
mathematical features like finding roots, poles and zeros, partial fractions and
more.
SciLab is of great help in simulating systems that we will use and analyze in
EE 179. We can simplify directly a frequency domain representation of using the
symbolic variable along with the arithmetic functions available in SciLab.
Frequency domain representation can then be transformed back into time
domain by hand but not if we have a complicated frequency domain
representation. In order to simplify this, we have to do partial fraction
expansion which can be readily solved by the pfss function in SciLab. We can
also convert our transfer function to State-space representation and vice-versa
like tf2ss and ss2tf.