Simulation and validation of a contour trackin system using SIMAN

This paper reports the simulation of a practical system which is being investigated as part of a research program in pattern recognition. It is used to show that the system is feasible and to establish the conditions in which the system is stable. SIMAN is used for the simulation enabling the user to integrate the discrete and continuous parts of the model in one package. The problem being investigated is the tracking of contours of a 2 dimensional object using a beam of light. Z-transforms have been used to model the opto-electronic contouring system. The shape is simulated either by waveform generation or by manual input of numeric data for nonuniform shapes. The paper describes the derivation of the model and the programming behind the simulation together with successful results.