A MATLAB Toolbox for Teaching Model Order Reduction Techniques

 This paper presents a MATLAB-based toolbox with a Graphical User Interface (GUI), which can be used to compute reduced models of a large system by using one of the twenty order reduction techniques available in the toolbox. The methods that have been implemented in the toolbox include the Padé, Routh, Cauer, Continued-Fraction Expansion, and algorithms that provide mixtures of these techniques. Upon execution of the toolbox, a GUI will appear with four frames named “Methods”, “High Order System”, “Output Options”, and “Results”. In “Methods” frame, one or more of the reduction techniques can be selected. The high order system is defined by its transfer function numerator and denominator in “High Order System” frame. In this frame, a number of high order benchmark systems, in a popup menu, are provided that can be selected by the user for testing purposes. In “Output Options” frame, the order of the reduced model and the types of the desired output plots are selected. The impulse response and step response are available as an output. In the output plot, the software shows and compares the reduced models responses with nominal system response. The graphs of step and/or impulse responses will be appeared in two different windows. The numerator and denominator of the computed reduced order models will be shown in “Results” frame. Index Terms  Control systems, graphical user interface, MATLAB toolbox, model order reduction, simulation.