Online and Offline Experimentation

It is possible to experiment with a project offline just as with any component. All facilities for offline experimentation are available and work in the same way as for components. Offline experimentation with a component is equivalent to project offline experimentation, with the default project containing the component. The offline experimentation environment is described detail in Experimentation.

The main difference between offline experimentation with components and projects is that in projects, the tasks created in the operating system editor are stimulated in the event generator, rather than the methods or processes of any components.

With online experimentation a project can be tested under more realistic conditions and in real-time. During offline experimentation the code generated by ASCET can be run on the PC or an experimental target, but it does not run in real-time. During online experimentation the code always runs on an experimental target in real-time. Online experimentation forms the basis for using ASCET in practical applications. It focuses on the operating system schedule and the corresponding real-time behavior of the control system, whereas offline experimentation often revolves around testing the functional specification of a system.

The main differences between online experimentation and offline experimentation are:

Online experiments have to be run on real-time hardware, i.e. the ETAS ES910 target.
There is no stimulation, i.e. there are no event and data generators. The scheduling is determined by the integrated operating system and the data is read from e.g. the technical process.
The sampling rate at which data is measured must be specified explicitly, by selecting an activation task for each measurement window.
The experiment and the measurements can be started independently of each other.

Online experiments are possible only in connection with ASCET‑RP. Therefore, you find the description in the ASCET‑RP User’s guide.

It is possible to generate code for the project without starting the experimentation environment. This is useful for testing whether the code generated is syntactically correct. If the code is incorrect, the program displays the error messages issued by the compiler.