MathWorks, global industry experts in mathematical computing, simulation and model-based engineering software, has introduced Release 2026b of MATLAB® and Simulink®, adding new capabilities for industrial visual inspection, perception, system configuration, automated testing and verification across complex engineering workflows.

R2026b introduces three new products: Visual Inspection Toolbox, Simulink Variant Manager and Polyspace® Test Server. Together with expanded point-cloud, embedded development and verification capabilities, the release extends MathWorks’ support for engineering teams working across automation, robotics, sensing, AI and software-defined systems. Visual Inspection Toolbox combines AI and image-processing methods for industrial inspection and analysis applications, including anomaly detection, dimensional measurement, shape matching and object localization. The toolbox can map image measurements to calibrated real-world units and supports workflows that combine traditional image processing with deep learning models. MathWorks has also expanded point-cloud development for lidar, camera, radar and simultaneous localization and mapping, or SLAM, applications, strengthening perception workflows for robotics, automated systems and other sensor-driven equipment.

Components Source Network editorial illustration showing engineers using modeling, AI visual inspection, point-cloud perception and verification workflows for industrial automation, featured by Industrial Automation Monthly.

Engineering workflows increasingly connect system modeling, AI-enabled visual inspection, perception, automated verification and deployment across modern industrial automation environments. (Components Source Network Editorial Illustration.)

Simulink Variant Manager provides a centralized environment for configuring, managing and analyzing product and system variants across complex models and architectures. Engineering teams can capture variant combinations as named configurations, analyze their use across model hierarchies and validate configurations before simulation or code generation. The capability is especially useful for machine and system developers managing multiple equipment configurations, control architectures or product families within a common engineering platform.

Polyspace Test Server extends automated verification for embedded C and C++ software into continuous integration environments, allowing unit and integration tests and structural code-coverage analysis to run on automation servers. Test results can also be uploaded for web-based review, supporting distributed engineering and quality workflows. Simulink Design Verifier has separately been updated with distributed analysis across multiple CPU cores and enhanced precision for models using floating-point and complex mathematical operations.

“Engineering organizations are being challenged to deliver increasingly sophisticated products that blend software, AI, electronics, and connected systems while maintaining quality, compliance, and development speed,” explains Avinash Nehemiah, Head of Product Management and Marketing – Design Automation, MathWorks. “R2026b helps teams connect design, simulation, testing, and deployment workflows so they can spend less time managing complexity and move from concept to production more quickly.”

R2026b also expands hardware-software co-design, machine learning and measurement-analysis workflows. SoC Blockset for AMD adds capabilities for the design, deployment and verification of communications, vision, deep-learning and control applications on AMD Adaptive SoCs and FPGAs. Statistics and Machine Learning Toolbox introduces interactive applications for design of experiments and Gage R&R studies, while Deep Learning Toolbox adds a new Time Series Modeler application and enables co-execution of PyTorch models in MATLAB and Simulink.

MATLAB and Simulink receive broader project, collaboration and simulation updates as well. MATLAB adds TOML-based project files, package management through File Exchange, Google Sheets integration and performance improvements for data-centric workflows. Simulink adds published models that can be reused without rebuilding, JSON-based data dictionaries for source-control workflows and AI-assisted profiling insights through Simulink Copilot, extending the platform across modeling, inspection, perception, verification and deployment for modern automation development.

About MathWorks

MathWorks is a Natick, Massachusetts-headquartered developer of mathematical computing, simulation and model-based engineering software used across industrial, automotive, aerospace, energy, medical, communications and other technical markets. Founded in 1984, the company develops MATLAB, a programming and numeric computing environment for algorithm development, data analysis and visualization, and Simulink, a block-diagram environment for multidomain simulation and Model-Based Design. Its software supports engineering and scientific development across control systems, signal and image processing, robotics, artificial intelligence, embedded systems, test and measurement, verification and validation, and hardware-software design. MATLAB and Simulink are also widely used in engineering education and academic research. MathWorks employs more than 6,500 people across 34 offices worldwide. For more information, please click here.

Source: MathWorks

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Molly Bakewell Chamberlin
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