New tools support product variants, point-cloud applications, code coverage analysis and hardware-software co-design workflows.
MathWorks has announced Release 2026b (R2026b) of MATLAB and Simulink. The release adds Simulink Variant Manager, Visual Inspection Toolbox and Polyspace Test Server and expands capabilities for aerospace, embedded systems, artificial intelligence, perception, audio engineering and statistical analysis.
As engineered systems combine software, electronics and AI, engineering teams must manage more design variants, verify systems and deploy software across larger projects. R2026b adds tools for configuration management, visual inspection, automated testing and system verification.
Simulink Variant Manager supports the management of product variants across models and system architectures. It provides features for consistency, traceability and collaboration during the development of product families and platform-based designs.
Visual Inspection Toolbox combines AI and image-processing methods for developing and deploying visual inspection applications in manufacturing and industrial environments. Point Cloud Toolbox also adds workflows for lidar, camera, radar and simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) applications in robotics, automation, transportation and other sensor-based systems.
Polyspace Test Server automates testing and code coverage analysis for C/C++ embedded software in continuous integration environments. Engineering teams can run unit and integration tests and perform structural coverage analysis on automation servers to support software verification and compliance activities.
R2026b also includes updates to MATLAB and Simulink tools for modeling, software verification and hardware implementation:
- MATLAB — Adds TOML-based project files, package management through File Exchange and Google Sheets integration. The release also includes source-control and interoperability updates and performance improvements for data-focused 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.
- Aerospace Toolbox — Adds high-fidelity orbit propagation, maneuver modeling, constellation design and support for lunar missions and other celestial bodies.
- Aerospace Blockset — Adds capabilities for modeling and simulating aircraft, rotorcraft and spacecraft in guidance, navigation and control, mission planning and system-level performance analysis.
- Audio Toolbox — Adds Simscape integration, ray-based sound propagation for room and underwater acoustics and objective metrics for audio quality and intelligibility.
- Deep Learning Toolbox — Adds the Time Series Modeler app for time-series AI workflows and supports co-execution of PyTorch models in MATLAB and Simulink.
- Simulink Design Verifier — Supports distributed analysis across multiple CPU cores and improves analysis precision for models using floating-point and complex mathematical operations.
- SoC Blockset for AMD — Adds hardware-software co-design capabilities for AMD Adaptive SoCs and FPGAs. The tools support reference and custom workflows for communications, vision, deep learning and control applications.
- Statistics and Machine Learning Toolbox — Adds interactive applications for design of experiments (DOE) and Gage R&R studies. These tools support the analysis of measurement-system variability and experimental results.
For information, visit mathworks.com.
