I might be way over my head... summer research with prof help

[chopperdudes]

okay so i'm sending this first day at work... i'm working at UTIAS for the summer as a first year undergrad, and the research pertains to UAVs. in short, the graduate student i'm working with wants to implement an algorithm in Matlab (i.e. 60% left aileron deflection), and virtually run it on the UAV. it all boils down to a real time connection between Matlab and a port using TCP/IP protocal exchanging packets. I'm not sure whether the information will be in the form of packets coming out of matlab or not, most persumably not. he suggested using a .dll file. is there any other easier way perhaps? i.e. i can get java to connect with the port (a software called virtual cockpit always has a port openned listening for incoming packets), but how does one go about doing this in real time from matlab?

in short, he wants a real time bidirectional communication link using packets between matlab and a port... (sry it seems no matter how i explain it, it's not clear enough)

thx!