Design of a DSP-based Control Platform for Real-Time Simulation of Power Electronic Systems

Real-time simulation tools are widely used by power electronic engineers to debug and verify their designs while saving on the money and efforts needed for actual experimental verification. The implementation of such real-time platforms demands extremely fast signal processing and computational capabilities. DSPs and FPGAs are generally the best solutions for such high-end computing applications. While DSPs are generally much more easier to program and debug compared to FPGAs, it is the latter that has gained popularity in real-time applications due to its greater parallel processing power, which results in significantly smaller step times. However, recently new DSP devices have been introduced with multiple processor cores and greatly enhanced clock speeds, which could make them suitable for real-time applications. One such device is the dual-core DSP TMS320F2S379D from Texas Instruments with inbuilt peripherals targeted for power electronics applications. This paper discusses the design of a real-time simulator platform built around this DSP. The performance of the designed platform is demonstrated by simulating a simple DC motor drive system. It is shown that the DSP-based approach can provide a decent-performing, low-cost solution for real-time simulation applications.