A modular signal processing platform for grid and motor control, HIL and PHIL applications

In this paper a highly performant modular and fully adaptable real-time signal processing platform is introduced, which can be used to control all kinds of applications in the field of power electronics and electrical drive control, such as Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) systems, Power Hardware-in-the-Loop (PHIL) systems and power electronic systems for grid and drive applications. The proposed system was fully developed and built in the ETI, enabling full access to even the last register inside the FPGA and the whole software architecture. Another benefit of the in-house production is, that the costs are very low compared to proprietary system on the market and hence every researcher in the ETI has access to it. With this high-performance real-time signal processing platform, it is possible to push high performance research topics in the field of power electronics and electrical drive control forward.

I. Introduction

The number of variable-speed drives (VSD) has increased significantly in recent years and will increase much more in the next decade. This increase is driven by two effects: First, higher efficiency standards, which also include partial loads, lead to a conversion of existing infrastructure towards VSD, e.g. for pumps, fans, etc. [1], [2]. Second, due to the new CO₂ standards for passenger cars of the European Union (EU) [3] and the improvement of electric vehicles (EV), the new registrations of EVs in EU was raised from 56000 cars in 2015 to 341000 cars in 2020 and is still increasing fast [4]. Driven by this trend, however, the requirements in the development of such drives are also increasing with regard to functionality, reliability and safety as well as the development costs and thus the development time. In order to meet these increasing requirements, both the development process and the development tools for VSD must be further improved in the same manner. As a result of this development, four main test or simulation levels can be distinguished today: Software-in-the-Loop (SIL), Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL), Power Hardware-in-the-LOOD (PHIL) and conventional motor test benches [5]. Fig. 1:

Signal processing system mainboard