Interface issues in hardware-in-the-loop simulation

This paper discusses the interface issues in hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulations. Different interfacing schemes are introduced to extend the applicability of HIL to power electronics applications that contains switching events and power hardware testing. Application examples are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of these interfaces, and HIL simulation results are presented.

I. Introduction

Industrial designers are increasingly interested in incremental prototyping of systems, a process in which Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) simulation plays a significant role. HIL simulation entails the interaction between real hardware components of a system and a real-time simulator that computes the performance of the rest of the system (ROS) for which real hardware does not yet exist. HIL is not a new concept and has been applied with success to many significant industrial processes [1]–[3]. So far, however, most of the tools and applications focus only on issues related to the design of system controls. In these cases, the plant running concurrently with the real control hardware in an HIL experiment.