A Low-Cost, High-Fidelity Processor-in-the Loop Platform: For Rapid Prototyping of Power Electronics Circuits and Motor Drives

Abstract

With the rising complexity in digital control algorithms for power electronics (PE) systems, prototype design and software control testing procedures have become increasingly time-consuming and costly. To minimize time to market and improve software quality assurance, this article presents a lowcost, safe, and reliable processor-in-the-loop (PIL) concept for rapid prototyping. PIL provides a framework to verify the actual control algorithm on a dedicated microcontroller that controls plant simulation in the software environment (SE). The corresponding communication approaches, constituting blocks and preliminary results, are presented in detail. The accuracy and fidelity of the PIL platform is validated through software-in-the-loop (SIL) simulations. It is shown that PIL leverages the embedded code generation features of the SE, which enables controller design and testing through minimal modifications to generated code and eliminates the need for real hardware during development, therefore removing safety concerns and any risks of damaging the expensive hardware. The presented approach also helps identify coding errors, casting errors, and platform-specific configuration errors even before the actual test setup is functional.