Abstract
This article focuses on a Hardware-In-the-Loop application developed from the advanced energy field project LIFES50+. The aim is to replicate, inside a wind gallery test facility, the combined effect of aerodynamic and hydrodynamic loads on a floating wind turbine model for offshore energy production, using a force controlled robotic device, emulating floating substructure’s behaviour. In addition to well known real-time Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) issues, the particular application presented has stringent safety requirements of the HIL equipment and difficult to predict operating conditions, so that extra computational efforts have to be spent running specific safety algorithms and achieving desired performance. To meet project requirements, a high performance software architecture based on Position-Based-Admittance-Control (PBAC) is presented, combining low level motion interpolation techniques, efficient motion planning, based on buffer management and Time-base control, and advanced high level safety algorithms, implemented in a rapid real-time control architecture.
Highlights
Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) is becoming a fundamental tool for both hardware and software components development [1]
The results at low frequencies show a highly accurate amplitude reproduction of the real response compared to the ideal one, while the phases show a significant difference. To better understand this effect, the transfer function of the control system compared to the ideal response is shown in Figure 13: this constitutes the measure of the controlled system transparency compared to the modelled dynamics
To achieve the challenging HIL requirements, a high performance software architecture based on PBAC force control has been implemented
Summary
Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) is becoming a fundamental tool for both hardware and software components development [1] It combines many advantages of both physical and virtual prototyping, allowing rapid, accurate and cheap development of increasingly complex integrated systems. The basic idea of this technique is to test a single real component or subsystem, in conjunction with virtual or emulated parts of the complete system or environment. This general concept has been performed in many different ways: sometimes actual hardware components are tested through actuated interfaces emulating their interaction with other parts of the system or environment; other times control hardware and logics are tested and optimized simulating the controlled part of the system and managing inputs/outputs coming from actual or emulated sensors. Examples of successful HIL use are commonplace in many different fields and applications, ranging from flight simulation, through to military/space applications [2] such as missiles guidance control [3], complex battlefield simulation involving a hostile environment, soldiers and vehicles [4].
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