Real-time emulation of boost inverter using the Systems Modeling Language and Petri nets

Abstract

A boost inverter is a versatile architecture able to supply DC or AC outputs from diverse alternative energy sources. The most relevant advantage of this multipurpose converter is to provide boosting and inversion in a single stage. The boost inverter has been studied from design and control perspectives with renewable energy sources. However, the real-time emulation of boost inverters is less widespread in literature. In this context, the main contribution of this paper is proposing an innovative methodology based on the Systems Modeling Language and Petri nets to emulate in real-time power converters using the boost inverter as a case of study. This approach develops real-time Hardware-in-the-Loop models using a graphical language and Petri nets. These graphical and Petri net features allow a formal validation of computational and time constraints before implementation in FPGA. The proposed methodology is also able to transform the developed models to the High Level Specification of Embedded Systems for automatic code generation. Comparison of real-time emulations and experimental results shows a suitable trade-off between the model accuracy and the computational time.