Description:
Reference #: 00635
The University of South Carolina is offering licensing opportunities for a Predictive Control Algorithm for Power Hardware in the Loop Systems.
Background:
Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) is increasingly recognized as an effective approach for simplifying the process of prototyping and testing of complex systems. In the HIL approach, real hardware components being tested interact with an operational virtual environment that combines a real-time simulation engine with an electronic interface for analog and digital signals. Subsystems signally coupled with the hardware are replaced and emulated by virtual models reproducing both the dynamic behavior and the signal interactions of their real counterparts. The dynamic behavior is predicted executing a real-time simulation of mathematical models of the subsystems; each digital and analog signal necessary for the normal operations is replicated by means of an electronic interface. In a realistic HIL experiment, the hardware under test cannot distinguish the real environment from its emulated equivalent.
Invention Description:
The system includes a power system and a control system, the power system connected to a power converter of a device under test, and the control system being in communication with the power system and the power converter. The control system determines the voltage input to the power system by utilizing the voltage output of the power converter, with the voltage input determination being made by a control algorithm.
Potential Applications:
Prototyping and testing of complex, higher-powered systems.
Advantages and Benefits:
HIL techniques are mainly confined to testing the low-power section (i.e. electronic boards, sensors, low-power actuators) of complex systems since only a signal coupling between the real hardware and the HIL platform is provided. Power-Hardware-In-the-Loop (PHIL) simulations in which natural couplings (nodes involving conservation of energy) are established and a much more significant amount of energy can be virtually exchanged between the simulated environment and the hardware being tested.