Real-time hardware-in-the-loop testing during design of power electronics controls

In the process of designing digital controls for power electronics, hardware-in-the-loop testing is increasingly recognized as an effective approach. A high performance simulation environment is necessary to obtain high-fidelity results. Many experiments have been proposed in the literature already. However in most cases, the environments are single platform, single solver, or non real-time. In this paper, we present the implementation and testing procedure of the Real-Time Virtual Test Bed, a multi-platform, multi-solver, hard real-time simulation environment for power electronics controls. By using the Signal Extension Resistive Companion Solver, RTVTB enables natural coupling between hardware and software, and thus makes power exchange with closed-loop hardware possible. As an application example, a boost converter state space feedback control system is studied and analyzed.