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Simplify developing and testing controls for power electronics and electric motors by using rapid control prototyping

Rapid control prototyping (RCP) - as part of a Model-Based Design workflow - can accelerate the development of power electronics equipment and electric motor drives by providing a powerful and scalable testing environment with turnkey I/O connectivity. Reduce testing risks with a responsive testing platform that simplifies the transition from desktop simulation to hardware testing by providing features like automatic code generation, control autotuning, and automated testing. Configure the hardware interfaces of your control designs, measure, tune, and manage automated testing: all from within Simulink®. Speedgoat real-time systems provide turnkey interfaces for high-frequency switching and a wide range of sensors and communication protocols. Typical applications include control of modular motor drives, multi-level converters (MMC), DC-DC converters, high voltage direct current (HVDC) systems, and electric vehicle (EV) powertrains.

Design and test advanced, adaptive, robust, or model-predictive controllers with a few clicks and leverage sub microsecond sample-times and switching frequencies in the MHz range. Include Bayesian, Kalman, among other estimation techniques, and test reinforcement learning control algorithms. Quickly interface your algorithms with PWM generators, or space vector modulation (SVM), quadrature encoders, resolvers, SPI, CAN bus, among many other I/O interfaces. Furthermore, use Speedgoat hardware to perform automated tuning for PID loops and field-oriented control (FOC) with your hardware prototype, just like in desktop simulation.

"Simulink, Simulink Real-Time, and Speedgoat target hardware have enabled us to demonstrate the application-specific reliability of our early designs without installing the units on an actual aircraft.”

Shane O’Donnell, Microsemi – a Microchip company 

  • Deploy control algorithms from Simulink to Speedgoat FPGAs using HDL Coder.
  • Include multiple communication protocols like CAN, CAN FD, EtherCAT, Profibus, Modbus TCP.
  • Interconnect multiple target machines with low latency Shared Memory links or synchronize them over long distances with time synchronization over GPS for large, decentralized control systems.
  • Add FPGA I/O modules to the system as your application grows, increasing the computational power and the number of I/O channels. The modules can be interlinked using an Aurora high bandwidth low latency link
Solar plant Wind power Inverter Electric motor

Solar plant

Wind power

Inverter

Electric motor


Featured Application Use Cases

RCP for Motor Control Drives

Design, test, and validate control designs for electric motors using Simulink® and Speedgoat hardware. Use Simulink-programmable FPGAs to implement controllers and benefit from a wide range of design tools for field weakening control, field-oriented control, adaptive control, model predictive control or reinforcement learning. With high bandwidth analog inputs and digital switching with nanosecond accuracy, Speedgoat FPGAs enable a closed-loop bandwidth in the MHz range. Furthermore, perform automated tuning of PIDs or even complete FOC control loops, directly with your electric motor and drive.

Frequently Used I/O Interfaces

Simulink Application Resources 

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RCP for Power Converter Control

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Use Speedgoat hardware to safely test controllers for power converters with a power range from a few watts up to megawatts. With analog I/O in the MHz range, digital switching accuracy in the nanosecond range and other turnkey I/O connectivity, it is possible to test complex control algorithms designed in Simulink. Tune parameters and visualize signals in real-time, while logging data in nanosecond resolution. Also perform PID autotuning to optimize the control performance. Typical applications include high-voltage DC (HVDC), DC/DC converters, grid-tied inverters, grid-forming inverters, dual active bridges, medium frequency transformers (MFT) and many more.

Frequently Used I/O Interfaces

Simulink Application Resources 

RCP for Wide Bandgap Semiconductors

Use Model-Based Design for control design of power modules using wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors with switching frequencies up to the MHz range. Deploy and test controllers with a closed-loop bandwidth of several MHz with Simulink-programmable FPGAs and interface to gate drives with low latency interfaces to adequately control Silicon Carbide (SiC) or Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductors. Use Speedgoat real-time solutions for rapid control prototyping with off-the-shelf I/O interfaces like resolvers as well as digital fiber optic links to reduce electromagnetic interference (EMI).

Frequently Used I/O Interfaces

Simulink Application Resources 

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Prototyping Hardware for Power Electronics

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Test and validate control designs with off-the-shelf power electronics using half-bridges, H-bridges, 3-phase inverters up to modular multi-level converter (MMC) architectures. All converters include electrical protection mechanisms to reduce risks during testing and commissioning. Use the 3-phase inverter from Speedgoat or power modules from different vendors like Watt & Well. The power converters include not only Silicon MOSFETs and IGBTs, but also Silicon Carbide semiconductors; and the power range spans from a few hundred watts to more than 100 kilowatts.

Frequently Used I/O Interfaces

Simulink Application Resources 



Testing Workflows​

Rapidly prototype control designs by applying rapid control prototyping, test embedded controllers with
hardware-in-the-loop simulation of digital twins, and leverage Speedgoat systems as embedded controllers.

Early Design
Rapid Control Prototyping
Implementation
Hardware-in-the-Loop
Embedded Deployment

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