Power electronic devices have always played a huge role in industrial and everyday usage.
Go no further than mobile phone chargers or power units of any household device to see
the evidence of it. Today, even a single LED light bulb contains a small electronic device,
wich generates the constant current supply from grid voltage.
In the industry, there is also an enormous demand for motor controllers, such as
frequency converters or power units with huge output capacity, even in the megawatt
range. Electric cars are also gaining market share same as are renewable energy sources are.
In both cases, high-power converters are needed to charge the cars or generate alternating
current from DC solar panels.
In my thesis, I will discuss the development of such converters, with emphasis on
hardware-in-the-loop simulators. Hardware-in-the-loop simulation method provides a solution
to engineers who develop the software and the power electronics side by side. For
this form of usage, we have to develop the mathematical model of the real hardware, then
synthesize it on hardware with immense computing capability, usually on an FPGA. We
must also implement monitoring capabilities for the system to validate the simulation or
to modify the parameters. The other advantage of physical hardware is that it can be
connected to real control electronics, with real interfaces. In this way, we can test our
control algorithms and methods without causing costly damage to the main power circuit.
I will examine the simulation environment itself, expand on the development process,
and consider systematic difficulties. I will provide an example solution and I will show
both the advantages and the bottlenecks of the system.