Active loads for hardware in the loop emulation of electro-technical bodies

The electronic and electro-technical bodies of electric vehicles become more complex. Then, the cost of the test and the qualify process increase. Indeed, the full test of a vehicle grid requires cabling all the parts in the laboratory. Thus, it is useful to emulate the batteries, the alternators, the various electric motors used in vehicles. This can be done by using active loads. Thanks to these power systems it is possible to simplifying the test of batteries because there is no chemical element or electric motor. The Electronavale Technologie society, which is a partnership of the IREENA laboratory, has developed power benches for the emulation of the batteries and the electrical machines. Two kinds of power benches are built and involved high dynamic current or voltage regulators. Each of the benches is connected to a bay of constraint in order to make the power flow go in the right way. The bay of constraint feeds or dissipates the energy. Each active load setup is made by an inside DSPACE's computer which executes a software coming from a supervisor computer. This one sends the instruction to the different bodies involved in the plant. In the following, a general overview of the active loads is done. A short presentation of the pulse width technique is done too. Then, the active loads are presented in details and the experimental results are given.