Non-real-time hardware-in-loop electromagnetic transient simulation of microcontroller-based power electronic control systems

This paper introduces a new method of modeling microcontroller-based systems in a non-real-time electromagnetic transient (EMT) simulation. Presently, power electronic control system simulation relies chiefly on either simplified control block models in a non-real-time simulator or real-time hardware-in-loop simulation. Migrating control block models from the simulated design to actual microcontroller hardware requires significant additional effort. Real-time hardware-in-loop simulation requires complex interfacing using costly real-time hardware. The method described in this paper replaces control system blocks in non-real-time simulation with actual microcontroller code. The method enables both software-in-loop simulation and processor-in-loop co-simulation, eliminates the drawbacks of the simulation methods described above, and allows direct optimization of the actual controller hardware. The method is demonstrated by simulations of a three-phase ac motor controller in both software-and processor-in-loop configurations. The simulations are verified by laboratory results obtained using the tuned microcontroller hardware to implement a control system for a 3-phase ac motor.