The development of vector control signal processing blockset for Simulink: philosophy and implementation

Simulation is a useful tool which can significantly reduce resources invested during product development. The paper describes the development of the vector control signal processing (VCSP) blockset for use with MATLAB/Simulink(R). The originality of this blockset consists on the extension of Simulink for design, simulation and prototyping of signal processing algorithms in power conversion systems. The VCSP blockset, consists of a number of newly developed blocks. Together with Real-Time Workshop/sup TM/ and a number of other generally available blocks, it takes advantage of the inherent visual programming techniques of Simulink to reach the above goals. Due to its open and flexible nature, this approach is also very useful as a tool for teaching. The work is focused on modelling and simulation for power conversion systems use in the drive of rotating AC machines with vector control methods. By concept, a simulation environment can be examined at different abstraction or hierarchy levels. The approach in this paper is the formulation of a simulation task at different levels: component level, electric circuit level, functional description and implementation description. The basic blockset functions are presented and some examples of modelling techniques for both simple and complex drive structures are included. Simulation results are presented and discussed as well.