Hardware-in-the-Loop Platform for Virtual Certification of Traction Systems for Railway

The railway industry is continuously evolving, necessitating the development of more intricate and dependable software algorithms. To meet these requirements, the creation of new validation tools has become increasingly crucial, with a specific focus on Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) simulations. HIL simulations are invaluable during the product development process as they improve system resilience, performance, and overall product value. This study details the design of a HIL platform that can validate the software created for the Traction Control Unit (TCU) of a complex traction system. By producing real interfaces in real-time, this platform offers a practical simulation environment for examining the TCU software. The HIL platform built in this research provides comprehensive test coverage of the TCU software, a feat that is often unattainable through on-train testing. Moreover, the platform provides greater tuning and debugging capabilities, allowing for a virtual certification of the TCU software, which can offer greater security and assurances of success when encountering official tests. Thus, this paper demonstrates how profitable a HIL platform that models the whole traction system can be in order to debug and certificate its TCU software.