Processor-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop simulation of electric systems based in FPGA

Processor-in-the-loop (PIL) is a test technique that allows designers to evaluate a controller, running in a dedicated processor, of a plant which runs in an offline simulation platform. By the other side, Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) is an approach to test a plant or controller running in a digital platform which interacts with the real controller or plant. Here we present how to implement PIL and the preliminaries to HIL of electronic/electric systems with easy access technology through a code generation tool called Xilinx System Generator, a FPGA device and a personal computer. Two systems with different dynamics, a dc-dc buck converter and a dc motor, are selected in order to illustrate the FPGA based PIL and HIL implementation. For every system its model synthetization as well as its corresponding settings is carried out and tested.