A Methodology for Real-Time HiL Validation of Hydraulic-Press Controllers Based on Novel Modeling Techniques

Industrial machines commissioning consumes a great amount of man-hours, due to control designers lack of knowledge about the final controller gains before they start working with it. Virtual commissioning has been postulated as an optimal solution to deal with this lack of knowledge when the Real-Time simulation of the digital models reproduces an identical behaviour as the industrial machines they represent. Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) offer new opportunities in this field, however, in the case of industrial machines, acquiring this level of accuracy requires to slow down the simulation. On this paper, novel modelling techniques for industrial CPSs have been presented. They are introduced to help in the evolution from conventional control design to a virtual commissioning process combining software and hardware capabilities. This methodology has been tested with a hydraulic-press model designed following manufacturer specifications, initially under a Software in the Loop (SiL) validation platform and, afterwards, in a Hardware in the Loop (HiL) validation platform. The control algorithms are designed in laboratory conditions harmless for the machine, embedding them later in the industrial environment without further modifications.