RT-HIL Testing of Power Electronics Converter and Drives Systems

Testing functionality is an essential part of the developing process. Devices need to be stressed also in their final environment and not only in the lab, to see if they work well together with their peripheral devices and to which possible failure modes they might react and in which way. Hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) provides the possibility to test and control software, controllers, and power hardware in a simulated environment.

An extension of HiL systems, which have mainly been developed for testing software and sensors, is Power Hardware-in-the-loop (PHiL) which operates at high current and high voltage and thus enables the developer to test power devices like inverters for power grids or electric vehicles, motors or generators e.g. under full load. This saves cost and time in the development process compared to full hardware tests. The system’s reaction to possible malfunctions and interferences of connected components or from outside the system can be tested without the risk of damaging peripheral hardware or endangering people’s health.

In this workshop, you will learn about recent developments in HiL and PHiL platforms. Practical use cases as well as their challenges will be presented from industrial and University users – for various applications ranging from transportation over grid-connected inverters to industrial drives