RCP with MATLAB and Simulink | How to Use Rapid Control Prototyping to Validate Electric Motors and Power Converters, Part 3
From the series: How to Use Rapid Control Prototyping to Validate Electric Motors and Power Converters
Learn how to leverage hardware and software components for rapid control prototyping (RCP) with MATLAB® and Simulink®.
- Use App Designer, external mode, Simulation Data Inspector, and the MATLAB Data API to instrument your real-time applications.
- Simplify tasks and provide ready-to-run reference applications with add-ons.
- Select the correct real-time target computer, I/O connectivity, and communication interfaces for your requirements.
Published: 11 Nov 2021
On the other side, we have to Speedgoat Real-Time computer. On the software side, we have MATLAB and Simulink. For code generation, we use MATLAB Coder and Simulink Coder.
We can see Simulink Real-Time as the gateway between the control prototyping order and MATLAB and Simulink. For example, Simulink Real-Time enables the use of the MATLAB API and of design for building user interfaces to control real-time application running on the Speedgoat computer.
We can use Simulation Data Inspector and Simulink External Mode to lock data and tune parameters. But there is also further integration and full compatibility with many other products-- for example, Simulink Test that enables test automation workflows, Stateflow to develop control logic, Motor Control Blockset that includes examples that are ready to run on Speedgoat, Reinforcement Learning Toolbox and the Robust Control Toolbox if you want to explore new techniques for your controls, Simulink Control Design that includes the outer tuner block that Carlos showed before, and, as we have seen, to generate HDL code that can run on Speedgoat FPGAs.
Now on the other side, there are mainly two real-time computers suitable for rapid control prototyping for power electronics and motor control. The performance real-time target machine is a 19-inch RAC system. It's a very scalable and it can include hundreds of I/O channels and offers the highest processing power. It can be equipped with the last generation multi-core Intel CPUs and Xilinx FPGAs.
If you are looking for a smaller platform, you should consider the baseline real-time target machine. This system can be equipped with a fair number of I/O channels. It's ideal for use in the field, but it fits well on a desk too.
In those real-time computers, we can install analog I/O modules-- for example, analog inputs to measure phase current that ties switching frequencies, I/O modules with the frequency input and output signals, such as PW generation, encoder, and resolver measurement, and communication interfaces, such as SPI, I2C, CAN, Ethernet, and Modbus.
In some cases, one single I/O module can combine multiple functionality. For example, the IO334 is an FPGA-based I/O module optimized to use with HDL Coder. It includes a combination of analog and frequency I/O channels. It can also be connected directly with other modules with fast multi-gigabit transceiver.
Speedgoat can also support us with power conversion and signal conditioning. The Speedgoat Three-Phase Inverter can be used as an interface to small electric motors, but there is also the possibility to integrate higher power devices-- for example, power converters supporting 800 volt, 24 amps, and custom switching frequency.