What is Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation?
Embedded systems are designed to control complex plants such as land vehicles,
satellites, spacecrafts, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), aircrafts, weapon systems,
marine vehicles, and jet engines. They generally require a high level of complexity
within the embedded system to manage the complexity of the plant under control.
Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation is a technique that is used increasingly
in the development and test of complex real-time embedded systems. The purpose
of HIL simulation is to provide an effective platform for developing and testing
real-time embedded systems. HIL simulation provides an effective platform by adding
the complexity of the plant under control to the test platform. The complexity
of the plant under control is included in test and development by adding a mathematical
representation of all related dynamic systems. These mathematical representations
are referred to as the “plant simulation.”
For example, an HIL simulation platform for the development of automotive anti-lock
braking systems may have mathematical representations for each of the following
subsystems in the plant simulation:
- Vehicle dynamics such as suspension, wheels, tires, roll, pitch and yaw
- Road characteristics
- Dynamics of the brake system’s hydraulic components
An HIL simulation must also include electrical emulation of sensors and actuators.
These electrical emulations act as the interface between the plant simulation
and the embedded system under test. The value of each electrically emulated sensor
is controlled by the plant simulation and is read by the embedded system under
test. Likewise, the embedded system under test implements its control algorithms
by outputting actuator control signals. Changes in the control signals result
in changes to variable values in the plant simulation.
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topic: Why Use Hardware-in-the-Loop
Simulation?
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