Efficient Hardware-in-the-Loop and Digital Control Techniques for Power Electronics Teaching

Jahangir Badar Soomro, Faheem Akhtar Chachar, Hafiz Mudassir Munir, Jamshed Ahmed Ansari, Amr S. Zalhaf, Mohammed Alqarni and Basem Alamri
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Jahangir Badar Soomro: Department of Electrical Engineering, Sukkur IBA University, Sukkur 65200, Pakistan
Faheem Akhtar Chachar: Department of Electrical Engineering, Sukkur IBA University, Sukkur 65200, Pakistan
Hafiz Mudassir Munir: Department of Electrical Engineering, Sukkur IBA University, Sukkur 65200, Pakistan
Jamshed Ahmed Ansari: Department of Electrical Engineering, Sukkur IBA University, Sukkur 65200, Pakistan
Amr S. Zalhaf: School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China
Mohammed Alqarni: College of Engineering, University of Business and Technology (UBT), Jeddah 21361, Saudi Arabia
Basem Alamri: Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Taif University, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 6, 1-17

Abstract: Power electronics is a core subject in electrical and electronics engineering at the undergraduate level. The rapid growth in the field of power electronics requires necessary changes in the curricula and practica for power electronics. The proposed next-generation power electronics teaching laboratory changes the learning paradigm for this subject and is for the first time used for teaching purposes in Pakistan. The proposed controller hardware-in-the-loop (CHIL) laboratory enabled students to design, control, and test power converters without the fear of component failure. CHIL setup allowed students to directly validate the physical controller without the need for any real power converter. This allowed students to obtain more repeatable results and perform extreme digital controller testing of power converters that are otherwise not possible on real hardware. Furthermore, students could start learning power electronics concepts with hardware from the beginning on a safe, versatile, fully interactive, and reconfigurable platform. The proposed laboratory meets the accreditation board for engineering and technology (ABET) student outcome criterion K such that students can continue with the same hardware and software toolset for graduate and research purposes. The knowledge and skills acquired during undergraduate years can help students create new solutions for power electronics systems and develop their expertise in the field of power electronics. The results obtained from the survey indicated that the majority of the students were satisfied with the laboratory setup. They also expressed appreciation over the provision of a high-level graphical language “LabVIEW” for the digital controllers compared to conventional low-level text-based languages such as VHDL, Verilog, C, or C++.

Keywords: controller hardware-in-the-loop; digital controller; FPGA; power electronics education; rapid control prototyping; real-time simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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