A Novel Analogue Computing System in HiL for Electric Traction

Technological development in the field of system controllers (SC) for electric traction (ET) has increased exponentially in the recent years. Most notable are the SC that enable flexibility by programming algorithms specifically designed and adapted for efficiency and safety. This flexibility requirement usually leads to the elaboration of expensive ET systems, demands to implement quickly and efficiently a new method of control, new algorithms. To avoid the subsequent unwanted result, the higher cost of the newer systems, it is therefore essential to test the proper functioning of the new SC both quickly and realistically, but safely. Typically, the Hardware-in-Loop (HiL) method is used, where the ET, or its building blocks are simulated in a near to real environment. This method requires the fastest computing hardware, resulting in expensive devices with high power consumption and their own anomalies. This article considers only a part of the HiL, the fast-computing equipment, usually based on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA). This novel method for mathematical treatment is expected to be efficient but economical and can provide quick results for an almost infinite number of elements computed in Real Time (RT). The new method is based on “analogue computing” building blocks, that permit a new reconfigurable algorithm made part of the HiL. This analogue-computing based system that is proposed here has neither similar to the well-known analogue computers of the 1940s–1950s, nor is the Simulink of Matlab program. Just the opposite, the proposed fast computing inside the HiL is proposed as a substitution of the classic decimal mathematical form of computation, as is the FPGA. This new calculation method, when included in the HiL is expected to bring a high precision and be highly immune to interferences.