XSG Electric Component Models

Plant models of electric drives featuring FPGA-based simulations

Simulation of electric components that require highest dynamics and precision.

Application Area

Electric drives can be found in almost every application nowadays. At the same time, the demands on efficiency, control accuracy and power density are becoming greater and greater.

Developing and testing electric motor control applications requires very high precision and correspondingly high sample rates in the simulation environment. Latest motor concepts, high-speed power electronics and advanced position sensors require a platform that operates in nanosecond step size, here the dSPACE field-programmable gate array (FPGA) boards show their full capabilities.

As user applications contain different combinations of motors, power electronics, and position sensors, our XSG Electric Components Library contains all relevant components to enable a closed loop simulation for every motor controller without special FPGA programming skills, like VHDL.

To always ensure best simulation results, floating point (most flexible) and fixed point (low latency, fewer resources) implementations are supported.

Model Approach

All components are implemented in an open fashion, allowing for changes and easy configuration. Just drag and drop the predefined FPGA blocks without worrying about the FPGA-related implementation of the equations or timings. To achieve optimal performance, the FPGA model can be configured according to your needs in Simulink® using the Xilinx® Vitis™ Model Composer toolbox (formerly Xilinx® System Generator*). Relevant motor models are available in fixed-point and floating-point implementation. Both variants are especially tailored for real-time simulation and allow for smallest step sizes and pin-to-pin IO times.

The interfacing of the processor, typically containing the slower and application-specific parts of the plant model, is performed via intuitive Simulink blocks that can be parametrized during run time. The openness of the implementation enables a seamless workflow from offline simulation to real-time simulation. Regardless of the level of simulation, the models can be used for signal-level HIL and power-level HIL application.

 

Direct FPGA I/O Access

In addition to the plant models, the XSG Electric Component Library is supplemented by enhanced I/O functions from the XSG Utils Library. This library allows for easy timing analysis and convenient I/O access. Thanks to the open modeling and the supported signal interfaces of all components, it features and connects to ECU interfaces such as:

  • High-speed digital I/O with configurable logic and threshold
  • Position-sensor-specific and general-purpose analog I/O
  • Protocol-based interfaces (electrical or optical)

The XSG Utils Library is required additionally, e.g., for I/O programming, signal measurement, and inspection.

 

Benefits

  • Ready-to-use Simulink library for simulation of 3-phase motors
  • Predefined, open FPGA models that can be integrated without FPGA expert knowledge and modified or partly replaced by users
  • Intuitive processor interface allowing parametrization during run time
  • Attractive licensing model for FPGA programming, integration of presynthesized FPGA containers and usage on several simulators
  • Electric motor models including multidimensional tables ensure accurate simulation results
  • Real-time-capable power electronics models for established drive topologies
  • Very high oversampling rates corresponding to the PWM switching frequency support current ripple (PWM effects) simulation
  • Ultra-fast simulation with pin-to-pin loop time of about 1µs allowing best precision in simulating higher fundamental frequencies
  • Implemented as Xilinx® Vitis™ Model Composer*) (formerly Xilinx® System Generator) models that run on dSPACE FPGA Boards
  • Optimized for real-time requirements of signal-level and power-level applications
  • 3-phase motor models can be configured in delta or star connection

Advanced Drive Applications

For the development of even more efficient and cost-effective drives, new motor concepts are emerging, some with strongly non-linear characteristics. To meet safety-critical requirements as well, multiphase drives that ensure fail-safe operation are needed.

You are looking for a motor model that include following features?

  • Individual motor configurations like 6-phase or double-fed electric machines
  • Inductance and flux depending on stator current and rotor position
  • Simulation of spatial harmonics
  • Physically correct simulation of electrical faults
  • Parameterization interface to third party FEA tools

dSPACE provides custom packages containing these advanced features on request.

Components and Characteristics

Motor Models

  • Permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM)
  • Asynchronous squirrel cage induction motor (SCIM)
  • Brushless DC motor (BLDC)
  • DC Motor

 

Power Electronics Models

  • Three-phase advanced inverter model supporting discontinuous conduction mode (DCM)

 

Position Sensor Models

  • TTL
  • Sine
  • Hall
  • Resolver
  • Synchro
  • SSI
  • EnDat
  • HIPERFACE
  • BiSS
    ​​​​​​​

Mechanical Models

  • Simple mechanic model (with mass inertia, viscose friction, and open loop functionality)

*) Xilinx® Vitis™ Model Composer is a model-based design tool that enables rapid design exploration within the MathWorks MATLAB® and Simulink® environment.

Product Information

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