Different types of Hardware-In-the-Loop simulation for electric drives

Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulations are more and more used to assess performances of electric drives. Software simulations lead to develop control of the studied system. In this case generally a lot of simplifications are assumed to reduce the computation time. Before a real-time implementation of the control, HIL simulations could be a very useful intermediary step. Thus a hardware device is introduced in the loop in order to take its real constraints into account. In this paper, three different kinds of HIL simulation are suggested: signal level, power level, and mechanical level. A example is given for the traction system of an electric scooter.