An Improved Co-Simulation Approach to Rapidly Prototype, Verify, and Implement Dynamic FPGA-based Embedded Control Systems

摘要

This paper presents a new co-simulation methodology for the rapid prototyping, design, and verification of digital controllers for switching power electronics circuits based on field programmable gate array (FPGA) logic devices. A case study of a closed-loop DC motor drive design, comprising of a digital controller and analog power drive circuitry, is used to illustrate the new co-simulation methodology. Using an NI Multisim SPICE simulation plug-in for the LabVIEW graphical programming environment, the complete system was verified and optimized using transient simulation prior to being implemented in hardware. All FPGA processing elements were designed and simulated in the co-simulation environment before synthesis to digital hardware, including the analog power stage modeled with SPICE. The system simulation results were compared to the experimental measurements. It was found that the measured motor speed and the DC motor armature current closely matched the simulated results, supporting the method of co-simulation as a valuable, insightful and productivity enhancing initial step prior to system implementation using physical hardware.