Extended heterogeneous controller hardware-in-the-loop testbed for evaluating distributed controls

Abstract

A framework and testbed for evaluating system-level controls through quantifiable metrics has been developed following a hardware-in-the-loop approach. The testbed builds on a combination of real-time modelling and simulation, network communication and surrogate control platforms, and allows testing control algorithms early in the design and development cycle. The framework facilitates derisking and benchmarking of a wide variety of applications, but power, energy and reconfiguration management schemes for the notional zonal MVDC shipboard power system architecture are of primary interest. As part of the testbed developments, realtime dynamic simulation models of future naval shipboard power system have been implemented using several simulation platforms and various levels of fidelity. The second core testbed component is based on a heterogeneous set of controller platforms that allows realization of distributed controllers with a node count on the order of 100, each interfaced to a digital real-time simulator. Third, a dedicated network simulator provides a means to emulate computer networks linking simulation and controls. Extending previous efforts, this testbed significantly increases the hosting and evaluation capabilities of physically separate control units. To improve flexibility and affordability, surrogate control platforms were chosen that enable real-time execution but may not have all characteristics of the deployed hardware. As surrogate platforms and power system simulation are linked by digital communication means, the need for individual channel rewiring is avoided and replaced by automation for experiment reconfiguration, enabling the integrated testbed to support dynamic selection and execution of a large number of experiments.