GPS Synchronized Measurements for Real-Time Hardware-In-the-Loop Experiments

Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing is increasingly recognized as an effective approach for product development. When systems are particularly complex, it may be useful to perform geographically distributed testing when two different parts of the same system are simultaneously tested in two different locations. This paper describes a method to measure real-time signals from geographically distributed locations using a common time base derived from the Global Positioning System (GPS). A high frequency clock is generated by means of FPGA-based modules. The acquired data are then used for a distributed real-time simulation experiment.