Implementing advanced AC drive controls using auto-coding methods

This paper investigates the usability of model-based auto-code generation methods for AC drive controls applications in research and teaching labs. As an emerging software technology, auto coding methods can automatically generate the control law code from Simulink™ blocks, which offers benefits for teaching labs, rapid prototyping for research, and hardware-in-the-loop for testing. However, the use of auto-coding methods also introduces additional implementation issues and limitations, compared to conventional hand-coded on micro-controller systems. This paper demonstrates experimental implementation and evaluation of several advanced AC drive controls on a three phase inverter driven surface permanent magnet synchronous machines (SPMSM) dynamometer using auto-coding methods. Implementing issues and challenges of auto-code generation are explored including the variability of execution time, execution sequence, and undocumented time delay in analog interfaces. Improvements of the auto-coding system were achieved through multiple iterative modifications.