University of Twente Student Theses
Development and testing of a Hardware-in-the-Loop simulation infrastructure
Hooglander, Frank (2025) Development and testing of a Hardware-in-the-Loop simulation infrastructure.
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| Abstract: | A Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) simulation setup contains a real-time simulator that runs models or systems at the same pace as real life, allowing instant feedback and interaction. In the setup, (part of) a plant is simulated in real-time and used to test an implemented controller. This has safety benefits as it allows thorough testing of the implemented controller without damaging the real system or its surroundings. It also has benefits with regards to costs. In education numerous expensive setups are required when teaching students but HiL simulation enables the replacement of the expensive setups with cheaper Digital Twins. HiL is a helpful tool in Embedded Control System (ECS) development as it bridges the gap between the theoretical simulation and the physical implementation. The goal of this project is to develop and test a HiL simulation infrastructure. This infrastructure enables HiL simulation for various applications. It contains contributions to the real-time Xenomai framework as well as user guides and recommendations that enable users to perform HiL simulation of their own application. The second goal is to use this infrastructure to develop a Digital Twin of the RELbot which is a mobile robot frequently used at the Robotics and Mechatronics research group. This mobile robot has two motors driving two wheels and it has a castor wheel. The third goal is to measure performance of the Digital Twin with a credibility assessment method that generates a score between 0 % and 100 %. This project uses a Raspberry Pi 4 with an Icoboard FPGA as the hardware for the Digital Twin. This hardware combination is also used by the ECS. An existing real-time framework developed for the ECS has been used and expanded for use on Digital Twins. This framework facilitates a firm real-time loop on a Raspberry Pi and enables communication to the FPGAs and other components in the setup. The HiL infrastructure has been developed and tested and a Digital Twin of the RELbot has been developed. Two types of tests have been performed. Firstly, the 20-Sim simulation has been compared with the results of the Digital Twin. This shows how well the 20-Sim simulation on a computer compares to a real-time capable model on a Raspberry Pi. Secondly, the Digital Twin has been compared with the real RELbot to determine if the RELbot model that has been developed is good enough and if the Digital Twin as a whole has good performance. The results from the first set of tests show that the difference in output between the 20-Sim simulation and the Digital Twin simulation is 7 × 10−3 %. This is a really small error and it is below the 1 % difference requirement. The results from the second set of tests show that the difference in output between the Digital Twin and the RELbot is 1 %. This is also a really small error and meets the requirement of an error below 5%. The credibility assessment method was used to generate a score for the Digital Twin. The credibility score of the Digital Twin is 97 %. In conclusion, the goals are achieved and the requirements are met. The HiL simulation infrastructure can be used to develop Digital Twins. The Digital Twin of the RELbot can be used in education. The credibility assessment of the Digital Twin is also completed. It is recommended to improve the RELbot model by choosing more suitable reference frames and modeling the wheels as separate rigid bodies. It is recommended to expand the Digital Twin framework with a Quality-of-Service check that tracks missed deadlines and informs the user of unreliable results when too many missed deadlines occur. It is also recommended to expand the live visualisation of the RELbot to include the angle of the RELbot. The final recommendation is to test the infrastructure with different plants. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | EEMCS: Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science |
| Subject: | 50 technical science in general |
| Programme: | Systems and Control MSc (60359) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/105985 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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