2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In this paper, the design and development of a low-cost laboratory-scale hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation platform for power systems is presented by employing a Raspberry Pi and three Arduino UNOs. HIL simulations are vital in system design and prototyping and offer a safe and efficient method to test hardware and software systems within a simulated operational context. The proposed platform leverages a Raspberry Pi to emulate the dynamic model of a three-area power generation system, with the three Arduino UNOs performing as three individual local controllers. This cost-effective approach minimizes the need for physical prototypes, leading to substantial cost savings and enhanced scalability. The platform functions as an educational tool for understanding closed-loop control systems, which eliminates the necessity for costly industrial hardware. The implemented three-area power generation system includes synchronous generators, in which the impacts of renewable energy sources and energy storage systems are considered as disturbances. Initially, the closed-loop power system is modeled and tested using MATLAB as a benchmark, and then simulated and implemented on the developed low-cost HIL platform. The HIL simulation results exhibited negligible deviations from the anticipated MATLAB outcomes, which suggest the platform’s potential to be used in other industrial applications including but not limited to aerospace, automotive, and mechatronics systems in future investigations.