Development and implementation of real-time control strategies based on FPGA

Abstract

This WORK presents and discusses the importance of field-programmable gate array (FPGA) on real-time control strategies used to achieve low-latency requirements for hardware (HW) demanding systems. The work is focused on finding the most suitable solution to properly control as many parallel buck converters as possible modelled in a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) Simulink system. The discussion begins on the controller, one that needs to be accelerated for its online computational timing requirements: an optimization-based controller. This choice implies different approaches to generate an embedded implementation. A few viable ways to make this implementation possible are described and tested in order to find all the advantages and disadvantages to choose the right method to achieve the described buck converter system control. After analysing the HW capabilities of FPGAs against microcontroller units (MCUs), an implementation of aN HW demanding system forcing timing requirements and considering a scalability analysis has been performed and discussed to give an assessment of the benefits of using FPGAs. Finally, this dissertation opens up the door to future research on finding different solutions, dismissed in this project, that may result better to use FPGAs on real-time control strategies. As an additional mention, this dissertation has been fully written from home, during COVID-19 pandemic. This situation has forced the case study to be an HIL solution instead of a real case solution. This circumstance has also particularly badly affected in the proper communication and workplace facilities amongst many other inconveniences that have been mitigated with hard work and passion for the subject.