Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation for the Development of an Experimental Linear Drive

Linear drives (LDs) are designed to meet industrial applications like factory automation, material testing, packaging, pumping, and stamping. Because of the complexity of LDs, it is very important to analyze the dynamics and characteristics of the controlled systems before actual testing. The purpose of this paper is to build a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulator that can provide an effective platform for developing and testing real-time LD systems. The HIL system comprises of a dynamical friction model, a dSPACE control system, and a human-machine interface. The developed system is tested by a proportional-integral-derivative controller.