Portable RT-LAB Pentium-M Based Hybrid-Vehicle Electrical Real-Time Simulator

MONACO, April 2 -- Opal-RT Technologies Inc. (http://www.opal-rt.com/ ), the world leader in distributed real-time simulation on PC-based platforms, today announced a new range of small but powerful Pentium-M based RT-LAB hybrid electrical power train real-time simulators. These compact simulators can simulate power electronic motor drives, fuel cells and conventional combustion engines to test electronic control units with sub-microsecond precision. The simulator is fully integrated with MATLAB, Simulink and Real Time Workshop and can execute several third-party models in real-time.

The Pentium-M new instruction set and large cache memory enables the simulation of power electronic systems to be executed within microseconds to achieve the required precision. For a typical electrical system simulation application, a low-cost 1.6 GHz Pentium-M achieves the same effective performance as the powerful Pentium 4 Xeon 3.2 GHz processor. However, the Pentium-M consumes less than 20 watts and is therefore available in cost efficient and compact formats.

"The new mobile processor technologies offered by Intel and AMD will enable the development of a new generation of portable dynamic instruments optimized for electronic control testing," said Jean Belanger, Chief Technology Officer of Opal-RT Technologies Inc. "These dynamic instruments will combine traditional data logger, signal generators and real-time simulators in compact and robust packages," he added.

Using Opal-RT Technologies' OP5000 series I/O interface and signal conditioning modules, the system can simulate motor drives. The motor drive controller tester simulates the detailed IGBT (or GTO, or other power semiconductor switches) switching and harmonics on motor current and voltages with a sampling frequency of 100 kHz (10 microseconds sampling time). The electronic controller unit (ECU) is interfaced with the simulators through fast and high-precision I/O systems. The ECU and the simulator are then connected in closed-loop such that the ECU reacts as if it would be connected to the real motor drive. This technique, hardware-in-the-loop testing, is used to test control unit performance under several normal and abnormal operating conditions before connecting the ECU to the real motor drive.

The Motor Drive Controller Tester can accommodate systems with a PWM carrier frequency up to 10 kHz as used in modern hybrid vehicles power train and simulate IGBT firing delays and dead time effects with a resolution as low as 500 nanoseconds. Such precision is achieved by using unique simulation techniques including real-time interpolation and FPGA I/O boards to capture firing pulses and generate encoder pulses with 10 nanoseconds resolution.

The RT-LAB hybrid electrical power-train real-time simulator uses Pentium- M processors as follows:

  *  The first processor simulates the motor drive
  *  The second processor is used for data logging and for the simulation of
     models with slower dynamic.  FireWire, SignalWire or InfiniBand
     achieves real-time data communication between Pentium-M modules.
  *  Several Pentium-M simulators can also be interconnected together and
     with powerful shared-memory simulation server if needed to simulate
     more complex systems for integration testing.
  *  Each compact simulator module can also develop control algorithms and
     implement rapid control prototypes for laboratory and in-vehicle
     testing.

"Toyota has been using the RT-LAB Electric Drive Simulator for the last 12 months and it has proven to be an effective tool for the testing and optimization of our power electronic controllers," said Mr. Tetsuhiro Ishikawa, Group Manager of Hybrid System Planning & Administration Department, Hybrid Vehicle System Engineering Division Power Train Development Group of Toyota Motor Corporation. "The new Pentium-M systems will add flexibility and save precious laboratory space," added Ishikawa.

About Opal-RT Technologies, Inc.

Opal-RT provides software, hardware, and related solutions for real-time simulation applications, with the aim of enabling real-time parallel processing through flexible and affordable technologies.

The company offers a full range of engineering simulation products -- from enabling technologies to turnkey engineering simulators -- and consulting services that include systems integration, software development, simulation and modeling, problem-solving, and training. Opal-RT's core expertise is in distributed hard-real-time simulation, with experienced engineers designing real-time simulators for automotive, electrical power, aerospace, robotics, and other industries where fidelity and fault tolerance requirements push rapid prototyping and hardware-in-the-loop testing to their limits. Opal-RT's unique approach integrates parallel, distributed computing with commercial- off-the-shelf technologies. The resulting RT-LAB product range enables customers to develop simulations quickly, easily, affordably, and competitively. For more information about Opal-RT's range of Engineering Simulators and Distributed Processing Tools, see http://www.opal-rt.com/ .

  Opal-RT Technologies Inc.
  EVS 21 Booth #B134
  Monaco