Opal-RT Goes Green

RT-LAB JMAG-RT, INTEL multi-core processors, QNX and XILINX FPGA based hardware-in-the-loop solution significantly enhance real-time design and testing of today’s environmentally friendly hybrid electric vehicles.

Monday, February 19, 2007 – Montreal (Quebec) – Opal-RT Technologies Inc., the world leader in supplying high-performance, distributed real-time simulation solutions for PC/FPGA-based platforms, today announces the most sophisticated solution for rapid-control prototyping and hardware-in-the-loop simulation of electrical hybrid vehicle power trains. Hybrid vehicles consist of intricate arrays of power electronic components. Opal-RT’s rigorous new solution incorporates software capabilities with hardware level optimizations and multi-processor capability to accurately simulate these complex systems in real-time with simulation time step below one (1) micro s.

Anticipating the demands of modeling today’s hybrid vehicles, in particular very high frequency electronic systems, the new RTLAB JMAG software is optimized for high-precision motor and drive real-time simulation. JMAG-RT is developed and distributed by JRI Solutions, a Tokyo-based developer (www.jri.com) and is part of the JMAG finite element tool suite used by major organizations to design electrical motors. It supports high-fidelity simulation of non-linear phenomena due to motor construction yielding to non-linear induced flux. Combined with RT-LAB, JMAG-RT enable the simulation of the complete drive including IGBT converters, in the small time steps required for circuit simulation and control testing.

The new RT-LAB XSG makes it possible to simulate models of the motor and the inverter directly on FPGA technology, as opposed to the CPU. This feature means that simulations now run faster than ever before, at speeds of less than 250 nanoseconds, making it possible to accurately simulate high-frequency voltage and current transients expected during fast IGBT switching.

Finally, these enhancements are fully manifested on Opal-RT’s multi-rate distributed parallel computing PC-based hardware taking full advantage of INTEL and AMD multi-core processor technologies. Simulation time step as low as 8 micros is possible with up to 8 processor cores, which correspond to the best performance ever achieved with PC-based parallel computers. Such computational performance and scalability make it possible to divide the simulation of multi-component drive train systems on different, synchronous, high-end multi-core INTEL or AMD processors at 5 to 8 micros time step concurrently with FPGAs running at 250 nanoseconds. Engineers are effectively able to test very complex hybrid-vehicle power trains and vehicle dynamics as one complete unit, and thereby gain greater insight into the entire system.

Collectively, this integrated solution provides engineers with significant capability to perform rapid-control prototyping and hardware-in-the-loop simulation of multiple components of the drive train of electrical vehicle simultaneously, in real-time and with very high fidelity. This new and rigorous solution gives companies more sophisticated tools to iterate and test their designs, at less cost, and increase their competitive edge.

"Opal-RT leads with technologies for simulating complex power electronics systems in real-time,," says Jean Bélanger, President, Opal-RT Technologies Inc. "Our unique solution fills an important gap in the design of motor drives for electric vehicles by greatly improving both the speed of the design process and the accuracy of the motor models that are used in hardware-in-the-loop testing."

Opal-RT will demonstrate their new solution for rapid-control-prototyping and hardware-in-the-loop simulation of hybrid vehicle fuel cells at SAE World Congress 2007. We invite you to visit booth # 2106 to experience it first hand. You may also read about advances in hybrid power train engineering in the following published paper: Advances in Real-Time Simulation of Fuel Cell Hybrid Electric Vehicles, by T. Ishikawa, K. Uemura, of Toyota Motor Corp and C. Dufour, J. Bélanger, of Opal-RT Technologies Inc. at www.rt-lab.com.