How to set up a power electronics teaching lab around hardware-in-the-loop

Key Takeaways

• A strong power electronics lab starts with defined student outcomes, then selects hardware that supports those outcomes cleanly.
• Hardware in the loop gives students meaningful control practice early, while keeping power stage risk and setup effort low.
• Packaged benches, prepared experiments, and layered safety controls make a power electronics course easier to run and easier to grow.

A strong power electronics lab starts with hardware in the loop, because it lets students test control ideas safely before higher power hardware enters the room.

That starting point matters because you’re teaching converter behaviour, control timing, measurement, and safety at the same time. Electrical and electronics engineering jobs in the United States are projected to grow 9% from 2023 to 2033. A power electronics laboratory built around one bench with a simulator, controller, and prepared exercises gives students useful repetition without asking your staff to assemble custom rigs for every course run. The best setup gets a first lab running quickly, then grows only after the course proves its value.

Start with the learning outcomes students must reach

The right way to set up a power electronics course is to define what students must be able to measure, tune, and explain at the bench. Those outcomes will tell you the power level, controller access, simulation fidelity, and safety features your lab needs. Clear outcomes also stop equipment shopping from taking over course design.

A first course usually needs students to read switching waveforms, relate duty cycle to output response, tune a current or voltage loop, and explain what happens during saturation or delay. A simple buck converter case works well here. Students can compare a stable controller against one with aggressive gains, then connect that behaviour to overshoot, settling time, and sampled control.

That outcome-first approach also protects your budget. Labs often buy instruments before they know how students will use them, then discover that the missing piece is controller access or a clean fault scenario. Once you know the exact skills your students must show, you can choose a smaller, more focused bench that fits the teaching plan and still supports later expansion.

Hardware in the loop fits undergraduate labs from day one

Hardware in the loop belongs at the start of undergraduate teaching because it gives students live control interaction without exposing them to full converter power on day one. You can teach switching, sampling, saturation, and faults with the same bench students will later use for deeper labs. That makes the first weeks more practical and much safer.

A useful opening exercise can place a student controller against a simulated DC-DC converter with adjustable load steps. Students write a basic control loop, push the gains too far, and see the output ring or clip. They are working with actual I/O timing and control code, yet the power stage is still contained in simulation, so mistakes are instructive instead of destructive.

You also get better continuity across the term. The same bench can move from open loop duty control to closed loop voltage regulation, then to digital implementation details such as quantization and latency. Students stop treating simulation as a separate class activity because the model and the controller are already linked in one workflow.

A single bench reduces cost without slowing teaching

A single bench keeps a new power electronics lab affordable because it combines simulation, control prototyping, and guided experiments in one repeatable station. That reduces integration work for staff, shortens setup time, and lets every student group face the same signals, limits, and tasks. Consistency matters more than raw equipment count in a teaching space.

Many universities begin with separate purchases for a controller board, interface hardware, instruments, and a custom software stack. That’s flexible on paper, but staff often spend weeks matching voltage levels, writing setup notes, and recovering from broken images. A packaged station avoids that drift and makes spare parts, teaching notes, and grading much easier to manage.

Students notice the difference right away. A bench that powers up the same way every lab period keeps attention on control design instead of troubleshooting the workstation. You’ll still want room for project work later, but the first version of a power electronics lab should prioritize repeatability and keep configurability within the course scope.

Choose equipment that supports closed-loop testing safely

A teaching bench for power electronics needs a real-time simulator, a controller target, safe low-voltage I/O, measurement points students can trust, and protection that reacts faster than a student can. Extra instruments help, but those five pieces decide whether the lab runs smoothly. If any one of them is weak, teaching time disappears into setup problems.

• A real-time simulator should run converter models with stable timing and visible signals.
• A controller target should let students load code, tune gains, and inspect inputs and outputs.
• Low-voltage I/O should match student wiring habits and tolerate common connection errors.
• Measurement access should expose current, voltage, and reference signals without hidden scaling.
• Protection should trip predictably and reset cleanly after faults or unstable control actions.

A good equipment choice also keeps the bench readable. Students need front-panel or software access that makes PWM outputs, sensor scaling, and fault states obvious during lab time. A controller with opaque setup steps will slow teaching even if its specifications look strong. The same problem appears when measurement points are buried behind custom scripts.

Sequence labs from simulation to controller deployment

Students learn power electronics faster when labs move from model inspection to controller tuning to hardware deployment in a fixed sequence. That order builds confidence, keeps grading consistent, and shows how a design choice in software appears as timing or stability trouble at the bench. A scattered lab order hides those links and slows student progress.

A four-step sequence works well in most courses. Students can start by reading converter equations and waveform expectations, then tune a controller against a simulated plant, then deploy code to a controller target, and finally test disturbances or faults. Active learning research supports that structure: students in active learning classes scored about 6% higher on exams and were 1.5 times less likely to fail than students in lecture classes.

That sequence also improves lab management. Teaching assistants can check student work at each stage before a bad model or wrong gain reaches the bench. Students see the same control problem through several layers, which makes final reports much stronger. You are building judgement step by step instead of hoping it appears during a single hardware session.

Prebuilt experiments keep the first session on schedule

Prebuilt experiments matter because the first session will shape student trust in the whole course. When a bench boots into a working converter case, students spend time tuning loops and reading waveforms instead of chasing drivers, wiring errors, or file mismatches. That first hour often decides if the lab feels approachable or chaotic.

A prepared experiment should include a validated plant model, known sensor scaling, clear objectives, and a short reset procedure. A basic rectifier lab, a buck converter lab, and a motor drive control lab are enough to start a small power electronics course. Packaged education benches such as the OPAL-RT HIL Starter Kit are useful here because they turn integration work into a ready teaching exercise rather than a staff side project.

Prepared labs also improve fairness. Every student group starts from the same baseline, so marks reflect tuning choices and technical understanding instead of luck with software setup. Once the course is stable, you can still open the bench for project work. Early structure doesn’t limit learning. It protects it.

Safety limits should be built into every bench

Safety limits need to live inside the bench, the controller, and the lab procedure at the same time. Students will make wiring mistakes, choose unstable gains, and forget scaling, so your power electronics laboratory must contain those errors before equipment or confidence is lost. Safe teaching comes from layered controls, not a single warning label.

A sensible station uses software limits on duty cycle, analog output clamps, fault latching, and a supervised reset path. A student who enters a gain value ten times too large shouldn’t trigger a confusing crash. The same applies to connector choice. If analog and digital I/O can be mixed up easily, the bench design is already unsafe.

Safety also carries teaching value. Students remember overcurrent trips and saturation events when they can trace the cause and recover the system cleanly. Lab sheets should ask them to predict the limit, observe the trip, and explain the reset. That approach turns protection from a hidden rule into a visible part of converter behaviour and control design.

Plan growth paths before adding higher power hardware

Growth should follow teaching evidence, not ambition. Once students can model, tune, test, and explain low-power cases with confidence, you can add higher voltage stages, machine drives, or grid-tied converters without rebuilding the whole power electronics lab from scratch. The best labs expand after the basic bench has already proved its teaching value.

A common growth path starts with low-voltage converter models and controller deployment, then adds physical power stages for selected senior labs, and later adds research-grade options for graduate work. That order keeps undergraduate teaching stable while giving advanced students room for deeper work. It also protects staff time, because each new layer sits on a known workflow instead of forcing a fresh setup model for every course.

That’s where disciplined bench design pays off. A modular starter setup from OPAL-RT fits this approach because it keeps the first priority on repeatable teaching, safe closed-loop practice, and simple lab turnover.

“A power electronics course doesn’t need a large room full of custom hardware to be strong.”

It needs a bench that students can trust, staff can support, and the curriculum can build on with purpose.