How to Accelerate EV Software Release Cycles with AVL E-Motor Emulation Testbeds

The powertrain industry has traditionally relied on dynamometer testing for robust software releases. With the adoption of electric vehicles, it is essential to have short software release cycles including electrical safety and interoperability. While testing powertrains using internal combustion engines requires a rotating dynamometer, it is possible to test inverters for EV powertrains and the onboard charger at full power by using only electrical emulation of the electric motor and the battery. Such an approach allows all operating conditions to be tested, including driving scenarios, charging, electric faults, and even the interactions with other control units. Due to the need for high testing efficiency, frequent software updates can be carried out in a very short amount of time. The motor inverter testbed from AVL SET replaces the need for electric motors, dynamometers, and battery packs by using power electronics to emulate the electrical behavior of electric motors and battery packs with exceptional fidelity. As powertrain engineers typically use Model-Based Design to develop control designs and generate certified software code from Simulink^®, AVL SET has also developed an interface to Speedgoat test systems to provide a seamless real-time interface to MATLAB^® and Simulink. The model interface has a very low latency, which is crucial to emulate electrical systems as any delay would significantly disturb the model fidelity. As a result, engineers can use battery pack models from Simscape Battery™ or vehicle models from Powertrain Blockset™ when testing their motor inverter and controllers. In this session, you will learn about the E-Motor Emulator testbed and how to test an automotive inverter at full power for typical operation and fault conditions. We will later combine with Speedgoat test systems to emulate a battery pack using models from Simscape Battery when testing software in a fully powered inverter.