Case Study: ABB accelerates delivery of large-scale, grid-connected inverters (prototypes in 2 weeks) with MathWorks MATLAB and Simulink

ABB Accelerates the Delivery of Large-Scale, Grid-Connected Inverter Products with Model-Based Design

ABB needed to accelerate development and delivery of large, grid-connected inverter products built from modular Power Electronic Building Blocks (PEBBs). Managing up to 32 linked PEBBs required precise power sharing and fast fault handling, but hardware testing was costly and hazardous. ABB adopted MathWorks’ Model-Based Design workflow using MATLAB, Simulink, Stateflow, Embedded Coder, and Simulink Report Generator to automate algorithm development and enable early simulation-based verification.

Using MathWorks tools, ABB modeled PEBB control and state machines in Simulink/Stateflow, verified designs with test harnesses and closed‑loop plant simulations, generated optimized C code with Embedded Coder, and built a reusable PEBB library under version control. The MathWorks-based solution cut prototype delivery from three months to about two weeks, produced defect‑free generated code, reduced risk to expensive test equipment, and allowed ABB to extend Model‑Based Design to communications and thermal modeling.

ABB

Robert Turner

Senior R&D Engineer