Case Study: Lund University achieves realistic high-speed electrical drives teaching with National Instruments CompactRIO

Teaching Electrical Drives and Power Electronics Control With CompactRIO

Lund University faced the challenge of teaching students to control electrical drives and power electronics, which required controlling voltages within 10 to 100 µs. Their previous platform, based on MATLAB and dSpace hardware, could not provide the necessary speed for increasingly demanding control systems. This limitation prevented them from realistically portraying high-speed theory in a lab setting.

National Instruments provided a solution with the CompactRIO platform, using the LabVIEW Real-Time and FPGA Modules. By implementing the most time-critical current control on the FPGA, they created a system with a negligible response time that matches theoretical models. This allowed Lund University to teach applicable real-world control, advance their research, and eliminate the need for additional dedicated measurement circuits.

Lund Univerisity

Mats Alaküla

Lund Univerisity