Overcoming real time bond in high level simulation environments

Development and verification of real time controllers for complex mechatronic devices are important steps in order to assure performance and quality of the overall system. Simulation techniques are utilized for supporting development and testing of controllers in parallel with the physical system design. In particular, Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) is being investigated in the field of packaging machines. HIL requires the identification of the proper level of detail of a simulated model of the physical plant in order to be computed in real time. Moreover, the model must exhibit a behaviour similar to the real one in order to end up with a reliable controller. However, this trade-off is not easy to reach when physical processes with fast dynamics must be managed. This article deals with the issue of overcoming the real time bond in simulation environments which does not allow the access to the state space equations. In particular, it defines a process for identifying the proper time step of the resolution algorithm and guidelines for model order reduction (MOR) of the model dynamics. The proposed approach has been applied for the HIL simulation of the filling system of a packaging machine.