Introduction to Microcontroller Programming for Power Electronics Control Applications : Coding with MATLAB and Simulink/ Mattia Rossi, Nicola Toscani, Marco Mauri, Francesco Castelli Dezza.

Includes Bibliographical References & Index.

Microcontroller programming is not a trivial task. Indeed, it is necessary to set correctly the required peripherals by using programming languages like C/C++ or directly machine code. Nevertheless, MathWorks® developed a model-based workflow linked with an automatic code generation tool able to translate Simulink® schemes into executable files. This represents a rapid prototyping procedure, and it can be applied to many microcontroller boards available on the market. Among them, this introductory book focuses on the C2000 LaunchPadTM family from Texas InstrumentsTM to provide the reader basic programming strategies, implementation guidelines and hardware considerations for some power electronics-based control applications. Starting from simple examples such as turning on/off on-board LEDs, Analog-to-Digital conversion, waveform generation, or how a Pulse-Width-Modulation peripheral should be managed, the reader is guided through the settings of the specific MCU-related Simulink® blocks enabled for code translation. Then, the book proposes several control problems in terms of power management of RL and RLC loads (e.g., involving DC-DC converters) and closed-loop control of DC motors. The control schemes are investigated as well as the working principles of power converter topologies needed to drive the systems under investigation. Finally, a couple of exercises are proposed to check the reader’s understanding while presenting a processor-in-the loop (PIL) technique to either emulate the dynamics of complex systems or testing computational performance.

Thus, this book is oriented to graduate students of electrical and automation and control engineering pursuing a curriculum in power electronics and drives, as well as to engineers and researchers who want to deepen their knowledge and acquire new competences in the design and implementations of control schemes aimed to the aforementioned application fields. Indeed, it is assumed that the reader is well acquainted with fundamentals of electrical machines and power electronics, as well as with continuous-time modeling strategies and linear control techniques. In addition, familiarity with sampled-data, discrete-time system analysis and embedded design topics is a plus.

However, even if these competences are helpful, they are not essential, since this book provides some basic knowledge even to whom is approaching these topics for the first time. Key concepts are developed from scratch, including a brief review of control theory and modeling strategies for power electronic-based systems.

1 Advances in Firmware Design for Power Electronics Control Platforms
1.1 Embedded Control System
1.2 Selecting a Development Board
1.3 The C2000™ family of MCU from Texas Instruments™
1.4 Scheme of a Power Electronics Control Problem

I Embedded Development: Hardware Kits and Coding
2 Automatic Code Generation through MATLAB®
2.1 Model-Based Design and Rapid Prototyping
2.2 Workflow for Automatic Code Generation
2.3 Generate code for C2000™ microcontrollers
2.4 TI C2000™ Processors Block-set

3 Texas Instruments™ Development Kit
3.1 TI C2000™ LaunchPad™ : F28069M Piccolo
3.2 TI BOOSTXL-DRV8301 BoosterPack

4 Software Installation
4.1 TI Support Packages: Code Composer™ Studio and ControlSUITE™
4.2 MATLAB® Support Package: Embedded Coder for Texas Instruments C2000 Processors
4.3 Installation Procedure

II Review of Control Theory: Closing the Loop
5 Designing a Closed-Loop Control System
5.1 Dynamical Systems
5.2 Design a PI Controller in Continuous-Time Domain
5.3 Derive a PI Controller in Discrete-Time Domain

6 Design Example: PI-Based Current Control of an RL Load
6.1 Simulink® Simulation
6.2 Derive an Anti-Windup PI Controller Scheme
6.3 Design Summary

7 Manipulate the Variables Format: Data Types
7.1 Fixed Point vs Floating Point Representation
7.2 Single vs Double Precision
7.3 Use of Scaling in Fixed Point Representation
7.4 Converting from Decimal Representation to Single format
7.5 Processing the Data: Implementation Hints

III Real-Time Control in Power Electronics: Peripherals Settings
8 Basic Settings: Serial Communication COM and Hardware Target
8.1 Virtual Serial Communication through COM port

9 Simulink® Configuration
9.1 Simulink® Environments: Firmware vs Testing
9.2 MCUs and Real-Time Control with Simulink®

10 Serial Communication Interface (SCI) Peripheral
10.1 Hardware Details
10.2 Firmware Environment: Send and Receive data through serial communication
10.3 Testing Environment: Send/Receive data through serial communication
10.4 Time Variable Settings (Sample Rates)
10.5 Examples on serial communication

11 GPIO Peripheral - Digital Input/Output
11.1 Hardware Details
11.2 Firmware Environment: GPIO peripherals
11.3 Examples with GPIO blocks

12 Analog to Digital Converter Peripheral
12.1 Operating Principle
12.2 Hardware Details
12.3 Firmware Environment: ADC Peripheral
12.4 Example with ADC block
12.5 Synchronization between ADC modules

13 Pulse Width Modulator Peripheral
13.1 Operating Principle
13.2 Hardware Details
13.3 Generation of PWM signals
13.4 Firmware Environment: ePWM Peripheral
13.5 Example with ePWM block
13.6 DAC Peripheral - Filtered PWM
13.7 Examples with DAC peripherals
13.8 Synchronization between multiple ePWM modules
13.9 Synchronization between ADC and ePWM modules: average measurements
13.10 Events Execution within Sample Time

14 Encoder Peripheral
14.1 Operating Principle of Incremental Encoders
14.2 Hardware Details
14.3 Optical Rotary Encoder LPD3806
14.4 Speed Computation
14.5 Firmware Environment: eQEP Peripheral
14.6 Example with eQEP block

IV Real-Time Control in Power Electronics: Applications
15 Open Loop Control of a Permanent Magnet DC Motor
15.1 Required Hardware
15.2 Linear Model of a PMDC Motor
15.3 System Simulations
15.4 Half-Bridge Configuration
15.5 Full-Bridge Configuration

16 Low-Side Shunt Current Sensing
16.1 Sensor Characterization: Theoretical Approach
16.2 Locked Rotor Test
16.3 Sensor Characterization: Experimental Approach

17 Current Control of an RL Load
17.1 Required Hardware
17.2 Linear Average Model and Controller Design
17.3 System Simulations
17.3.1 Detailed Modeling of the Actuation Variables
17.4 Half-Bridge Configuration
17.5 Variation of Load Parameters

18 Voltage Control of an RLC load
18.1 Required Hardware
18.2 Guidelines for the Hardware Design of a RLC Load
18.3 General State-Space Average Modeling Method
18.4 System Simulations
18.5 Half-Bridge Configuration
18.6 Variations of LC Filter Parameters

19 Cascade Speed Control of a Permanent Magnet DC Motor
19.1 Required Hardware
19.2 Linear Model of a PMDC Motor
19.3 Cascade Control Architecture and Design
19.4 System Simulations
19.5 Full-Bridge Configuration
19.6 Single Motor Configuration
19.7 Back-to-Back (B2B) Configuration

V Real-Time Control in Power Electronics:Load Emulation
20 Debugging Tools and Firmware Profiling
20.1 Processor-in-the-loop with Simulink®
20.2 External Mode Execution with Simulink®


21 Electric Propulsion Case Studies
21.1 Urban Tramway
21.2 Electric Racing Car

A Appendix A: Basics of C
A.1 Operations between numbers
A.2 Structure of a C program
B Appendix B: Custom Expansion Boards and Hardware Kits