Flexible and Cost Effective HiL System for Module Based VSC Simulation - Part III: Continuous Integration of HiL Based MMC Firmware Tests

Abstract:
Modern development in the industry requires a fast and reliable solution to validate systems under con-struction instead of slow, error-prone and manual processes. Continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) is the best practice used in the industry to detect and fix errors by running auto-mated tests at different levels. Although, offline simulation tests can validate dedicated features of the system, they are not as reliable as real-time tests based on hardware-in-the-loop (HiL), which provide a more realistic scenario. Hence, this paper describes a continuous integration methodology based on a HiL for the control, hardware and firmware verification of a MMC-based STATCOM prototype. For this purpose, the model of the converter module used in the HiL is shortly described and the automation process, based on the MATLAB Unit Test framework is derived. Moreover, the integration of the auto-mated HiL tests, as part of a GitLab continuous integration, continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline, is shown. The presented results are focused on the MMC converter topology, but the method is not limited to this converter type and can be extended to different applications.