A low-cost HIL platform for testing professional refrigerators controllers

In this work, we present a Hardware In the Loop (HIL) platform for testing control strategies designed and implemented in a commercial electronic control unit for industrial refrigerators. The architecture structure consists of four elements: (i) a real-time processor, in which a detailed model of the refrigerator is implemented; (ii) the industrial control unit device under test; (iii) an Input/Output (I/O) hardware interface which allows data communication between the real-time processor (model) and the industrial device (control) and (iv) a power PC in order to display and save experimental results. Introducing the HIL methodology in the refrigerator industry could reduce electronic control unit testing costs and save time in the production stage because it is possible to verify the control strategy performances in real- time for several operating conditions and different refrigerator models avoiding expensive and time-consuming test bench procedures.