Digital twin representing VSDs can test drives applications
30 October 2024 
ABB has teamed up with Typhoon HIL – a US-headquartered company that specialises in real-time digital simulations that interact with physical prototypes to replicate thousands of possible conditions – to simplify the integration of ABB VSDs (variable-speed drives).
They have created a digital twin that integrates the control hardware, firmware and software of ABB’s ACS880 drives with Typhoon HIL’s high-fidelity digital models. These models represent the drive hardware virtually, including connected components such as motors, filters, batteries, protection devices, electromechanical elements, and the grid.
The system (called DriveLab ACS880) can verify the behaviour of drives, test their interoperability, and simplify commissioning – thus reducing risk and improving safety, efficiency and quality.
ABB and Typhoon HIL say that the technology will provide industrial customers with a realistic, scalable, and easy-to-use real-time simulation platform. It will allow them to test and validate systems rapidly.
The HIL (hardware-in-the-loop) simulation can validate drives and drive systems at both the component and system level, in real-world applications ranging from compressors, conveyors and cranes, to large-scale energy storage, microgrids and more.
Typhoon HIL, founded in 2008, claims to have created the world’s first real-time hardware-in-the-loop platform for power electronics. A combination of hardware and software runs real-time digital simulations that interact with physical prototypes, in a similar way to how flight simulators allow pilots to train for different situations using the physical controls from an aircraft cockpit. Tests based on these simulations can be automated to replicate thousands of possible conditions and scenarios at the click of a button.
The technology creates a dynamic testing environment where the drive interacts with a real-time simulation, allowing engineers to test scenarios that would be too expensive or dangerous to recreate in a laboratory. HIL simulation can cut costs, improve safety, and accelerate the development of complex systems.
“Collaboration with partners such as Typhoon HIL is delivering innovation that directly benefits customers across different industries,” says Chris Poynter, president of ABB System Drives. “The HIL solution allows us to work with our customers to help them shorten their testing and validation cycle with improved speed, efficiency and quality of the process. We can test set-ups more rapidly, more reliably with HIL solutions so it’s a great opportunity to add this component to the ecosystem.”
“Typhoon HIL and ABB share common values on business excellence, and we are deeply aligned on technology,” adds Typhoon HIL’s co-founder and CEO, Nikola Celanovic. “This positions us perfectly as a trusted partner that can be successful on both of these fronts. By making interoperability so much easier through our HIL-compatible solutions, we’re helping our, and ABB’s, customers to thrive in today’s changing energy landscape.”
ABB and Typhoon HIL will be showcasing DriveLab ACS880 at the SPS show in Germany in November.
