When facing challenges in directly applying control strategies to actual systems, the Hardware-In the Loop Simulation (HILS) technique, which combines hardware and simulation, is widely employed. It can be usefully used when dealing with high-cost tar...
When facing challenges in directly applying control strategies to actual systems, the Hardware-In the Loop Simulation (HILS) technique, which combines hardware and simulation, is widely employed. It can be usefully used when dealing with high-cost target systems or when it is impossible to restore the state after the experiment, such as car collision tests. As modern electronic control systems continue to increase in complexity, which also increases the need for HILS systems, existing HILS systems have many limitations for educational use due to their high cost and complex components. In response to this challenge, we present a solution in this paper by constructing an affordable HILS system at the undergraduate level. This system is developed using Matlab/Simulink, a widely utilized engineering simulator, and Arduino, an open-source microcontroller board. Furthermore, we conduct performance validation to ensure its effectiveness. The HILS system was established by connecting a PC and Arduino, and its performance was compared and analyzed with the results of using SILS (Software-In the Loop Simulation) in the standard primary and secondary systems. Such a low-cost HILS system can be built at an economical cost, making it easier to design a controller, and has the advantage of easy access to education.