Educational setup for Power Electronics and IoT

Abstract

In this paper we will present a method to facilitate bachelor students with educational laboratory setups which they can use to build fully operational mechatronic and power electronic systems in the spirit of the internet of things. First we will examine all required components and their position in the overall system. It will be demonstrated that both analog and digital control can be applied to the same power electronics board and that this system can be controlled via a web-server. Starting with the internet connection, a Single Board Computer [SBC] will be able to connect to a web-server running a server-side script for communication with the outside world. The user has access to this web-server and can set parameters. The SBC can control multiple micro-controllers via I2C or USB connections. A micro-controller is then reading signals and giving control signals to a high speed analog control circuitry which in turn can regulate the power electronics. The power electronics regulates the electric motor or actuator, driving the actual applications. The main focus of this paper is on the development of a general power electronics board that facilitates multiple purposes. Several aspects of energy conversion have to be taken into consideration and therefore, the board is made general in such a way, that it can serve as a platform to teach students the variety of DC-DC and DC-AC converters that form the energy conversion backbone in the future IoT.