A real-time LabVIEW-based emulator for various types of electrical loads

To test electric devices such as household appliances, electric vehicle and other loads, there is need for emulators instead of real devices, which decreases the cost of testing. This paper presents a dynamically programmable load emulator that imitates the current–time characteristic of different types of the loads. The exact mathematical model of various types of electric loads is firstly extracted. These mathematical models are implemented by LabVIEW software. A non-ideal buck converter is used for the hardware part of the emulator, which is controlled by LabVIEW. The proposed emulator can mimic the types of loads given by LabVIEW software with great accuracy and is an example of an actual load simulator with good approximation. Manufacturers or laboratories of electric equipment can use the proposed emulator to perform their tests instead of using the actual device. This reduces the cost of tests and speeds them up so that all types of electric loads can be modeled with an emulator. In addition, because a simple power electronic converter structure is used, the proposed emulator has low complexity and low manufacturing cost. Simulation and laboratory results prove the efficiency of this emulator in making models of different types of loads.