Mobile semi‐physical experiment platform using ultra‐compact real‐time simulator Pocket Bench for power electronics courses

Abstract The potential electrical hazard, the unreal experience, and the time‐space inflexibility of the existing practical learning equipment are the barriers to the development of power electronics courses. To address these, this article introduces a mobile semi‐physical experiment platform using Pocket Bench. The Pocket Bench is an ultra‐compact Hardware‐In‐the‐Loop real‐time simulator, which can emulate the power electronic circuit with a 1.25 μs time step, and provide real‐time response signals to the physical controller. As the dangerous electrical power flow in the power electronic circuit is emulated in real‐time, the electrical hazards are eliminated. In practical learning, the students can implement the semi‐physical experiment system quickly by connecting the physical controller to the simulator. With the physical controller reserved, the students can get hands‐on experiences with the real hardware. More importantly, the palm‐size, lightweight simulator can be put into the pocket, and it can be directly powered by the universal serial bus port. Therefore, the semi‐physical experiment platform using Pocket Bench can be deployed with high time‐space flexibility. The distinctive features and the deployment method for the platform are illustrated. The application cases regarding the direct current (DC)‐DC converter, rectifier, and inverter are also given. A student survey concerning the feasibility, fidelity, and flexibility of the simulator was also conducted. The results show that the Pocket Bench grants the students new capabilities to safely carry out the practical learning of power electronics anytime, anywhere, with high‐fidelity sensory experience.