A real time testing system for wind turbine controller with xPC target machine

•A cheap hardware-in-the-loop testing system for wind turbine controller is built.•The virtual wind power generation system is controlled by physical controller.•The effectiveness and performance of the controller can be validated.•A friendly interface is established by combination of xPC and virtual reality tool.

A cheap hardware-in-the-loop testing system for wind turbine controller is built based on MATLAB xPC. A wind-power generation model is constructed in the Matlab/Simulink of host machine, where the code is generated by real-time workshop and downloaded to the target machine. Then the virtual wind power generation system may be controlled by the physical controller, and the effectiveness and performance of the controller can be validated. By composing the drivers for xPC device, the selection of I/O devices for the testing system is flexible. A friendly interface of the testing system is established by combination of xPC and virtual reality toolbox. A testing system for wind power generation system with friend interface may be established by the described method.