Simulación Hardware-in-the-Loop y Control en Tiempo Real de un Reactor de Tanque Continuamente Agitado basado en Arduino: An Arduino-based platform for Hardware-in-the-Loop simulation and control of Continuous Stirred-Tank Reactor

Simulación Hardware-in-the-Loop y Control en Tiempo Real de un Reactor de Tanque Continuamente Agitado basado en Arduino

Abstract

Traditional validation methods for Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) control systems face a critical trade-off. Commercial Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) platforms are prohibitively expensive, while pure software simulations lack hardware realism. This work presents a low-cost Arduino-based HIL alternative using two interconnected microcontrollers, one simulating the CSTR dynamics in real-time and the other implementing a feedforward-feedback control algorithm. To validate fidelity, HIL system is compared against a MATLAB reference model under identical control parameters and disturbance scenarios. Results demonstrate negligible deviation in temperature tracking between the Arduino HIL and MATLAB simulations. The proposed architecture maintains real-time operation at low sampling rates with negligible computational burden, making it viable for both educational laboratories and industrial prototyping.