Design and Implementation of a Model-Driven Embedded Simulation Control System for Diesel Engines

To address the challenges of complex programming, high physicaltesting costs, and lengthy development cycles in conventional diesel engine controller development, this paper describes the design and prototype implementation of an embedded simulation control system for diesel engines, intended for early-stage controller algorithm pre-validation. The system is built around an STM32F407VE microcontroller and follows the model-driven development (MDD) paradigm. First, in accordance with the real-time and accuracy requirements of the simulation control system, core software modules—including real-time task scheduling, signal acquisition and processing, Ethernet communication, and host–target interaction—are designed to construct an embedded software framework that integrates simulation computation, signal sampling, command execution, and data exchange. Second, a modular diesel engine simulation model is developed in the MATLAB R2022b/Simulink environment and the graphical model is transformed and ported into embedded real-time C code via automatic code generation tools. Finally, an embedded real-time simulation verification platform is built. Distinct from our previous work on parallel power units, this study focuses on a single-engine diesel power system. Test results demonstrate that the proposed single-engine simulation platform can run the diesel engine model in real time on the target hardware and achieve closed-loop speed tracking under starting and multi-step command scenarios. The platform provides a low-cost, preliminary verification aid for early-stage diesel controller algorithm logic debugging and pre-parameter tuning. It should be highlighted that this platform is not intended for high-fidelity physical reproduction of real diesel engines. Quantitative model accuracy against real-engine dynamometer data remains to be established in future bench calibration campaigns.