Prototype of a power measurement system using an FPGA-based embedded MicroBlaze soft-processor

A unique, low-temperature technology, CarbonSaver(TM), was developed by Atlantic Hydrogen Inc. (AHI) and is used to dissociate natural gas to form gaseous hydrogen and solid carbon. It is integrated with a modified internal combustion engine to generate electricity. There is a requirement to measure the power output in real time using the noisy input voltage and current signals.;To solve this problem, a prototype of a power measurement system was developed in this project on an FPGA chip, a Xilinx VirtexE XCV2000E. This power measurement system can filter the noise from the input voltage signal and input current signal and calculate the average power value in real time. It also can output different results under the customer's control in real time. These outputs include: filtered voltage signals, filtered current signals and instantaneous power signals.;This power measurement system was implemented in two methods: one is a pure hardware power measurement system; the other one is an embedded system with a Xilinx MicroBlaze soft processor. Both of these two systems can satisfy the customer's requirements. The disadvantage of the pure hardware power measurement system is that it is not easily adjusted for different signal inputs. To make this power measurement system as a flexible system, the embedded system with a MicroBlaze soft-processor was developed as a solution. This embedded system includes an adjustable filter, which can be easy changed based on customers' requirements.