Dear OpenFAST community,
We are currently working on a wind turbine control validation setup. In previous work, we successfully ran co-simulations where OpenFAST was executed within Simulink via the FAST S-Function, and a simulated PLC as the controller. Communication between Simulink and the simulated PLC was established through OPC UA, with Simulink acting as an intermediary.
We would now like to remove the dependency on MATLAB/Simulink and run OpenFAST in standalone mode. I understand that achieving real-time synchronization may not be straightforward, but I would like to ask what the recommended approach is for synchronizing an external controller with OpenFAST under these conditions.
The key aspect in our case is that the controller is not compiled as .dll, but instead runs on a simulated or real PLC (e.g., Siemens 1200).
What would be the correct or recommended approach to implement this type of simulation? Any guidance or references to existing work in this direction would be greatly appreciated.
Best regards,
-Mario