  Electronic control systems are becoming more and more complicated, which
makes it difficult to test them sufficiently only through experiments.
Simulation is an efficient way in the development and testing of complex
electronic systems, but the simulation results are always doubtful by people
due to the lack of credible simulation platforms and assessment methods. This
paper proposes a credible simulation platform based on real-time FPGA-based
hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation, and then an assessment method is
proposed to quantitatively assess its simulation credibility. By using the FPGA
to simulate all sensor chips, the simulation platform can ensure that the
tested electronic system maintains the same hardware and software operating
environment in both simulations and experiments, which makes it possible to
perform the same tests in the simulation platform and the real experiment to
compare and analyze the simulation errors. Then, the testing methods and
assessment indices are proposed to assess the simulation platform from various
perspectives, such as performance, time-domain response, and frequency-domain
response. These indices are all normalized to the same scale (from 0 to 1) and
mapped to a uniform assessment criterion, which makes it convenient to compare
and synthesize different assessment indices. Finally, an overall assessment
index is proposed by combining all assessment indices obtained from different
tests to assess the simulation credibility of the whole simulation platform.
The simulation platform and the proposed assessment method are applied to a
multicopter system, where the effectiveness and practicability are verified by
simulations and experiments.
