Virtual EPU for Electric Propulsion; Building and Correlating a Digital Twin

Posted on October 8, 2025 - aerospace, latest news

Electrification in aerospace demands uncompromising safety and efficiency. At Evolito, we’ve developed the Virtual Electric Propulsion Unit (Virtual EPU), a digital twin that transforms how we design, validate, and certify electric propulsion systems.

In this exclusive MATLAB EXPO UK presentation, Nikolaos Apostolopoulos, Principal Control Systems Architect at Evolito, explains how Virtual EPU accelerates development, reduces cost, and ensures compliance with the highest safety standards.

Why We Built the Virtual EPU

Developing propulsion systems for aerospace means meeting the highest certification standards while innovating at speed. Traditional methods rely heavily on physical testing, which is costly and time‑intensive. Our Virtual EPU changes that by moving much of the work into a simulation environment.

The digital twin enables us to:

Front‑load software development and debugging before hardware arrives.
Run system‑level optimisation early in the design cycle.
Safely emulate failure modes without risking physical components.
Reduce reliance on expensive dyno time, cutting cost and accelerating delivery.

Inside the Virtual EPU

The Virtual EPU is built as a modular simulation environment, with components representing motors, inverters, batteries and gearboxes. Each module can be configured at different fidelity levels, from fast, continuous models for early sizing to high‑detail switching inverter models for advanced control development.

Development begins with model‑in‑the‑loop (MIL) simulations, where models and real control software run together in a desktop environment to validate requirements and tune algorithms early. From there, we integrate the same software into higher‑fidelity models, enabling a seamless transition to hardware‑in‑the‑loop (HIL) testing. Using Speedgoat and FPGA acceleration, we replicate real‑time behaviour and validate against physical test rigs. Every cycle of simulation and correlation improves accuracy, ensuring our models can be trusted for safety‑critical applications.

Collaboration and Certification

Our customers benefit too. By sharing Simulink‑based models, partners can integrate Evolito’s propulsion systems into their aircraft simulations long before hardware delivery. This approach supports compliance with aerospace standards such as DAL‑A and helps us maintain the highest quality throughout development.