Compared with high voltage direct current(HVDC)transmission,the primary system and secondary system of modular multilevel converter based high voltage direct current(MMC-HVDC)are both more complicated,and to a certain extent the characteristics of the controllers determine the properties of the MMC-HVDC system.Using the rapid control prototype(RCP)can accelerate the development of the MMC-HVDC controller;based on the PCI extension for instrumentation(PXI),the rapid control prototype for MMC-HVDC system is developed.First,based on the PXI device,the control strategy for the MMC-HVDC system is designed,the control program is developed and debugged,the input/output boards and ports are configured,and the rapid control prototype for MMC-HVDC is built.Second,the MMC-HVDC primary system model based on the real-time digital simulator(RTDS)is developed.Finally,the RTDS-PXI hybrid real-time simulation system is formed.The experimental results of hybrid real-time simulation show that the designed rapid control prototype of MMC-HVDC system has the ability to start the MMC-HVDC system,balance the capacitor voltage of the sub-modules,control the bus voltage and active power in addition to desirable steady-and transient-state performance.