Abstract: To address the problems of high cost，complex environmental interference and prominent safety risks in the real-sea testing of the wave compensation rescue gangway control system，this paper proposes a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) testing method suitable for the early development stage of the control system. Firstly，the testing requirement analysis of the wave compensation rescue gangway control system is carried out to clarify the testing content，evaluation criteria and model supporting scope. Secondly，a high-precision multi-domain coupling simulation model covering wave environment，ship six-degree-of-freedom motion，gangway mechanism and hydraulic actuator is constructed，and based on this，an integrated HIL testing system composed of HIL test bench，gangway controller and human-computer interaction digital twin system is designed. Finally，multi-dimensional test cases and evaluation methods covering function，safety and performance are designed. This testing method can reproduce the real marine operation environment in the laboratory，complete the verification of functional integrity，test of safety redundancy and evaluation of key performance of the control system under multiple sea conditions and working conditions，greatly reduce the testing cost and safety risk in the R&D stage，shorten the system development cycle，and provide an efficient and safe testing solution for the reliable R&D of the wave compensation rescue gangway control system.