A solar battery charger for two modes of operation using a dc-dc buck converter based on a Fuzzy Logic

Controller
Rafael M. Lamaison

A solar battery charger for two modes of operation using a dc-dc buck
converter based on a Fuzzy Logic Controller
Rafael M. Lamaison, SergioVivas, Juan Peracaula
UPC - Universidad Politcnica de Catalua
Diagonal 647 Planta 9, ETSEIB
08028 Barcelona, Spain
Tel. 34-93-4011098, Fax. 34-93-4017785
lamaison@eel.upc.es

Acknowledgments
The research leading to this work was sponsored by grant N. TIC98-1092 of the Ministerio de
Educacin y Ciencia Comisin Interministerial de la Ciencia y la Tecnologa (CICYT) - Spain

Keywords
Solar charge battery, buck dc-dc converter, fuzzy logic controller

Abstract
In this paper a solar battery charger for two modes of operation using a dc-dc buck converter based on
a Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) has been worked out. To improve energetic efficiency of a
photovoltaic system an optimum power transfer from the solar panel to its load is needed. A C++
language program to simulate the system and the Fuzzy Logic Control in a closed loop scheme has
been developed. On the other hand, experimental results of the FLC operating in two power modes of
charges are presented. The two modes of charges are constant current with voltage limited and
constant voltage with current limited.

1. Introduction
Although photovoltaic panel's energetic efficiency, at the moment, is no too large, this technology is
reducing its cost, and becoming more used. This is due to the worry about getting energy without
harm the environment, becoming the solar energy the wisest option. So that, for some applications it
is strongly convenient to obtain the maximum energy as possible, requiring a good Maximum Power
Point (MPP) tracker [1-4]. The MPP is variable, because the Solar Panel I-V curve depends on
irradiation conditions as shown in Fig.1.
Power(W)
350.00

Isolation (w/m2)
2

G=1200 w/m

300.0

250.0

200.0

P8

G=1100 w/m

P7

G=1000 w/m

P6

G=900 w/m

P5

G=800 w/m

P4

G=700 w/m

P3

G=600 w/m

Cells Operation
Temperature T=51 C
Enviroment
T=25 C
Temperature

P2

150.0

P1

G=500 w/m

100.0

50.0

0.0
0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

80.0

Voltage (V)

Fig.1: Power-voltage curves of solar panel behavior at several radiation conditions.

EPE 2001 Graz

P. 1

A solar battery charger for two modes of operation using a dc-dc buck converter based on a Fuzzy Logic
Controller
Rafael M. Lamaison

In this paper, solar charge battery using a dc-dc buck converter operating in two power modes with a
Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) is proposed. This Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) tracks the MPP
whenever it is possible. Also the fuzzy controller improve the energetic efficiency of a charge system
optimizing power transfer from the solar panel to the battery.
Fig.2 shows the solar battery charger system. A dc/dc buck converter is used to transfer the energy
from the panel to the battery. The charge of the battery can be made in two modes of charge:
controlling the voltage and limiting the current or controlling the current and limiting the voltage.

Solar Panel
M

Solar Battery Charger

L

iO

Battery
+

Vd

VO

C
-

IO

FLC
VO

Fig.2: Solar battery charger system.

The basic scheme of the fuzzy controller for the dc-dc buck converter is shown in Fig.3. The
converter is represented by a black box, from which we only extract the terminals corresponding to
input voltage Vd, output voltage Vo, one inductor current iL and the controlled switch S. In this case
only two state variables are sensed: the output voltage and the inductor current.
From these measurements, the fuzzy controller provides a signal proportional to the converter duty
ratio (D), which is then applied to a standard PWM modulator [6][7].

iL
L

v O ref

F u zzy
C on troller
+

DC/ DC

vd

B u ck
C o n verter

vO
-

P W M M odu lator

Fig.3: Fuzzy control scheme of the buck dc-dc converter

2. Solar array characteristic

The I-V behavior of a solar cell is described by (1):

I (V ) = I SC I

EPE 2001 Graz

sat

qV + IR s k T

V + IR s
Rp

(1)

P. 2

A solar battery charger for two modes of operation using a dc-dc buck converter based on a Fuzzy Logic
Controller
Rafael M. Lamaison

where I and V are the output current and output voltage of the solar array, respectively, ISC is the short
circuit current under a given radiation, Isat is the reverse saturation current, q is the charge of an
electron, K is the Boltzmanns constant, is the ideality factor for a p-n junction, T is the temperature
(K), Rs and RP are the intrinsic series and parallel resistances of the solar cell.
The equivalent circuit of a solar cell is shown in Fig.4. Since the parallel resistance is usually greater
than series resistance the last term of (1) is can be neglected for simplicity and finally we have the
equation (2) [6].

I (V ) = I SC I

sat

qV + IR s

kT

(2)
RS

Isat
D

ISC

Fig.4: Equivalent circuit of a solar cell

3. The dc/dc buck power converter

A DC/DC step-down converter (buck) is used for implementation of the solar battery charger. The
basic circuit for a buck converter is shown in Fig.5. The average value VO of the output voltage is
controlled by controlling the switch ON and OFF duration (TON and TOFF). The battery has been
modeled as a constant voltage source (VB) and a constant series resistance (RB).
In this section the space state equations are deduced for the buck converter with the battery as a load.
During each state of the circuit, if the input voltage is considered constant, the lineal circuit is
described by means of the following state vector variables:
i
X = L
v O

(3)

This converter operates in the discontinuous-conduction mode where the switch off has two times:
TOFFD1 when the switch is OFF but the inductor current is different of zero and TOFFD2 when the switch
is OFF and the inductor current is zero.

D
RL

Vd

RC

RB

VB +-

iL
+

VO

Fig.5: Buck Converter

Therefore the switching period (TS) is:

Ts = T ON + T OFFD 1 + T OFFD
EPE 2001 Graz

(4)

P. 3

A solar battery charger for two modes of operation using a dc-dc buck converter based on a Fuzzy Logic
Controller
Rafael M. Lamaison

The on state time of the switch can be expressed as:

T ON = D T s

(5)

where D is the switch duty ratio.

The time when the switch is OFF but the inductor current is different of zero can be calculated as:

TOFF D1 =

Vd Vo
D Ts
Vo

(6)

where the input voltage Vd is considered to be constant.

During each circuit state, the linear circuit is described by means of the state-variable vector x
consisting of the inductor current iL and the capacitor voltage vC.
In a matrix form the system can be written as:

x! = Ai x + Bi vd + Ci v B

(7)

where A is a state matrix, B is a vector and C is a transposed vector. vd (input voltage) and vB (battery
voltage) can be considered constant. The index i depends on the circuit state and can be 1, 2 and 3
during TON, TOFF D1 and TOFF D2, respectively.
In the circuit description, the parasitic elements such as the resistance of the filter inductor and the
equivalent series resistance (ESR) of the filter capacitor should also be included.
During each circuit state, we can write the following state matrices and vectors:

During TON

RL
L
A1 = R + R B C R C R L
B

C[R B + R C ]

1
L
RB C RC
1 +

C[R B + R C ]

B1

1
L
= R B C R C

C [R B + R C ]

C1 =

0
1
C [R B + R C ]

During TOFF D1 (IL>0)

RL
L
A 2 = R + R B C R C R L
B

C[R B + R C ]

1
L
RB CRC
1 +

C[R B + R C ]

C2

0
1
=
C [R B + R

During TOFF D2 (IL=0 )

A3 = 0

0
1
C[R B + R C ]

EPE 2001 Graz

0
1
C3 =
C[R B + R C ]

P. 4

A solar battery charger for two modes of operation using a dc-dc buck converter based on a Fuzzy Logic
Controller
Rafael M. Lamaison

where RL is the inductor resistance, RC is the equivalent series resistance of the capacitor and RB is
the battery resistance.
As indicated before, the converter load is a battery. A power MOSFET is used as a switching device
(see Fig.2) since it is easy to control and can be operated at higher frequencies as compared to BJTs.

4. Fuzzy controller structure

The Fuzzy Logic (FL) can be used in a wide range of control system applications [1-5]. Compared to
classical control, the FL advantage is the possibility of its application in absence of the mathematical
model. Whether a physical system, logic or conceptual, the truth is that the classical theory of control
requires a thorough knowledge of the process to be controlled and the system's response to several
stimuli. This is not always possible and, at best, sometimes it is complicated. Fuzzy Logic plays an
essential role, by using uncertain information to describe the performance of the plant and to develop
the control.
The first important step in the fuzzy controller definition is the choice of the input variables.
Accordingly, in the proposed fuzzy controller we use three input variables: output voltage error eo, the
difference of output error eo and the inductor current iL.
The output voltage error can be expressed as:

e o = V o _ reference V o _ real

(8)

where Vo_reference is the output voltage reference and Vo_real is the measured output voltage.
And the difference of output error eo (the change of error) can be expressed as:

e o = eo ( k ) eo ( k 1 )

(9)

where k is the sampled time.

A block diagram of the fuzzy controller structure is shown in Fig.6. The controller output variable is
the switch duty-ratio.
Crisp Process-State
Values

(dD)

(eo e o IL)

Crisp Control Output

Values

Normalization

Denormaliztion
Optional

Fuzzyfication

Inference
Engine

Obligatory

Defuzzyfication

Rule Base

Database
Computational flow

Rule Base

Information flow

(Symbolic
Representation)

Symbolic to Meaning translation

Fig.6: Fuzzy logic controller structure

EPE 2001 Graz

P. 5

A solar battery charger for two modes of operation using a dc-dc buck converter based on a Fuzzy Logic
Controller
Rafael M. Lamaison

In this paper we have designed a fuzzy controller to charge a battery with two possible charging
modes of:
a) constant voltage charge with current limited
b) constant current charge with voltage limited

A. Membership functions
Fuzzy sets must be defined for each input and output variable. Fig.7 and 8 shows the input and output
memberships, respectively of the fuzzy controller working as a constant voltage charger. Five fuzzy
subsets PB (Positive Big), PS (Positive Small), ZE (Zero), NS (Negative Small) and NB (Negative
Big) have been chosen for input variables eo and eo, while only two fuzzy subsets NORM (Normal
operation) and LIMIT (current limit) have been selected for the input current IL, since the purpose is
only to handle the current limit condition. For the output variables seven fuzzy subsets have been used
(PB, PM, PS, ZE, NS, NM and NB), in order to smooth the control action. As shown in Fig.7,
triangular and trapezoidal shapes have been adopted for the membership functions; the value of each
input and output variable is normalized in [-1,1] by using suitable scale factors.

NB

NS

-1 -2/3 -1/3

ZO

PS

PB

NS

ZO

-1 -2/3 -1/3

NB

1/3 2/3 1

PS

1/3

PB

2/3 1

e oN

e oN
NORM

LIMIT

0.6 0.8

LN
Fig. 7: Membership normalized input functions (eoN, eoN and iLN)

PB

PM

-1

-2/3

PS

-1/3

ZE

NS

1/3

NM

2/3

NB

dDN
Fig. 8: Membership normalized output function (dDN)

When the controller is select to work as a constant current mode charger, the input variables are eiN,
eiN and VoN but the memberships input and output functions are the same. As a fuzzy inference
method, Mamdanis method is used with max-min operation fuzzy combination law [2][5].
Fig.9 shows the block diagram of the general fuzzy controller. Depending on the mode of charge, we
use one set of input variables or the other. eo, eo and iL are used for constant voltage charge and ei,
ei and Vo are used for constant current charge.
As the plant usually requires a nonfuzzy value of control, a defuzzification stage is needed.
Defuzzification can be performer normally by two algorithms: Center of Area (COA) and the Max
Criterion Method (MCM). The COA is a combine-then-defuzzification algorithm that determines the
crisp controller output as the center of gravity of the final combined fuzzy set. In this controller we
have used the MCM algorithm because is simpler then COA algorithm [4].
EPE 2001 Graz

P. 6

A solar battery charger for two modes of operation using a dc-dc buck converter based on a Fuzzy Logic
Controller
Rafael M. Lamaison
eo

or e i

eo or e i

IL or Vo

Normalization
eoN or eiN

eoN or eiN

ILN

or

VoN

Fuzzyfication
Inference

Defuzzyfication
d DN
Denormalization
dD
Fig.9: Block diagram of the fuzzy controller

B. Derivation of control rules

Fuzzy control rules are obtained from the analysis of the system behavior. For their formulation it
must be considered that the use of different control laws, depending on the operating conditions, can
greatly improve the converter performances in terms of dynamic response and robustness.
To explain the control rules we can suppose the controller working in the constant voltage mode
charger.
First, when the output voltage is far from the set point (eo is PB or NB), the corrective action done by
the controller must be strong (duty ratio close to zero or one, respectively) in order to have the
dynamic response as fast as possible, obviously taking into account current limit specifications.
Second, when the current approaches zero (eo is NS, ZE, PS) the current error should be properly
taken into account in a similar way then in current-mode control, in order to ensure stability around
the working point.
Finally, when the current approaches the limit value, suitable rules must be introduced in order to
perform the current limit action while preventing large overshoots.
According to these criteria, the rule sets shown in table I and II are derived for eo and eo. Fig.10 give
a graphical representation of Tables I and II.
eoN eoN
NB
NS
ZO
PS
PB

NB
NB
NB
NB
PS
PB

NS
NB
NM
NS
PM
PB

ZO
NB
NS
ZO
PM
PB

PS
NB
NS
PS
PB
PB

PB
NM
NS
PM
PB
PB

Table I: Rule table for the fuzzy controller, assuming that iL is NORM

eoN eoN
NB
NS
ZO
PS
PB

NB
NB
NB
NB
NS
ZO

NS
NB
NB
NB
NS
ZO

ZO
NB
NB
NB
NS
ZO

PS
NB
NB
NB
NS
ZO

PB
NB
NB
NB
NS
ZO

Table II: Rule table for the fuzzy controller, assuming that iL is LIMIT

EPE 2001 Graz

P. 7

A solar battery charger for two modes of operation using a dc-dc buck converter based on a Fuzzy Logic
Controller
Rafael M. Lamaison

Fig.10: Graphic representation of rule Table I and II

5. Closed loop simulation

To help in the design of the system, a simulation of the model and the Fuzzy Logic Control in a
closed loop scheme was developed in Builder C++ language. The blocks diagram of the closed loop
system can be shown in Fig.2 and Fig.3. Since it is hard to adjust the operating conditions of the PV
array, such as the irradiation level and temperature in the real field test, the following simulations
were carried out confirming the performance of the proposed control technique. Starting from a
steady-state condition with a constant radiation and fixed duty cycle, the FLC loop is closed at t=0
and the fuzzy controller takes the control of D and drives the system to the appropriate power to
charge the battery.
Fig.11 (a) and (b) and Fig.12 shows the output voltage, output current and the duty ratio evolution,
respectively, of the solar charge system with a voltage output reference of 13 Volts.
The operation conditions of the buck converter are: fS = 20 kHz and D = 0.4, where D is the switch
duty ratio and fS is the switching frequency (fS = 1/ TS).
The components value of the converter are: L = 20 H, C = 500 F, RC = 0.1 , VB = 12.5 volts and
RB = 0.2 .

Time

Time
2

(a)
(b)
Fig.11: Output voltage (a) and current (b) evolution of the solar charger simulation (VO ref =13 V)
o

Time
1

Fig.12: Duty ratio evolution to control the solar charger simulation (VO ref = 13 V)

EPE 2001 Graz

P. 8

A solar battery charger for two modes of operation using a dc-dc buck converter based on a Fuzzy Logic
Controller
Rafael M. Lamaison

6. Experimental results
Fig.13 shows the block diagram of the experimental equipment used at our laboratories. The fuzzy
control rules and algorithms have been implemented in Builder C++ on a standard PC.
A HP 6030A DC current source of 200 V and 17 A controlled by a computer using the IEEE 488 bus
was used as a solar panel. An algorithm simulating the i vs. v curve of a solar panel was implemented
to control the HP 6030A DC current source.
PC (Computer)
FLC
AX5411

CONTROL
CIRCUIT
DRIVER

+
SOLAR V d
PANELS

VOLTAGE
SENSOR

CURRENT
SENSOR

circuit

circuit

+
Vo

BATTERY

Fig.13: Basic system structure

Fig.14 shows the experimental results for the voltage control mode. The battery has been charged at a
14 Volts fixed voltage (Voref = 14 V).
Fig.15 (a) and (b) shows the evolution of the current and duty ratio, respectively, for the voltage
charge mode.

Fig.14: Experimental results of the voltage charge mode (Voref = 14 V) and current charge mode (Ioref = 1 A).

(a)
(b)
Fig.15: Experimental measure of the charging current and duty ratio in the voltage charge mode.

Fig.16 (a) shows the experimental results for the current control mode. The battery has been charged
at a 1 Ampere current fixed (Voref = 14 V).
Fig.16 (b) shows the evolution of the voltage when the controller is operating in the current charge
mode. Fig.17 shows the hardware prototype implemented for the experimental results.
EPE 2001 Graz

P. 9

A solar battery charger for two modes of operation using a dc-dc buck converter based on a Fuzzy Logic
Controller
Rafael M. Lamaison

(a)
(b)
Fig.16: Experimental measure of the current charge and voltage in the current mode (Ioref = 1 A).

Fig.17: Experimental hardware prototype.

7. Conclusions
A solar battery charger for two modes of operation using a dc-dc buck converter based on a Fuzzy
Logic Controller (FLC) has presented. The membership input and output functions and fuzzy rules for
the fuzzy logic controller have been described. The system has been designed for two operation
modes to improve the versatility of this. A dc-dc buck converter with its duty ratio controlled by the
fuzzy output algorithms allows an optimum energy transfer from the solar panel to the charge. To
allow an easier design and prove the correct operation, a simulation of the system and the fuzzy logic
control in a closed loop scheme was developed in Builder C++ language. It works on a complete
system simulation and simulated results show a good performance. Also, experimental results have
shown an excellent behavior of the controller-converter system with robust operation in both charging
modes.

References
[1] R. Hillowala, A. M. Sharof, A Rule Based Fuzzy Logic Controller for a PWM Inverter in Photovoltaic
Energy Conversion Scheme, IAS, pp 762-769, 1993.
[2] P. Bonissone, P. S. Khedkar, M. J. Schutten, Fuzzy Logic Control of Resonant Converters for Power
Supplies, Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Control Applications, pp, 323-328, 1995.
[3] S. Gomariz, D. Biel, L. Martinez, F. Guinjoan, J. M. Moreno, Simple fuzzy controller for a buck converter,
comparison with maximum current control technique, 23rd Annual International Conference on Industrial
Electronics, Control, and Instrumentation, IECON, pp. 765-769, 1997.
[4] BorRen Lin, Analysis of Fuzzy Control Method Applied to DC-DC Converter Control, IEEE Proceeding
APEC, pp 22-28, 1993.
[5] P. Mattavelli, L. Rossetto, G. Spiazzi, P. Tenti, General-Purpose Fuzzy Controller for DC-DC Converters,
IEEE Transaction on Power Electronics, Vol.12, No.1, January, 1997.
[6] Ch. Hua, J. Lin, Ch. Sheng, "Implementation of a DSP-Controlled Photovoltaic System with Peak Power
Tracking, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 99-107, February, 1998.
[7] O. Wolkenhauer, J. M. Edmunds, "A Critique of Fuzzy-Logic in Control", Control Systems Centre Report
No. 827, August 8th, 1995.

EPE 2001 Graz

P. 10