Application of Maximum Power Point Tracker with Self-organizing Fuzzy Logic Controller for Solar-powered Traffic Lights

Abstract

This paper presents the development of Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) using an adjustable Self-Organizing Fuzzy Logic Controller (SOFLC) for a Solar-powered Traffic Light Equipment (SPTLE) with an integrated Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) system on a low-cost microcontroller. The proposed system is integrated with a boost converter for realizing of high performance SPTLE, whose adaptability properties are very attractive for operation of a solar array power tracking in dynamic environments. The proposed MPPT scheme obtained by varying the duty ratio for DC-DC boost converter has been successfully implemented on a low-cost PIC16F876A RISC-microcontroller. Experimental results of the hardware prototypes for SPTLE, light flasher and light chevron, with commercial solar array show that our proposed MPPT using SOFLC as compared with Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) in terms of tracking speed with 92% of overall system efficiency.

An Improved Incremental Conductance-Maximum Power Point Tracking Algorithm Based on Fuzzy Logic for Photovoltaic Systems

“…Nevertheless, in the performance of the method, the oscillation around the MPP occurs at the steady state. Besides, a self-organizing FLC for MPPT based on the Look-up-Table method, is described in [9]. The response of the method is pretty good, but is affected by the technique utilized to set and update values in the reference tables.…”

An intelligent maximum power point tracking method based on extension theory for PV systems

“…Also, the system stability problem would occur once the control unit switches from CVT to INC MPPT mode or the starting point is not selected properly. The intelligent fuzzy, sliding-mode and neural network methods (Godoy Simoes & Franceschetti, 1999;Khaehintung & Sirisuk, 2007;Kim, Kim, & Youn, 2006;Kottas, Boutalis, & Karlis, 2006;Veerachary, Senjyu, & Uezato, 2003;Wu, Chang, & Chen, 2000) focusing on the nonlinear characteristics of PV array provide a good alternative for MPPT control. Since the output characteristics of the PV array should be well understood to create the MPPT control rules and the computation time of these algorithms are highly complex, the versatility of these methods is limited.…”