IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 47, NO.
2, APRIL 2000
A Fuzzy-Logic-Controlled Single-Stage Converter
for PV-Powered Lighting System Applications
Tsai-Fu Wu, Senior Member, IEEE, Chien-Hsuan Chang, and Yu-Kai Chen, Member, IEEE
Abstract—This paper presents a fuzzy-logic-controlled
single-stage converter (SSC) for photovoltaic (PV)-powered
lighting system applications. The SSC is the integration of a
bidirectional buck–boost charger/discharger and a class-D se-
ries resonant parallel loaded inverter. The designed fuzzy logic
controller (FLC) can control both the charging and discharging
current, and can improve its dynamic and steady-state perfor-
mance. Furthermore, a maximum power point tracker (MPPT)
based on a perturb-and-observe method is also realized to effec-
tively draw power from PV arrays. Both the FLC and the MPPT
are implemented on a single-chip microprocessor. Simulated and
experimental results obtained from the proposed circuit with an
FLC have verified the adaptivity, robustness, and feasibility.
Index Terms—Fuzzy logic controller, photovoltaic, single-stage
converter.
I. INTRODUCTION
A PPLICATIONS with photovoltaic (PV) energy have
increased significantly over the past decade, since fossil
energy resources have been rapidly depleting, and PV energy
is pollution free, abundant, and broadly available [1]–[5]. The
applications are even more attractive in rural or energy-defi-
cient areas. Recently, many single-stage converters (SSC’s) for
PV-powered lighting system (PPLS) applications have been
proposed, and one of the SSC’s, an integration of a bidirectional
buck–boost charger/discharger and a class-D series resonant
parallel loaded inverter (SRPLI), has been implemented [5].
In the system, a conventional proportional–integral–deriva-
tive (PID) controller and a perturb-and-observe method [6],
[7] were adopted to achieve battery charging/discharging
and maximum power point tracking (MPPT), respectively.
However, because of the nonlinear and time-variant nature of
switches and the resonant behavior of inverters, it is difficult
to model the dynamics of the SSC. In addition, fluorescent
lamps operating at high frequencies, although behaving mostly
as pure resistance, present a time delay and hysteresis due to
the inertia of gas ionization. These phenomena complicate
the modeling of the dynamics of an SRPLI. Since the SSC
is the integration of a buck–boost converter and an SRPLI,
Manuscript received May 20, 1999; revised September 8, 1999. Abstract
published on the Internet December 23, 1999. This work was supported
by the National Science Council, Taiwan, R.O.C., under Project NSC
88-2213-E-194-031. This paper was presented at the 1999 IEEE Industry
Applications Society Annual Meeting, Phoenix, AZ, October 3–7.
T.-F. Wu and C.-H. Chang are with the Power Electronics Applied Research
Laboratory (PEARL), Department of Electrical Engineering, National Chung
Cheng University, Chia-Yi, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Y.-K. Chen is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Chien Kuo In-
stitute of Technology, Chang-hua, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0278-0046(00)02513-2.
0278–0046/00$10.00 © 2000 IEEE
287
an accurate mathematical model of the converter system is
even more difficult to obtain. Thus, it is hard to design a PID
controller systematically. Furthermore, component values
would drift with aging and temperature, and PV voltage and
battery voltage might vary over a wide range. These variations
may degrade the performance of a PPLS with a PID controller.
In considering the aforementioned situations, an SSC associ-
ated with other modern control approaches, such as fuzzy con-
trol and robust control, is usually used to fulfill the same func-
tion and to relieve these shortcomings. Both of these control ap-
proaches can achieve robustness of a system with uncertainties,
variations, and disturbances. However, an SSC with a single ro-
bust controller cannot achieve the desired performance because
the dynamic model of the charger (embedded in the SSC) varies
widely from that of the discharger (embedded in the SSC, also).
To simplify the control algorithm and the design procedure, an
SSC associated with a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) is adopted
for a PPLS application in this paper.
Fuzzy control has adaptive characteristics in nature, and can
achieve robust response to a system with uncertainty, parameter
variation, and load disturbance. It has been broadly used to
control an ill-defined, nonlinear, or imprecise system. In the
field of power electronics, fuzzy control has been successfully
applied to regulate and handle dc–dc converters [9], [10],
pulsewidth modulated (PWM) source inverters [11] and max-
imum power point tracking in energy conversion systems [12],
[13]. Among these systems, fuzzy control does not require
accurate models of them. In this paper, it is applied to deal with
the variations of lamp parameters and component values, and
disturbance due to input voltages. With this technique, not only
can tight charging/discharging current regulation be readily
achieved but also fast dynamic responses can be achieved with
only one FLC. Additionally, the FLC can be implemented on
a single-chip microcontroller (PIC16C74) [14] to achieve the
desired performance.
A system configuration of the discussed PPLS is addressed in
Section II, and the derivation of the proposed SSC is reviewed in
Section III. In Section IV, design and simulation of the proposed
SSC with a single robust controller is presented for comparison
purposes. Analysis and design of the SSC with an FLC is pre-
sented in Section V. A design example which is built to confirm
the adaptivity, robustness, and feasibility of the proposed system
is presented in Section VI, and the paper is concluded in Sec-
tion VII.
II. CONFIGURATION OF THE PPLS
A block diagram of the overall single-stage PPLS is depicted
in Fig. 1; it consists of PV arrays, a battery bank, fluorescent
288 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 47, NO. 2, APRIL 2000

lamps, a switching power supply (SPS), an SSC power stage,

and control circuits. The features of each block are described in
the following.
1) PV Arrays: The PV module used in this system is the
MAGA SX-60 manufactured by SOLAREX, and the
electrical characteristics of each module are listed in
Table I. The PV arrays are formed with 16 PV modules,
which are connected with eight modules in series and
two in parallel. Thus, the PV arrays have a peak output
power of 960 W, an open-loop output voltage of 136.8 V,
a short-circuit current of 7.6 A, and a peak current of 7
A at the peak power point. Fig. 1. Block diagram of the proposed single-stage PPLS.
2) Battery Bank: In order to draw maximum power from PV
arrays, a battery bank is used to store excess energy. Ad-
ditionally, when the sun is tentatively eclipsed by clouds, TABLE I
the battery bank can supply energy to the fluorescent ELECTRICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
lamps to stabilize luminous output. USED PHOTOVOLTAIC MODULE
3) Fluorescent Lamps: The load of this system is 16 GE
TBX 26W fluorescent lamps. The operating voltage of
the lamp is 80 V (rms) and the current is 0.3 A (rms).
4) Switching Power Supply: The SPS is realized with a fly-
back converter. The main function of the SPS is supplying
voltages ( 15 V, 5 V, and 24 V) to the control circuits,
sensors, relays, and the microcontroller.
5) Power Stage: The power stage of the PPLS is the SSC
proposed in the literature [5], which is an integration
of a bidirectional buck–boost charger/discharger and
a class-D SRPLI. It fulfills the features of charging,
discharging, and lamp driving, and it can transfer and
process power flow among PV arrays, battery bank,
and fluorescent lamps. Derivation of the SSC will be
reviewed in the next section. therefore, they can be replaced with a single diode The
6) Control Circuits: In the design, the control circuits are overall circuit can be simplified to the one shown in Fig. 2(c).
implemented on a Microchip PIC16C74 microcontroller Moreover, switches and can be replaced with an
[14]. The control circuits consist of an FLC for regulating inverted TSS (I-TSS) called and the circuit becomes the
charging/discharging current and an MPPT for drawing one depicted in Fig. 2(d). Again, since the voltages imposed on
maximum power from PV arrays. and during the off states are the same, blocking diodes
and can be removed and and are replaced
with a single diode Thus, the final circuit configuration
III. REVIEW OF THE DERIVATION OF THE SSC of the SSC becomes the one shown in Fig. 2(e).
In the SSC shown in Fig. 2(e), the drain current of
There were many multistage PPLS’s proposed [5], in which will be different from that of because switch
one of the converters shown in Fig. 2(a) is adopted as an conducts the current of at one half switching period,
illustration example. In the circuit, a bidirectional buck–boost while conducts the current of at the other
converter is used as a charger/discharger, and a class-D SRPLI half one. To ensure zero-voltage switching (ZVS) at switches
is used to drive fluorescent lamps. To reduce the number turn-on transition, the battery-charging current is
of active switches, the synchronous switch technique [8] is limited to being less than where denotes the value of
adopted. Observing the active switches in the circuit shown in at switches turn-on transition. This limitation can prevent
Fig. 2(a) reveals that switches and share a common both and from conducting simultaneously, and can
node of source–source and can operate synchronously at the sustain a ZVS. During charge-mode operation, if charging cur-
first half period, and and share another common node rent the body diode of cannot conduct
of drain–drain and can operate synchronously at the other before turning on and ZVS of does not exist. On the
half one. Thus, switches and can be replaced with a other hand, the body diode of will conduct before
T-type synchronous switch (TSS) denoted as and the is turned on. This will cause a high spike current through
circuit becomes the one shown in Fig. 2(b). Since the voltages and because is a diode with long reverse-re-
imposed on and during the off states are the same, covery time. Indeed, this phenomenon can be avoided by using
blocking diodes and are no longer needed (can be extra-fast diodes. However, to save components, the charging
shorted). Diodes and are in parallel connection and, current should be properly limited.
WU et al.: A FUZZY-LOGIC-CONTROLLED SSC FOR PPLS APPLICATIONS 289

control scheme is usually adopted to improve the system dy-

namic performance. A block diagram used to illustrate an
robust control is depicted in Fig. 3(a), in which the plant
is with an uncertainty varying with the operation modes,
charge, and discharge modes. During charge mode, is the
output current of the buck–boost charger, while at discharge
mode, becomes the input current of the buck–boost dis-
charger. To save components, only one robust controller is de-
signed to govern system dynamics.
A standard procedure to design a robust controller can
be outlined as follows.
1) Augment the plant with weighting functions
and based on the desired performance indexes,
such as no steady-state error, low overshoot, and fast re-
sponse to a step load change. The augmented plant
can be conceptually illustrated by Fig. 3(b). Typically, the
weighting functions and are chosen as fol-
lows:

(1)

and

(2)

where is used to adjust the tracking error, and and

are the two parameters used to adjust the bandwidth
of the closed-loop system. For good tracking perfor-
mance, sensitivity function should generally exhibit
low-gain property over the low-frequency range. Since
must behave as a low-pass filter.
In choosing the dc gain of should be large
enough to deal with the multiplicative plant uncertainty.
On the contrary, the high-pass property of is re-
quired to achieve enough bandwidth for the closed-loop
transfer function because Based on
the above reasons and the desired performance,
and are selected as

(3)

and

(4)
Fig. 2. Illustration of the SSC derived from multistage converters with the
synchronous switch scheme.
for the proposed system.
2) Find a robust controller. Through a minimal realization
IV. SSC WITH A ROBUST CONTROLLER [16], which is the realization of a model with redundant
or unnecessary states eliminated, a first-order robust con-
In the power electronics systems, PID controllers have been
troller can be obtained as follows:
broadly used for their simplicity and low cost. However, it has
limited the PID applications to the systems involving high non-
(5)
linearity, variation, and uncertainty. For such a system, a robust
290 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 47, NO. 2, APRIL 2000

Fig. 3. (a) Control block diagram of the proposed SSC with a robust controller.
(b) Illustration of an augmented plant with a robust controller.

3) Verify if the system performance is close to the desired

one based on the evaluation of a singular value Bode plot.
If it is not, go back to step 1) to select another set of
weighting functions and go through all of the steps.
Fig. 4 shows the step responses of charging and discharging
current of a system controlled with the designed robust con-
troller. It can be observed from Fig. 4(a) that, although the
charging current response can finally reach the reference value,
it presents a significant undershoot. Moreover, the discharging
current response, as shown in Fig. 4(b), diverges away from
the desired value, causing a stability problem (in fact, we have
tested several different controllers, but they come out with sim-
ilar results.). This is because the dynamic model of the charger
(embedded in the SSC) varies widely from that of the discharger
(embedded in the SSC, also), and a single robust controller just
cannot cover the variation. One solution is to design two robust Fig. 4. Step responses of (a) charging and (b) discharging currents of the SSC
controllers for charger and discharger, respectively. However, controlled with a robust controller.
this will lead to a complicated circuit configuration. Therefore,
a fuzzy controller which can accommodate systems with wide determined. From a lookup control table, the change of a PWM
parameter changes is adopted for the PPLS in this paper. control signal can be obtained, on which the microcon-
troller generates a PWM control signal to adjust the duty ratio
V. SSC WITH A FUZZY LOGIC CONTROLLER of the SSC. Following the procedure can regulate to the de-
sired value which is determined by the MPPT control loop.
As mentioned previously, it is hard to model the dynamics
of the SSC, and there are some uncertainties and variations ex- A. Design of an FLC
isting in the PPLS. Fuzzy control strategy is adopted, as it does A functional block diagram of the FLC for regulating
not need an accurate mathematical model of the SSC. Addition- charging/discharging current is shown in Fig. 6, in which error
ally, since it has adaptive characteristics, uncertainties and vari- and are the inputs to the fuzzy processor (FP),
ations can be readily accommodated. In this paper, a 25-rule while is the control output and denotes the output
FLC is adopted to control the charging/discharging current of of the FP. Note that the output variable of FP is rather
the battery. To draw maximum power from the PV arrays, a per- than because it can behave as a PI-like FLC [15] and can
turb-and-observe algorithm [6], [7] is adopted. Fig. 5 illustrates reduce the steady-state error. and
a flow chart for programming the regulation and MPPT algo- are related by the following equations:
rithm. The flow chart consists of two main loops, of which one
is the control algorithm of the FLC for regulating charging/dis- (6)
charging current, and the other is the algorithm of MPPT. In
the inner loop of the flow chart, the charging/discharging cur- and
rent is measured at the beginning and then, error and
change of error of charging/discharging current are (7)
WU et al.: A FUZZY-LOGIC-CONTROLLED SSC FOR PPLS APPLICATIONS 291

Fig. 5. A flow chart for programming the control algorithm.

or

(8)

The fuzzy processor consists of three functional blocks: 1)

fuzzification; 2) fuzzy rule algorithm; and 3) defuzzification.
These functions are described as follows.
1) Fuzzification: The FP requires that each variable used
in describing the control rules has to be expressed in terms of
fuzzy set notations with linguistic labels. Fig. 7(a) shows the
membership functions of the input variable and
output variable in which each membership function is
assigned with five fuzzy sets, including positive big (PB), posi-
tive small (PS), zero (ZE), negative small (NS), and negative big
(NB). With these membership functions, manipulation efforts to
derive the control output can be reduced significantly, while the
steady-state error is kept small enough. As an example, when Fig. 6. Functional block diagram of the FLC for regulating
charging/discharging current.
only the combinations of (ZE, ZE) (ZE,
PS), (NS, ZE), and (NS, PS) need to be considered in deter-
mining the used to control a system to meet the desired performance re-
2) Fuzzy Rule Algorithm: The fuzzy rule algorithm collects quirements, and they are established from experts who are expe-
a set of fuzzy control rules in a specific order. These rules are rienced in the system under control. For the single-stage PPLS, a
292 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 47, NO. 2, APRIL 2000

TABLE II
A 25-RULE-BASE TABLE OF THE FLC

elements in the same fuzzy set. The center of gravity which is

the control output is defined as follows:

(9)
Fig. 7. (a) Membership functions of E; 1 E and 1 U; . (b) A typical step
response of battery current I :

where is a crisp value, is the compatibility (weighting

factor), and is a value corresponding to the membership
typical step response of battery current is shown in Fig. 7(b), function of
in which the curve is divided into four intervals. In each interval, For any input set of each of them partially belongs
because of the input variables and being different, to two possible fuzzy sets of their membership functions shown
various changes of the PWM control signal are required to bring in Fig. 7(a). Therefore, there are four possible combinations
back to the desired value. For example, in the interval be- which contribute to the output however, each of these has
tween and the input variables and are both different degrees of contribution to the output. The Min opera-
negative, which means that reaches the set point but still tion [15] is adopted to obtain the output fuzzy set of these
intends to go away. Therefore, a small negative change of the four combinations, and then the Max operation [15] is adopted
PWM control signal is required to compensate the variation rate to unite these four Finally, through the defuzzification
of Additionally, when settles close to the set point, the process and using the COA method, a crisp corresponding
control signal remains unchanged. In short, when is greater to its fuzzy set can be obtained. By following the same proce-
than the desired value, a negative change of the PWM control dure, other crisp values for can be determined, and they are
signal is generated; otherwise, a positive change is made to the collected in Table III, namely, a lookup control table. Note that,
control signal. in considering the resolution and memory space of the micro-
In the realization of the FLC, the linguistic description of the processor, input variables and are both chosen in the in-
rules is expressed in terms of a knowledge-base system con- terval [−12,12] which is divided into 25 entries. Thus, the lookup
sisting of IF THEN linguistic labels and fuzzy logic inference control table ends up with a dimension of 25 25 entries.
mechanism, such as
B. Design of an MPPT Control
For the MPPT control, the perturb-and-observe method [6],
R1 IF is PB AND is ZE THEN is PB [7] is used because of its simple structure and it requires fewer
R2 IF is PS AND is ZE THEN is PS measured parameters. In this system, changing (increasing or
decreasing) the charging/discharging current leads to a perturba-
and so forth. These rules are collected in Table II, namely, a tion in the PV output power. The next changing direction can be
rule-base table. determined by comparing the current PV output power with that
3) Defuzzification: The last step to complete the fuzzy con- of the previous perturbation cycle. If the power is increasing, the
trol algorithm is to calculate the crisp output of the FP with the next change will be made in the same direction.
process of defuzzification. Typically, either the mean of max- As the MPPT control flow shown in Fig. 5, the terminal
imum (MOM) or center of area (COA) [15] is used to deter- voltage and current of PV arrays are first measured,
mine this crisp control output. In this paper, the COA method is and PV power is, therefore, obtained from the product
adopted. It computes the center of gravity from the final fuzzy of and For example, if and
space, and yields a result which is highly related to all of the it means that this perturbation makes
WU et al.: A FUZZY-LOGIC-CONTROLLED SSC FOR PPLS APPLICATIONS 293

TABLE III
A LOOKUP CONTROL TABLE OF THE PROPOSED FLC

VI. SIMULATED AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

A prototype with the proposed SSC, FLC, and MPPT is im-
plemented to verify the theoretical discussion.

A. Specifications
The specifications are as follows:
2) PV array voltage— = 120–160 V;
3) battery voltage— = 120 V–160 V;
4) charging/discharging current—0.1 A–3 A;
5) target lamps—GE TBX 26 W up to 16 lamps.

B. Important Parameters
The important parameters are determined as follows:

kHz
mH nF
mH, and F

v M
Fig. 8. Measured waveforms of (a) lamp voltage and current and (b) drain
current i and drain-to-source voltage of during charging operation.
PV power increase and voltage decrease. Thus, to track the
maximum power point, the next changing direction is to
increase load (i.e., increases charging current or decreases
discharging current) and decrease voltage. With this control
algorithm, the operating point of PV arrays can move toward
maximum power points corresponding to different degrees of
temperature and insolation.
C. Features of the Microcontroller
In the PPLS, a Microchip PIC16C74 is chosen for imple-
menting the FLC and MPPT features based on the feasible con-
siderations of its high calculation capability, small size, and low
cost. The microcontroller is suitable for the proposed system
due to the following features.
1) An 8-channel high-speed 8-bit A/D converter: The 8-bit
A/D converter is suitable for the PPLS applications,
providing low-cost analog interface. Four of them are
employed for sensing and The unused
294 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 47, NO. 2, APRIL 2000

Fig. 10. Step responses of charging current varying from 0 to 1 A under the
Fig. 9. Step responses of (a) charging current and (b) discharging current
+
cases of PV voltage, battery voltage and component values varying (a) 20%
varying from 0 to 1 A.
0
and (b) 20% simultaneously.

D. Simulated and Experimental Results

channels can be reserved for further work, such as
Fig. 8(a) shows the experimental waveforms of the lamp cur-
sampling the lamp voltage and current for monitoring
rent and lamp voltage The waveforms of voltage
the lamp power.
and current of switch during charging operation
2) 33 I/O pins with high current sink/source capability: Six
are shown in Fig. 8(b), in which current starts with a negative
I/O pins are used to directly control the relays. Another
value (i.e., the body diode of MOSFET conducts before
eight I/O pins with an 8-bit D/A converter are used to
it turns on These experimental results reveal that ZVS
output the PWM control signal.
exists at the switch turn-on transition, reducing switching loss
3) Reduced instruction set code-like (RISC) architecture:
significantly.
There are only thirty-five single word instructions in
Simulated step responses of charging and discharging cur-
the PIC16C7X family. Each instruction is executed in a
rents are shown in Fig. 9(a) and (b), respectively. Observing
single cycle except the branch instruction which takes
the plots reveals that fast and tight regulation and low current
two cycles. The high execution capability makes the
overshoot can be achieved. It should be pointed out that, since
microcontroller itself be applicable for the overall system
the SSC is derived from three converters by sharing their ac-
control.
tive switches, the degree of control freedom of the switches is
Additionally, this chip has many special features, such as three limited, such as the duty ratio can vary only from 0.4 to 0.6.
8-bit real-time clocks/counters (RTCC’s), interrupt capability, a This limitation will deteriorate in dynamic performance of the
watchdog timer (WDT), power-saving SLEEP mode, and pro- system. Fig. 10 shows the step responses of charging current
grammable code protection. These can reduce the need of ex- of the system when component values, PV voltage and battery
ternal components and power consumption, enhancing system voltage vary 20% or 20% simultaneously. These step re-
reliability. sponses, similar to those shown in Fig. 9, also demonstrate good
WU et al.: A FUZZY-LOGIC-CONTROLLED SSC FOR PPLS APPLICATIONS
+ +
Fig. 11. Measured responses of battery current to step changes (a) between 0.1 A and 0.7 A (charging), (b) between 0.1 A and 0.7 A (discharging), (c)
0 + 0 +
between 0.3 A (discharging) and 0.3 A (charging), and (d) from 0.3 A (discharging) to 0.3 A (charging) under the cases of PV voltage, battery voltage and
+
component values varying 20% simultaneously.
(a)
(b)
Fig. 12. (a) Measured loci of terminal voltage V ; output current I ; and
output power P of PV arrays from startup to the steady state. (b) Loci of
output current versus terminal voltage of PV arrays during maximum power
point tracking.
dynamic performance. From these simulated results, adaptive
and robust characteristics of the system with an FLC can be con-
firmed.
The experimental waveforms shown in Fig. 11(a) and (b) are
the charging and discharging current responses to step changes
between 0.1–0.7 A. Fig. 11(c) shows the experimental wave-
form of battery current response to step changes between 0.3
A (discharging) and 0.3 A (charging). Similar to the simulated
step responses shown in Fig. 9, all of these waveforms also show
that fast dynamic responses can be achieved without significant
295
0 0
overshoot. In addition, Fig. 11(d) shows the experimental wave-
form of battery current response to step changes from 0.3 A
(discharging) to 0.3 A (charging), when component values,
PV voltage, and battery voltage vary 20% simultaneously. It
can be observed that this experimental waveform is similar to
that shown in Fig. 11(c). From these experimental results, adap-
tive and robust characteristics of the system with an FLC can be
confirmed again.
Fig. 12(a) shows the loci of terminal voltage output cur-
rent and output power of PV arrays from startup to the
steady state. It can be observed that this system needs about 70 s
to reach the maximum power point, in which fluctuation in PV
array output power has been minimized. Due to turning on the
fluorescent lamps (totally, four groups) one group by one group,
there are four obvious spikes appearing on each waveform. Fur-
thermore, Fig. 12(b) shows the loci of the output current versus
terminal voltage of PV arrays, demonstrating that a maximum
power point can be sustained with small fluctuation. Note that
these experimental results are measured under the condition of
solar insolation of 50 mW/cm2.
E. Discussion
In the proposed FLC, the triangular membership functions,
as shown in Fig. 7(a), are selected for the input variables
and output variable The peak values
of each fuzzy set in the membership functions will influence
the overshoot, stability, and steady-state error of system step
responses. If the peak values of NS and PS in the membership
function of are moved toward the center point, the
overshoot and oscillation of the step responses will increase,
while the rise time will decrease. This effect is similar to in-
creasing the proportional gain of a PID controller. Additionally,
choosing the membership function of the same as that
of is similar to decreasing the differential gain of a PID
controller and can reduce the overshoot of the step responses.
296 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 47, NO. 2, APRIL 2000
Therefore, adjusting the peak values in the membership func-
tions of and can achieve desired dynamic and
static performance.
VII. CONCLUSION
A fuzzy-logic-controlled SSC for PPLS applications has been
presented in this paper. The proposed control approach can be
applied to the SSC, because it does not require an accurate
model of the converter. Moreover, due to the robust and adap-
tive characteristics of the FLC, charging and discharging current
regulation can be achieved even though the system parameters
and PV voltages may slowly vary over a wide range. Both the
FLC and the MPPT control algorithms are implemented on a
single-chip microprocessor; thus, simple control circuits and a
low-cost system can be achieved. Simulated and experimental
results have verified the feasibility, adaptivity, and robustness
of the proposed PPLS.
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Tsai-Fu Wu (S’89–M’91–SM’97) received the
B.S. degree in electronic engineering from Na-
tional Chiao-Tung University, Hsin-Chu, Taiwan,
R.O.C., the M.S. degree in electrical and computer
engineering from Ohio University, Athens, and the
Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and computer
science from the University of Illinois, Chicago, in
1983, 1988, and 1992, respectively.
From 1985 to 1986, he was a System Engineer with
SAMPO Inc., Taiwan, R.O.C., where he was engaged
in developing and designing graphic terminals. He
was a Teaching and Research Aassistant in the Department of Electrical En-
gineering and Computer Science, University of Illinois, Chicago, from 1988 to
1992. Since 1993, he has been with the Department of Electrical Engineering,
National Chung Cheng University, Chia-Yi, Taiwan, R.O.C., where he is cur-
rently a Professor and the Director of the Power Electronics Applied Research
Laboratory (PEARL). His research interests include developing and modeling of
power converters, design of electronic dimming ballasts for fluorescent lamps,
metal halide lamps and plasma display panels, and design of solar-arry-supplied
inverters for grid connection.
Dr. Wu is a senior member of the Chinese Institute of Engineers.
Chien-Hsuan Chang was born in Kaohsiung,
Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1974. He received the B.S.
degree in electrical engineering from National Sun
Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.O.C.,
in 1996. He is currently working toward the Ph.D.
degree in the Power Electronics Applied Research
Laboratory (PEARL), Department of Electrical
Engineering, National Chung Cheng University,
Chia-Yi, Taiwan, R.O.C.
His research interests include developing power
converters and designing photovoltaic-powered
systems.
Yu-Kai Chen (S’98–M’99) was born in Chia-Yi,
Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1967. He received the B.S. degree
in electronic engineering from Feng Chia University,
Tai-Chung, Taiwan, R.O.C., the M.S. degree in in-
formation and electronic engineering from National
Central University, Chung-Li, Taiwan, R.O.C., and
the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from
National Chung Cheng University, Chia-Yi, Taiwan,
R.O.C., in 1990, 1994, and 1999, respectively.
He was a Lecturer in the Department of Electronic
Engineering, Wu-Feng Junior College of Technology
and Commerce, Chia-Yi, Taiwan, R.O.C., from 1994 to 1999. Since 1999, he
has been with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Chien Kuo Institute
of Technology, Chang-hua, Taiwan, R.O.C., where he is currently an Associate
Professor. He is also the Associate Director of the Power Electronics Applied
Research Laboratory (PEARL), Department of Electrical Engineering, National
Chung Cheng University, Chia-Yi, Taiwan, R.O.C. His research interests in-
clude modeling and control of dc/dc converters, design of inverters, and DSP-
and microprocessor-based application systems with fuzzy control and robust
control.