Rapid control prototyping platform for PV systems based on Arduino and Simulink
Abstract
This paper presents the development and testing of a Rapid Control Prototyping (RCP) platform for PV systems. The proposed platform is intended to support the evaluation of both PV voltage controllers and MPPT algorithms, devoted to PV systems, without the need of constructing a testbench for each application. Instead, the platform provides a unified experimental environment, easy-to-use, for testing control strategies under realistic conditions, prior to their final implementation in commercial devices. The proposed RCP system is capable of measuring, in real-time, physical variables needed to evaluate the behavior of the control strategies, without constructing dedicated sensors or using costly equipment. The platform is based on the combination of low-cost hardware (Arduino board) and commonly available software (Matlab/Simulink), which provides an easy-to-use environment for non-experts in programming embedded devices. The RCP system usability is validated using a classical PI voltage controller and perturb and observe MPPT algorithm, but any other control strategies can be tested. Finally, the results show that the proposed platform provide similar results in comparison with detailed simulations, which confirms the correct implementation of both the voltage controller and MPPT algorithm by means of the RCP platform
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References
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