Design and implementation of Type-3 intuitionistic fuzzy logic MPPT controller for PV solar system: Comparative study

The performance of a photovoltaic (PV) solar system is affected by partial shading conditions (PSC) and environmental conditions, such as solar irradiance and ambient temperature, which vary throughout the day. This results in variations in the maximum power point (MPP) on the solar PV output characteristic curve. Therefore, various classical MPP tracking (MPPT) techniques have been used to track the MPP and extract maximum power from PV systems. However, these techniques have drawbacks such as lower stability, increased oscillation around the steady state, and slower convergence to the MPP. To overcome this problem, the newly proposed interval Type-3 intuitionistic fuzzy logic (T3IFL) controller has been proposed. The T3IFL MPPT controller combines the uncertainty of Type-3 fuzzy logic (T3FL) controller with intuitionistic concepts. The T3IFL controller is more accurate and offers faster convergence to the MPP under changing climatic and steady-state conditions than classical techniques and T3FL controller. The T3IFL algorithm provides better performance with excellent MPP tracking by controlling the duty cycle of the DC-DC buck converter. Four cases studied were investigated: uniform radiation conditions, a step change in solar radiation with constant temperature, replacing the battery load with the ohmic load with constant radiation and temperature, and partial shading conditions. Experimental validation of the T3IFL was performed on a DC-DC buck converter using real-time hardware-in-the-loop (HIL). Finally, the simulation and experimental results with comparative studies verified the accuracy of the proposed method in tracking the desired value and disturbance/uncertainty attenuation with better response.