Doi 10.1016 J.enconman.2006.04.022
Doi 10.1016 J.enconman.2006.04.022
Doi 10.1016 J.enconman.2006.04.022
www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman
Received 14 January 2005; received in revised form 20 October 2005; accepted 28 April 2006
Available online 27 June 2006
Abstract
This paper presents a brushless dc motor drive for heating, ventilating and air conditioning fans, which is utilized as the load of a
photovoltaic system with a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller. The MPPT controller is based on a genetic assisted,
multi-layer perceptron neural network (GA-MLP-NN) structure and includes a DC–DC boost converter. Genetic assistance in the neu-
ral network is used to optimize the size of the hidden layer. Also, for training the network, a genetic assisted, Levenberg–Marquardt
(GA-LM) algorithm is utilized. The off line GA-MLP-NN, trained by this hybrid algorithm, is utilized for online estimation of the volt-
age and current values in the maximum power point. A brushless dc (BLDC) motor drive system that incorporates a motor controller
with proportional integral (PI) speed control loop is successfully implemented to operate the fans. The digital signal processor (DSP)
based unit provides rapid achievement of the MPPT and current control of the BLDC motor drive. The performance results of the sys-
tem are given, and experimental results are presented for a laboratory prototype of 120 W.
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Photovoltaics; MPPT; DSP; Artificial neural networks; Genetic algorithms; Brushless dc motors
0196-8904/$ - see front matter 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2006.04.022
R. Akkaya et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 210–218 211
implemented via a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) Marquardt (GA-LM) method. The use of genetic assis-
controller to operate the PV system at its maximum output tance helps in optimizing the size of the hidden layer of
power for any temperature and solar radiation level. Vari- the NN. By adopting an evolutionary algorithm, imple-
ous MPPT methods have been considered in PV power menting such a hybrid system helps use the advantages of
applications. Among the hill climbing methods [4–6], the both the Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) algorithm, which is
perturb and observe (P&O) method tracks the maximum a higher order adaptive algorithm for minimizing the mean
power point (MPP) by repeatedly increasing or decreasing square error (MSE) of a NN, and the robustness, speed,
the output voltage at the MPP of the PV module. The efficiency and flexibility features of genetic algorithms
implementation of the method is relatively simple, but it (GA). Since our neural network implementation is run in
cannot track the MPP when the irradiance varies quickly a recall mode, the complexity of the training algorithm
with time. In addition, it may cause system oscillation and the disadvantage of slow training cause no difficulties.
around the peak power points due to the effect of measure- This study aims to show that employing an effective
ment noise. The incremental conductance method is also MPPT controller and replacing a conventional motor like
often used in PV systems [7,8]. This method tracks the the brushed DC or induction motor with a BLDC motor
MPPs by comparing the incremental and instantaneous can accomplish a considerable energy saving in a stand
conductances of the solar array. This method requires alone PV power system operating HVAC fans. The overall
more conversion time, and a large amount of power loss diagram of the implemented system is shown in Fig. 1.
results. In addition, extra hardware circuitry is required Solar insolation is converted to DC electrical power, and
to implement the system. Neural network (NN) based the MPPT controller output supplies the BLDC motor
MPPT techniques have been proposed [9–11]. Compared drive to operate the fans. In the MPPT controller, the
to the conventional methods, these studies show that this GA-MLP-NN is used, and the system robustness and
modern control algorithm is capable of improving the insensitivity to intermittent weather conditions is
tracking performance. The method requires little or no enhanced. The BLDC motor controller is used to decode
knowledge of the PV parameters, and the trained NN position data coming from the Hall effect sensors and gen-
can provide a sufficiently accurate MPPT. A PC based erates switching signals for the three phase power stage to
MPP tracker for a PV system using NNs has been devel- electronically commutate the motor. The speed controller
oped by Ref. [9]. The system consisted of a PV module with also implements a simple proportional integral (PI) control
a MPP tracker and a DC motor driving an air fan. Solar loop. The power stage combines a three phase inverter cir-
array modeling and MPP tracking is studied in Ref. [10], cuit. The implementation of the overall system is based on
and two NNs, which are back propagation NN and radial a DSP unit. The matching of the supply and demand loads
basis function NN, are compared. It is shown that the back with time of the day makes the system widely applicable.
propagation NN needed less information for training. The
use of radial basis function networks (RBFN) for solar 2. Characteristics of PV array
array modeling and MPP prediction is presented in Ref.
[11]. It shows that an RBFN model can be trained faster The basic element of a PV system is the solar cell. A typ-
than a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) model. However, ical solar cell consists of a p–n junction formed in a semi-
the DSP implementation of this network is more difficult. conductor material similar to a diode. As shown in
In our study, the proposed MPPT technique utilizes Fig. 2, the equivalent circuit model of a solar cell consists
the genetic assisted, multi-layer perceptron neural network of a current generator (IL) and a diode plus series (Rs)
(GA-MLP-NN) trained by the genetic assisted, Levenberg– and parallel resistances (Rsh) [12].
and D is the duty ratio of the controllable switch. The topology (number of hidden layers, number of hidden
boost converter operates in the CCM for L > Lmin where nodes, interconnection pattern) for the ANN, which, in
2 turn, is trained using some training scheme [18]. The GA
ð1 DÞ DR
Lmin ¼ ð6Þ combines selection, crossover and mutation operators with
2f the goal of finding the best solution to a problem by search-
Here, f is the switching frequency and R is the load resis- ing until the specified criterion is met. The solution to a
tance. The minimum value of the filter capacitance that re- problem is called a chromosome, which is composed of a
sults in voltage ripple Vr is given by collection of genes. In hybrid neuro-genetic applications,
DV d genes are the NN parameters to be optimized. The GA cre-
C min ¼ ð7Þ ates an initial population and then evaluates this popula-
V r Rf
tion by training a NN for each chromosome. It then
As the name of the converter suggests, the output volt- evolves the population through multiple generations in
age is always greater than the input voltage. Therefore, in the search for the best network parameters. In our study,
our design, the boost converter is used to increase the volt- genetic assistance is used to optimize the number of hidden
age magnitude for the BLDC motor drive bus voltage and neurons. Also, a hybrid genetic assisted LM algorithm is
to control the MPPT. The control signal of the converter is accomplished to train the MLP-NN. Thus, it reduces the
obtained from the GA-MLP-NN based MPPT controller, chance of converging to local minima in which other algo-
of which the neural network structure and training algo- rithms might get trapped, and the global optimum of the
rithm is explained in the following section. problem can be approached with higher probability. This
training algorithm was compared with separately imple-
4. GA-MLP-NN structure of MPPT controller mented standard BP algorithm with delta bar delta (BP-
DBD) and LM algorithms.
An artificial neural network (ANN) is a massively paral- The configuration of the implemented NN to predict the
lel distributed processor that has a natural tendency for MPPs of the PV array is shown in Fig. 4. The network has
storing experimental knowledge and making it available three layers, i.e. an input, a hidden and an output layer.
for use [15]. The power of ANNs in system identification The input layer has two nodes for the irradiation and the
and development of adaptive controllerss makes them well temperature. The number of nodes in the hidden layer
suited to PV energy applications such as identification of has been determined by genetic assistance. The best result
the optimal operating point of PV arrays. In engineering has been obtained for 8 nodes. The output layer has two
applications, a multi-layer perceptron network trained by nodes, and the voltage (Vmp) and current (Imp) at the
the back propagation (MLP-BP) method is the most widely MPP are the outputs of the NN. In this feed forward
utilized technique. In MLPs, the units are structured into NN consisting of a single hidden layer, all the layers of
ordered layers, and connections are allowed only between the NN have a hyperbolic tangent transfer function.
adjacent layers in an input to output sense. Back propaga-
tion (BP) training is a complex gradient descent algorithm. 5. BLDC motor drives
It tries to improve the performance of the NN by reducing
the total error by changing the weights along its gradient A BLDC motor is a rotating electric machine where the
[16]. Standard gradient descent algorithms use only the stator is a classic three phase stator like that of an induc-
local approximation of the slope of the performance sur- tion motor and the rotor has surface mounted permanent
face (error versus weights) to determine the best direction magnets. In this respect, the BLDC motor is equivalent
to move the weights in order to lower the error. to a reversed DC commutator motor in which the magnet
The Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) method is one of the
most appropriate higher order adaptive algorithms known
for minimizing the MSE, which is one of the most widely
used error norms in a NN. The LM algorithm is an
approximation to the Newton method used also for train-
ing ANNs. The Newton method approximates the error of
the network with a second order expression, which con-
trasts to the BP algorithm that does it with a first order
expression. The weight update equations of the LM algo-
rithm are provided in Ref. [17]. The outputs offer very good
results compared to other systems utilizing MLP networks
trained by the standard gradient descent algorithms.
GAs have been increasingly applied in ANN design in
several ways, namely topology optimization, genetic train-
ing algorithms and control parameter optimization. In
ANN topology optimization, GAs are used to select a Fig. 4. Boost converter power stage schematic.
214 R. Akkaya et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 210–218
2 3 2 32 3
rotates while the conductors remain stationary. In the DC va R 0 0 ia
commutator motor, the current polarity is altered by the 6 7 6 76 7
4 vb 5 ¼ 4 0 R 0 54 ib 5
commutator and brushes. On the contrary, in the BLDC
vc 0 0 R ic
motor, the polarity reversal is performed by power transis- 2 3 2 3 2 3
tors switching in synchronization with the rotor position. LM 0 0 ia ea
6 7d6 7 6 7
Therefore, BLDC motors often incorporate either internal þ 40 LM 0 5 4 i b 5 þ 4 eb 5
dt
or external position sensors to sense the actual rotor posi- 0 0 LM ic ec
tion [19].
ð8Þ
BLDC motor drives require variable frequency, variable
amplitude excitation that is usually provided by a three where va, vb, vc are the phase voltages, ia, ib, ic are the phase
phase, full bridge inverter as shown in Fig. 5(a). The inver- currents, ea, eb, ec are the phase back EMF waveforms, R is
ter is usually responsible for both the electronic commuta- the phase resistance, L is the self inductance of each phase
tion and current regulation [20]. In Fig. 5(b), the back and M is the mutual inductance between any two phases.
EMF and phase current waveforms for the three phase The electromagnetic torque is given by
BLDC motor with 120 bipolar current are shown [20]. T e ¼ ðea ia þ eb ib þ ec ic Þ=wr ð9Þ
The pulse width modulated (PWM) inverter topology where wr is the mechanical speed of the rotor. The equation
has a six switch voltage source configuration with constant of motion is
dc link voltage (Vd), which is identical with induction
motor drives and permanent magnet AC motor drives. d
wr ¼ ðT e T L Bwr Þ=J ð10Þ
The analysis is based on the following assumptions for sim- dt
plification [21]: where TL is the load torque, B is the damping constant and
J is the moment of inertia of the drive. The electrical fre-
• the motor is not saturated, quency is related to the mechanical speed by
• the stator resistances of all the windings are equal, and
we ¼ ðP =2Þwr ð11Þ
the self and mutual inductance are constant,
• the power semiconductor devices in the inverter are ideal where P is the number of motor poles.
• iron losses are negligible. Fig. 6 describes the basic building blocks of the BLDC
motor drive. The drive system consists of the PI speed con-
Under the above assumptions, a BLDC motor can be troller, reference current generator, PWM current control-
represented as [20] ler, Hall-IC position sensor, 3 phase inverter and the
Fig. 5. (a) Configuration of BLDC motor drive system and (b) back EMF pattern and reference current generation.
Table 3
The test results of the NN structures trained by three different algorithms
BP algorithm with DBD LM algorithm GA-LM hybrid algorithm
method
Vmp Imp Vmp Imp Vmp Imp
MSE 0.0216220 0.0027955 0.0008322 0.0001280 0.0004287 0.0000311
Normalized MSE 0.0196367 0.0019174 0.0007558 0.0000879 0.0003893 0.0000213
Mean absolute error 0.0982449 0.0334360 0.0171013 0.0088656 0.0096071 0.0041174
Max jabs errorj 0.7178296 0.1992776 0.1665330 0.0268288 0.1377690 0.0118656
Min jabs errorj 0.0010255 0.0013521 0.0002858 0.0002419 0.0002270 0.0001434
Table 4
The number of percent errors of maximum current and voltage predictions
using the three different algorithms
Error (%) BP algorithm LM GA-LM hybrid
with DBD algorithm algorithm
method
Vmp Imp Vmp Imp Vmp Imp
<1 6 25 32 45 55 68
1-10 45 38 37 25 14 2
11-20 14 7 1 0 1 0
21-30 2 0 0 0 0 0
31-40 1 0 0 0 0 0
41-50 1 0 0 0 0 0
50-100 1 0 0 0 0 0
Fig. 7. The performance of the PV system studied for a clear sunny day with high radiation levels.
R. Akkaya et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 48 (2007) 210–218 217
7. Conclusion
Acknowledgement
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