Hardware Prototype for Portable Automatic MPPT Solar Charger Using Buck Converter and PSO Technique

This paper presents hardware construction and testing of portable Maximum Power Point Tracking ((MPPT) devices. MPPT implementations utilize algorithms that read panel voltages and currents, and then calculate the maximum power available at that particular time. The Perturb and Observe (P&O) method needs a periodic sweep along the power curve to detect the maxima(can be local or global). The time taken to converge at MPP is significant, and thus the efficiency of conversion is drastically reduced. This work incorporates Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) technique in replacement with the traditional P&O method to enhance the tracking speed and ensure the global maxima is achieved. In PSO technique, multiple search elements are introduced and a quantitative decision is evaluated among these search elements, and thus the convergence speed is increased by a factor of the number of elements used in the search. The hardware construction is compact and reliable, enhancing its application in various fields like unmanned aerial vehicles for long endurance The simulation studies were conducted on MATLAB / Simulink, and hardware design of the same was implemented. Contributions were made in finding practical testing and validation procedures for customized MPPT devices.