Processor-in-the-loop implementation for PV water pumping applications

In the past few years, photovoltaic (PV)-based water pumping systems for rural areas are receiving huge attention because of economic and environmental considerations compared to diesel-powered water pumping. To achieve a fast code verification before the hardware implementation on real test bench, a processor-in-the-loop (PIL) simulation of a PV water pumping system based on two stages of power conversion is proposed. An indirect field-oriented control (IFOC) is introduced to drive an induction motor powered by solar PV panels. Further, the boost converter is controlled using the step-size incremental conductance technique. The PIL approach consists of combining the microcontroller and the computer simulation. The embedded C code generated from the simulated mathematical formulations is launched into a microcontroller board, Arduino Mega. To validate the proposed design, the obtained MATLAB®/Simulink® results are compared to those using the PIL test. The obtained results show that the model in the loop test's output is in accordance with processor in the loop test's output for the presented control strategies.