Hopfield neural network optimized fuzzy logic controller for maximum power point tracking in a photovoltaic system

This paper presents a Hopfield neural network (HNN) optimized fuzzy logic controller (FLC) for maximum power point tracking in photovoltaic (PV) systems. In the proposed method, HNN is utilized to automatically tune the FLC membership functions instead of adopting the trial-and-error approach. As in any fuzzy system, initial tuning parameters are extracted from expert knowledge using an improved model of a PV module under varying solar radiation, temperature, and load conditions. The linguistic variables for FLC are derived from, traditional perturbation and observation method. Simulation results showed that the proposed optimized FLC provides fast and accurate tracking of the PV maximum power point under varying operating conditions compared to that of the manually tuned FLC using trial and error.