Voltage regulation of auxiliary power units in electric vehicle applications using H∞ based PI controller with regional pole placement

A new design approach is proposed in this paper for regulating the output voltages of auxiliary power units in the context of an electric vehicle application. The proposed approach focused on designing and implementing a robust H∞ based PI controller using linear matrix inequalities with respect to input voltage fluctuation and load variation. Proportional–integral controllers and fuzzy logic controllers are existing voltage regulation techniques that result in poor robustness and transient performance concerning input voltage fluctuation and load variation. To circumvent the limitations of the previous approach, the conventional controller is replaced by a H∞ based PI controller. In addition to the proposed methodology, regional pole placement criteria are also involved in the design to improve the transient performance of the underlying system. This paper provides a comprehensive examination of the performance of the PI controller, fuzzy logic controller, and H∞ based PI controller to identify and optimize the most effective controller. Furthermore, the proposed architecture effectively resolves the problem of cross-regulation. The suggested design incorporates a 100 W prototype single-input triple-output converter. This converter is specifically designed to provide three output voltages (24 V, 14.4 V, and 5 V) to power the auxiliary components of an electric vehicle. The quantitative analysis is accomplished in the MATLAB/Simulink platform for the proposed approach, and the outcome achieves rise time (Tr) = 0.01 s, maximum overshoot (Mp) = 0.5 V, and steady-state error (ess) = 0. In contradiction to the outcomes of the existing PI and FLC that provide a sluggish rise time (Tr) = 0.3 s and 0.05 s, intolerable maximum overshoot (Mp) = 8 V each, and impermissible steady-state error (ess) = 4.56 and 0.44. In addition, the proposed approach outperforms in error and transient performance compared to the existing ones. Finally, the proposed approach is validated by OPAL-RT (OP5700) Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulator. The obtained results demonstrate that the H∞ based PI controller outperforms the conventional PI and fuzzy logic controllers concerning input voltage fluctuation and load variation.