See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/343820874

Practical and simulation implementation of Bi-directional DC/DC converter

controlled by ARDUINO using MATLAB-SIMULINK

Conference Paper · September 2020

DOI: 10.1145/3410352.3410772

CITATIONS READS

0 370

7 authors, including:

Ahmed Hammoda Mohamed Tamasas Elrais

University of Benghazi University of Central Florida
14 PUBLICATIONS   49 CITATIONS    7 PUBLICATIONS   33 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Muhanad Albarassi
university
3 PUBLICATIONS   1 CITATION   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Simulation and Hardware Implementation of Photovoltaic Maximum Power Point Tracking System View project

.industrial electronics View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Ahmed Hammoda on 22 September 2021.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Practical and simulation implementation of
Bi-directional DC/DC converter controlled by
ARDUINO using MATLAB-SIMULINK
Rafik Gebreil 1, Taha Elferjani 2, Salem Borghed 3, Ahmed Hammoda4, Mohamed Tamasas Elrais5,
Muhanad Albarassi6 , Rima Elzwawi7
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, University of Benghazi
Benghazi, Libya
1
[email protected]
2
[email protected]
3
[email protected]
4
[email protected]
5
[email protected]

Abstract—In this paper, a bidirectional DC/DC converter II. THE OPERATION AND PRINCIPLE OF BIDIRECTIONAL DC/DC
with control to guarantee a stable system has been designed CONVERTER
and implemented via simulation and experimentally. This
system provides uninterrupted power to the loads. This Bi-directional dc/dc converters are the device for the
bidirectional converter is controlled to deliver power from the purpose of step-up or step-down the voltage level with the
source to the load and charging the battery in case of surplus capability of power flow in either the forward directions or
power is generated. Or, compensating any shortage in the in the backward direction [2].
source by supplying the load from the battery. The control has
been achieved using the interface between MATLAB
simulation and Arduino microcontroller. The simulation and
experimental design and results are presented and compared.
DC
Keywords—Bi-directional DC/DC converter; Battery; PID Source
controller; Arduino microcontroller; MAT LAB simulation.

I. INTRODUCTION

The use of renewable energy sources is increasing due to

increasing a deficit of electricity, increasing global warming Figure. 1. The circuit diagram of bi-directional DC/DC converter
and environmental problems. Renewable energy resources
in the electricity generation system can be utilized in a
variety of ways such as standalone wind power plants, A. The Buck converter
standalone photovoltaic plants, Microgrid systems, etc. In A DC-DC buck converter is used to step down the
light of this, a Microgrid is one of the best options. The voltage, in other words, to produce output voltage lower than
frequency of the Microgrid should be maintained with the the input voltage [3][4].
variation of the load and knowing the fact that renewable
energy sources have intermittent nature, storage is required
to maintain a balance between demand and supply. There
are various storage elements available such as a battery,
flywheel, capacitor [1]. Amongst all, the battery is the most
efficient and easy to control, hence it is widely used as a
storage element [1]. This proposed design of microgrid
consists of DC voltage source fixed at (12v) instead of the
Figure. 2. The buck converter circuit
solar panel, DC bus, bidirectional DC/DC converter, battery,
and a variable load. The purpose is to keep the bus voltage
fixed at (12v), to control the current flowing to the bus (the B. The boost converter
operation of charging and discharging the battery), The The boost converters are commonly used to step up the
bidirectional converter was automatically controlled to voltage, to get the required output voltage from a lower
transfer the current from the bus to the battery and vice input voltage source [3].
versa, and to maintain the bus voltage at a constant value.
 A. Bi-dircional DC to DC converter
Fig.4. shows the simulated circuit and the photo of the
bidirectional converter connected to PV panels and a
battery. When the PV solar panels produce enough power to
feed the load the bi-directional converter circuit works as a
buck converter to reduce the bus voltage from 12v to 7.5v to
charge the battery, and if the PV solar panels don’t produce
Figure. 3. The boost converter circuit enough power to feed the load or there is shortage in the
power flowing to the load the bi-directional converter circuit
III. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN , in this case, works as a boost converter to maintain the
variable battery voltage at 12V so the battery contributes to
The experimental prototype is constructed of a DC feed the load.
supply, a power circuit (DC/DC Bi-direction converter),
isolation circuits, a control circuit, and a battery. The
elements used in the experimental work are shown in
(table.1).

Figure. 4. The power circuit using MATLAB/simulink

• Selection of buck and boost converter element values

The selection of the inductor and capacitor used in the
experimental work was selected according to the equations
of Buck converter and Boost converter which used to help
find first: the minimum impedance of the inductor that will
keep the output current continuous. Second: The right value
of the capacitor that will reduce the variation minimum. To
determine the inductor values, equation (1) is used for buck
converter and equation (2) is used for boost converter [3].
Lmin = (1-D) R
2f (1)

Lmin = D(1-D)2R
Figure. 5. The power circuit of experimental setup 2f (2)

And for the capacitor value equation (3) is used for buck converter
TABLE I. THE INFORMATION OF ELEMENTS and equation (4) is used to boost [3].
Element capacity C= ___(1-D) (3)
2 MOSFET IRF640N -
8L(∆VO/VO) f
Capacitor1 T1745 1000µF
C= _____D (3)
Capacitor2 T1745 68µF
R(∆VO/VO) f
Inductor 1410517C 1mH
B. Isolation circuit
The electrical isolation has been implemented by using
an Optocouplers to isolate between the grounds of the
power and control circuits. The optocouplers
(PC817XNNSZ0F) were used with an input resistance of
(470Ω) and output variable resistance of the optocoupler's
output signal should be taken across a large resistor to get a
proper signal which turns on the MOSFETs. It also has a
DC supply voltage of 9V that follow the low voltage PWM
form the Arduino to sufficient turn of the switch.

Figure. 8. Flow chart of the control

D. Storage unit

The storage unit used in the system is lead-acid battery

and it contains three sells. The battery in this system works
Figure. 6. Practical isolation circuit as a load when it’s charging and as a source for the load
when it is discharging, the battery information is shown in
C. Arduino and simulink controller Table.2.
Arduino boards are usually programmed by writing TABLE II. THE INFORMATION OF THE BATTERY
C/C++ code in the Arduino IDE window. However, in this
rated Value
work, it has been programmed using MATLAB Simulink
package for Arduino. Simulink is a block diagram-based voltage 6V
environment for simulating mathematical models and it can capacity 4Ah
be used to program some of the Arduino boards. To use Charging current 1.2A
Simulink with Arduino a support package is needed. It can Charging voltage 7.2V-7.5V
be downloaded from the MathWorks website with Standby use 6.75V-6.90V
instructions on how to install it and start using it. After
installation is done correctly [5]. Many real-time control
projects can be directly built up in Simulink with extra E. PID Controller
blocks from provided libraries. After that, simply download
With its three-term functionality covering treatment to
the project onto Arduino hardware, the control tasks can be
both transient and steady-state responses, proportional-
fulfilled independently from MATLAB and standalone [6].
integral-derivative (PID) control offers the simplest and yet
Fig.6. presents the control diagram used to generate the
the most efficient solution to many real-world control
PWM signals for the MOSFETs to control the switching
problems. as no other controllers match the clear
operation between buck and boost. The flow chart in Fig.7.
functionality, applicability, and ease of use offered by the
describes the control scheme used in the system to keep the
PID controller [7]. PID controller maybe considered as an
bus voltage fixed.
extreme form of a phase lead-lag compensator with one pole
at the origin and the other at infinity, a standard PID
controller is also known as the “three-term” controller,
whose transfer function is generally written in the “parallel
form” given by (5) or the “ideal form” given by (6) [8].

G(s) = Kp + Ki (1/S) + KDs (5)

= Kp (1+ 1/ (Ti^s) + TDs) (6)

The “three-term” functionalities are highlighted by the

following:
• KP is the proportional gain providing an overall
control action proportional to the error signal through
the all-pass gain factor.
Figure. 7. Arduino control for practical work • KI is the integral gain reducing steady-state errors
through low-frequency compensation by an
integrator.
 • KD is the derivative gain improving transient response 12.5 12.11 0.040 6.52 -0.202 300
through high-frequency compensation by a
differentiator [7]. 0 12.09 0.040 6.35 0.118 300
The standard PID control configuration is as shown in 12.5 12.10 0.060 6.45 -0.206 200
fig.8. It is also sometimes called the “PID parameter form
[9]. 0 12.15 0.060 6.33 0.166 200

12.5 12.09 0.120 6.44 -0.186 100

0 12.20 0.122 6.24 0.325 100

TABLE V. SIMULATION RESULTS OF BI-DIRECTIONAL DC/DC

CONVERTER

VS VBus IBus VBat IBat Load

(V) (V) (A) (V) (A) (Ω)
12.6 12.13 0.02 6.404 -0.65 600

0 12 0.02 6.302 0.076 600

12.6 12.12 0.024 6.467 -0.63 500

Figure. 9. PID controller system 0 12 0.024 6.38 0.084 500

The values of the PID controller in the experimental 12.6 12.14 0.03 6.52 -0.61 400
realization and the Simulation is shown in table.3. The
0 12 0.03 6.35 0.096 400
values were selected depending on the best response of the
output voltage (overshoot & steady-state error) for PI, and 12.6 12.13 0.04 6.51 -0.62 300
the D controllers are the worst, since the output responses of
the D controllers produced the biggest steady-state errors, 0 12 0.04 6.35 0.11 300
Fig.11. shows the result. 12.6 12.11 0.06 6.5 -0.62 200

TABLE III. THE PID VALUES 0 12 0.06 6.351 0.15 200

P I 12.6 12.05 0.12 6.48 -0.603 100

practical 0.2 1 0 12 0.12 6.34 0.28 100

Simulink 0.02 5
From table.IV. and table.V. when the bi-direction
converter operates as a buck converter, the battery current
IV. DISCUSSION AND RESULT (IB) is negative (charging), and when it operates as a boost
converter, the battery current (IB) is positive (discharging).
This section presents both, the experimental and The ripple in the bus voltage is close to 10% in case of a
simulation results for the Bi-directional DC/DC converter, variable load, and fixed at the same load.
the inductor current, the load current, and the output
voltage.
• The inductor current signal
• Bi-direction DC/DC converter
A fixed DC source at (12.5V) connected to the input of
the bi-directional converter with a diode in series with a
variable load between (600Ω to 100Ω).

TABLE IV. PRACTICAL RESULTS OF BI-DIRECTIONAL DC/DC

CONVERTER

VS VBus IBus VBat IBat Load

(V) (V) (A) (V) (A) (Ω)
12.5 12.10 0.020 6.49 -0.166 600

0 12.08 0.020 6.35 0.047 600

12.5 12.09 0.024 6.58 -0.177 500

0 12.07 0.024 6.35 0.057 500

12.5 12.12 0.030 6.48 -0.202 400

0 12.08 0.030 6.35 0.077 400

(a)
 V. CONCLUSION
A control system has been experimentally realized with
the help of MATLAB/Simulink interfacing and ARDUINO
UNO to control a bi-directional power circuit. The outcome
of the system resulted in a very stable output busbar voltage
with a minimum amount of ripple. Additionally, a very fast
response for the system to shift from charging to
discharging the battery. On the other hand, the
Simulink/Arduino real-time interface platform provided the
opportunity to observe the system parameters response,
those results revealed that the PID controller is the best
choice to control the power circuit. Moreover, the bi-
directional experimental and simulated results are matched

(b) 0.5 v/Div, 5ms/Div

REFRENCES
[1] Mayuresh Khadse, Vinaya Jadhav, Kaustubh Daware, and Sharma,
Figure. 10. a) Inductor current via Simulation. b) Inductor current
Experimentally. “Design of battery storage system for microgrid,” Annual IEEE India
Conference (INDICON), New Delhi, India,2015.

[2] Deepak Ravi1, Bandi Mallikarjuna, Shimi S.L.3, and Paulson Samuel
• The load current signal “Bidirectional dc to dc converters: an overview of various topologies,
switching schemes and control techniques,” International Journal of
Engineering and Technology, September 2018.

[3] Hart- Daniel W, “Power electronics,” McGraw-Hill, Americas, New

York, 2011.

[4] Douglas P. S. Gomes, Cagil Ozansoy, and Anwaar Ulhaq, “High-

sensitivity vegetation high-impedance fault detection based on signal's
high-frequency contents,” IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery ,Vol
33, June 2018.

[5] Mario Gavran , Mato Fruk, and Goran Vujisić, “PI controller for dc
motor speed realized with Arduino and Simulink,” 40th International
Convention on Information and Communication Technology,
Electronics and Microelectronics (MIPRO),University of Applied
Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia, May 22- 26, 2017.

[6] Dan Liu, Zheng Yan , Wenxiu Ding , and Mohammed

Atiquzzaman, “A survey on secure data analytics in edge computing,”
IEEE Internet of Things Journal, Vol.6 ,June 2019.
[7] Kiam Heong Ang, G. Chong, and Yun Li, “PID control system
analysis, design, and technology,” IEEE Transactions on Control
(a)
Systems Technology, Vol 13, July 2005.

[8] Hanana Nuchkrua, and Thananchai Leephakpreeda “Control of DC-

link by adaptive PID control for DC/DC boost converter,” CACS
International Automatic Control Conference (CACS), Nantou, Taiwan,
2013.

[9] Robert A. Paz Klipsch, “The design of the PID controller,” School of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, June 12, 2001.

(b) 0.2v/Div, 5ms/Div

Figure. 11. a) Load current via Simulation. b) load current Experimentally

View publication stats