Hardware-in-Loop-enabled Controller Design for Isolated Boost Converter using Ziegler-Nichols Method for Electric Vehicle Applications

Abstract

The paper presents the design of a controller for an Isolated DC-DC Boost Converter with voltage doubler (IBVD) topology, utilizing the Ziegler-Nichols (ZN) tuning method. The presence of load variations and disturbances in the power electronic converters used in Electric Vehicles (EV) necessitates the use of a controller to ensure stable operation. Moreover, achieving a smooth and safe driving experience requires improvements in the transient response. This work address these challenges by demonstrating an efficient controller design for voltage regulation. To validate its effectiveness, the controller is tested using FPGA-enabled hardware-in-loop (HIL) technique, where the controller is implemented on the FPGA while the converter operates in a simulated environment using MATLAB Simulink. The results demonstrate that the controller successfully achieves the desired steady state and transient output both for stable operation and load variations.