Experimental design of a fuzzy controller for improving power factor of boost rectifier

This article presents the design and the implementation of dSPACE DS1104 controller board-based PI and fuzzy logic peak current-mode controllers in the voltage loop and two controllers in the current loop based first on a standard fixed hysteresis band control, followed by a variable hysteresis band control to achieve constant switching frequency for a single-phase active power factor corrector in the continuous conduction mode. All these controllers have been verified via simulation in Simulink and a real-time implementation is performed on an experimental test bench utilising a rapid prototyping tool. The controllers are experimentally compared for steady-state performance and transient response. It is shown that the PI and fuzzy logic controllers give a superior steady-state performance, whereas the fuzzy logic inference based controller can achieve better dynamic response than its PI counterpart under large load disturbance and plant uncertainties. Furthermore, the variable hysteresis band control in the current loop gives a low total harmonic distortion of the input current compared to a standard fixed hysteresis band control.