Maximum Power Point Tracking Control Based

on Modified ABC Algorithm for Shaded PV

System
Wan Yihao
Nie Li Mao Mingxuan*
School of Electrical Engineering
School of Electrical Engineering School of Electrical Engineering
Chongqing University
Chongqing University Chongqing University
Chongqing，China
Chongqing，China Chongqing，China
wanyh0515@163.com
1179159632@qq.com mingxuan_mao@cqu.edu.cn
Cui Lichuang Zhou Lin Zhang Qianjin
School of Electrical Engineering School of Electrical Engineering School of Electrical Engineering
Chongqing University Chongqing University Chongqing University
Chongqing，China Chongqing，China Chongqing，China
1340279719@qq.com zhoulin@cqu.edu.cn 973382409@qq.com

Abstract—When partial shading condition (PSC) occurs,
the output p-v characteristic of photovoltaic array presents
multi-peak characteristics. The traditional Maximum Power
Point Tracking (MPPT) method is easy to be trapped in a local
maximum power point, and cannot quickly and accurately
track the global maximum power point. Therefore, to track the
maximum power point of the photovoltaic system quickly and
accurately under partial shading conditions (PSCs), this paper
proposes an efficient MPPT controller based on modified
artificial bee colony (MABC) algorithm. The proposed control
strategy is compared with perturbation and observation (P&O)
algorithm, particle swarm algorithm (PSO) and standard
artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm to verify its effectiveness
and superiority.
Keywords—Partial shading condition (PSC), photovoltaic
array, Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT), modified
artificial bee colony algorithm (MABC)
I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, scholars have conducted a lot of
researches on the MPPT control strategy for photovoltaic
system under partial shading conditions. Under uniform
irradiance, the P-V curve of the PV module has only one
maximum operating point. And the conventional methods,
including P&O method, etc. are able to track the maximum
power point. Also, modifications on the methods are studied
to improve the performance of MPPT [1-3]. On the other
hand, in the real environment, non-uniform radiation often
occurs, and the corresponding p-v curve will have multiple
peaks. The traditional MPPT algorithms cannot find the
global maximum power point, thus further improvement is
needed to address the mentioned problem.
For the MPPT algorithm under PSC [4], it can be roughly
divided into three categories: 1) hybrid algorithm: combining
traditional algorithm with intelligent algorithm; 2) intelligent
algorithm; 3) other algorithms. The so-called hybrid
algorithm finds the global maximum power point through
intelligent algorithms, and then performs more precise
optimization by traditional algorithms, such as hybrid of
particle swarm algorithm and conventional perturbation and
observation method (PSO-P&O) [5-6], etc. These methods
include the advantages of traditional algorithms and
intelligent algorithms, which speed up the tracking process
and reduce the steady-state oscillation. Meanwhile, with the
nature-inspired algorithms proposed, scholars show more
interest on intelligent algorithms, especially for those
applications under partial shading conditions. A brief
introduction is given below.
The PSO, ant colony optimization (ACO), and ABC
algorithms are developed by simulating the foraging
behavior of flocks, ant colonies, and bee colonies, and are
widely used as a random algorithm for populations. ABC
algorithm simulates the process of foraging, learning,
memorizing and information sharing of honeybees. Taking
the maximum power point tracking control application as an
example, the best particles are found, so that the objective
function has a global optimal solution, i.e., the array global
maximum power point. The particles can be the output
voltage and the duty cycle, and the objective function is the
operating voltage output by the photovoltaic module.
However, the randomness of these algorithms has a huge
impact on their tracking performance, so further optimization
and improvement is needed. The literature [5-9], respectively
optimizes and improves the traditional algorithm to different
degrees, promoting the response speed, tracking speed and
improving tracking accuracy of the algorithm, especially
under the changing irradiance environment.
In photovoltaic power generation system, under partial
shading condition or the hot spot effect, the P-V curve of the
PV is two-dimensional curve with multiple peaks. To
improve the performance of ABC algorithm under dynamic
irradiance change, especially the tracking speed and
accuracy, this paper proposes a novel MPPT controller based
on modified ABC algorithm. It has been compared with the
conventional P&O algorithm, PSO algorithm and ABC
algorithm to verify the effectiveness and superiority of the
proposed method.
II. MODIFIED ARTIFICIAL BEE COLONY ALGORITHM
The Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) Algorithm is inspired
by bee colony behavior. It was proposed by the Karaboga
team in 2005 to optimize algebra problems [10]. The
standard ABC algorithm divides the artificial bees into the
following three categories: employed bees, onlooker bees
and scouts. The goal of the whole colony is to find the largest
source of nectar.
The standard ABC algorithm can be implemented by four
main steps. The first step is initializing the parameters of the
swarm. The second step involves the employer using the
honey source information of the previous generation to find a
new honey source, then based on the greedy selection, the

978-8-8872-3743-6 ©2019 AEIT

old and new fitness value of the source are compared, thus
the optimal honey source is sorted out, of which the source
information is shared with onlooker bee. Step 3 is to follow
the bees. After receiving the information shared by the bees,
use the roulette strategy to track the honey source, and start
searching for new honey source in the mining process. Step 4
refers to scout bees finding a new promising honey source
and abandon the old one [10,11].
The standard ABC algorithm regards the process of the
optimization in practice as a D-dimension search. The
number of employed bees is SN, and the larger the group
number is, the better the performance the algorithm has. The
number of onlooker bees is the same as the number of
employed bees, which also equals to the number of honey
sources. The location of each nectar source represents a
promising solution to the problem. The nectar amount of
nectar source corresponds to the fitness of the corresponding
solution. Bees corresponding to the ith honey source search
for new honey source according to the following formula:
vid = xid + φid ( xid − xkd ) (1)
where i = 1, 2, ..., SN, d = 1, 2, ..., D, ϕid is a random number
on the interval [-1, 1], and the last term represents the
maximum and minimum values of the dth dimension,
respectively. By using greedy selection strategy, the
promising solutions generated by ABC algorithm are
compared with the original solutions, so as to preserve better
solutions. Each onlooker bee selects a honey source
according to probability, and the probability is calculated as:
fi
pi = (2)
SN
f
n =1
n value fi associated with xi is obtained based on equation (2).
where, fi is the adaptive value of possible solution xid.
According to the formula above, scout bees can find new
promising solutions around the selected honey source. When
all the employed bees and the onlooker bees explore the
entire search space, if the fitness value of a honey source is
not improved within a given step, the honey source will be
abandoned. In the next step, the corresponding employed
bees become scout bees, and the scout bees search for new
possible solutions by the following formula:
xid = xdmin + rand (0,1)( xdmax − xdmin ) (3)
where x dmin and x d max are the lower bound and upper
bound of the d dimensional problem respectively.
However, for the standard ABC algorithm, the search
speed is slow and has premature convergence, which
constrains its application in MPPT control of PV system.
To solve these problems, an adaptive inertia weight is
added based on [13], the scout bees search for new possible
solutions using the equations below:
vid = xid + ω*φid ( xid − xkd ) (4)
tmax − t
ω ∗ = ωmin + (ωmax − ωmin （
) ） (5)
tmax
where t max is the iteration number, t is the current
iteration number, ωmax and ω min are the boundary of the
weight. In the initial stage, ω* is relatively large, which
can improve the efficiency of global search. In the
course of iteration, in the late stage, ω* is relatively
small, which can improve the search accuracy.
Therefore, using the adaptive inertia weight, the MABC
algorithm is capable of converging to the global
optimum rapidly and accurately.
III. MPPT CONTROL STRATEGY BASED ON MABC
ALGORITHM
When partial shading condition occurs, the output curve
of PV system, i.e. P-V curve, is a two-dimensional multi-
peak curve. The traditional MPPT algorithms are not able to
find the global maximum power point, thus cannot track the
global maximum power point of the PV array. However,
ABC-based algorithms can solve the optimization problem
with high-dimensional, nonlinear mathematical functions.
Therefore, it can be applied as MPPT algorithm of PV
systems.
The detailed steps of the MABC MPPT algorithm are
shown as follows:
Step1: Initializing the population xi （i=1,2，…，n）
using (3). Each bee represents a duty cycle.
Step2: Calculating the fitness of each individual xi, i.e.
the corresponding output power of the PV system.
Step3: Updating the employer bee using (4). And select
the dominant bee using the greedy selection. If the
corresponding output power of vi is greater than the output
power of the previous individual xi, then replace xi with vi,
otherwise the previous individual xi remains unchanged.
Step4: According to greedy selection, the probability
Use fi and onlooker to select the food source (solution), and
search for the new individual solution vi using (4) in the
neighborhood and calculate the output power of PV system.
If the fitness of the new individual vi is greater than the
fitness of the previous individual xi, then replace xi with the
vi, otherwise the previous individual xi remains unchanged.
Step5: Determine if there is a solution to give up. If so,
generate a new solution using equation (3).
Step6: Obtain the optimal duty cycle and the iteration
number is increased by 1.
Step7: Check whether the termination condition is
satisfied. If the condition is satisfied, go to step 8, otherwise
return to step 3.
Step8 ：Determine whether the external environmental
conditions change. If it changes, restart the algorithm and
return to Step1. Otherwise, output the optimal duty cycle.
In the paper, the MPPT control is realized by adjusting
the duty cycle. Therefore, the position of initial population
represents the duty cycle (D), and the corresponding output
power is the fitness. As for the parameters setting, for the
conventional P&O algorithm, the step ∆d=0.05, the
population size for PSO, standard ABC and MABC
algorithm is 6. The parameters in PSO algorithm C1=C2=1.2.
In ABC algorithm, the parameter limit is set to 3, the inertia
weight ωmax=0.9 and ωmin=0.4. The flow chart of the
proposed MABC MPPT algorithm is shown in Fig.1.
 TABLE I. CIRCUIT PARAMETERS OF BUCK-BOOST
Numerical
Parameters unit
Start value
C1 μF 220

Initialize the population position using (3); L H 800

Set the Parameters: iterations (tmax), number
of individuals
Calculate the fitness of each employed bee,
i.e., the value of the output power
Update position using (1); Use the greedy
selection to find the honey source; Calculate
the selection probability using (2)
Update the position of the scout bee using
(4), and select the honey source
C2 μF 220
In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed MPPT
algorithm, an independent photovoltaic power generation
system model is established in MATLAB/SIMULINK,
shown in Fig.3. The proposed MABC method is compared
with other three MPPT algorithms under the simulation of
dynamic partial shading conditions. In simulation, the
irradiance of the second photovoltaic cell is suddenly
reduced from 1000W/m2 to 800W/m2. Fig.4 shows the P-V
characteristics curves of the PV system under two different
irradiation conditions, it can be seen that the maximum
power of the PV system is reduced from 1002.2W to
850.7W.
[P]
[I]
Discrete
1e-07 s.

Decide whether to abandon the position of 174.2

846

the scout bee; Update the bee position using

Ppv
(3) I V
P_out
[V]

+
i
- C
E -
V_out
+

Memorize the best duty cycle so far;

g i

cycle=cycle+1 G1 Co
-

+
+ v
Cin L +
R

+
v
m -

+
VM3
1000 Ir

+
m

k
VM1
+

25 T
a
-

T1 PV cells2 PWM Duty

No MPPT Ppv
Cycle=Iteration? 0.3324
PWM D
Controller G2
m
Ir MPPT controller
m

Yes 25 T D
a

T2 PV cells1
Yes [D]

Weather change?
800

G2

No
Fig.3. Simulation model of the system
Output optimal duty cycle

Fig.1. Block diagram of MABC MPPT algorithm

IV. SIMULATION ANALYSIS

The main circuit of the DC/DC converter in this paper is
Buck-Boost circuit. The photovoltaic array consists of two
series-connected photovoltaic module, each photovoltaic
module consisting of 2×5 panels, shown in Fig.2. In the
simulation, the load resistance R=20Ω, switching frequency
is 20kHz, the output voltage ripple factor is 0.01, the rated
input voltage is 172.8V. And the rest parameters of the
circuit are shown in Table .

Fig.4. P-V characteristic curves under different irradiation

PV11 PV21 Figure 5-8 shows the simulation results of photovoltaic
output power and the dynamic change of duty cycle using
PV12 PV22 conventional P&O, PSO, standard ABC and MABC MPPT
algorithms.
PV15 PV25

PV module

Fig.2. MPPT Circuit with Buck-Boost

 Compared with other three algorithms, it can be seen that,
the proposed MABC MPPT controller has excellent
performance in terms of tracking speed and efficiency.
Besides, there is no oscillation around the maximum power
point. The numerical results are shown in the following
table:
TABLE II. SIMULATION RESULTS
Tracking
Mode Algorithm Pmax/W Efficiency
Time/s
P&O 1000 0.42 99.78%
Mode1 PSO 1000.2 0.44 99.80%
Preal=1002.2W ABC 1000.3 0.42 99.81%
MABC 1000.9 0.40 99.87%
P&O 498.3 0.13 58.58%
Fig.5. Output power and duty cycle curve of P&O algorithm
PSO 848.9 0.48 99.79%
Mode 2
Preal= 850.7W ABC 849.4 0.43 99.84%

MABC 850.0 0.39 99.91%

The dynamic irradiation conditions can be divided into

Fig.6. Output power and duty cycle curve of PSO algorithm
Fig.7. Output power and duty cycle curve of ABC algorithm
Fig.8. Output current and voltage waveform of MABC algorithm
two phases, the uniform irradiation phase of mode 1, and the
partial shading phase of mode 2. Between the two modes,
the MPPT algorithm will be reinitialized by detecting the
irradiance change of the photovoltaic panel, so that the
algorithm can dynamically optimize and search the global
maximum power point automatically.
Mode 1(0-1s): uniform irradiation. The search time of
the proposed algorithm is about 0.40s under uniform
irradiance condition. The optimal duty cycle found is at
around 0.37 with maximum output power 1000.9W, and the
maximum power tracking efficiency is 99.87%. Besides, as
is shown in Fig.5, for the P&O algorithm, the corresponding
PV panel output power has a significant oscillation at the
maximum power point, which is not conducive to the stable
operation of the system. From the results, the proposed ABC
MPPT algorithms has the overall best performance in terms
of tracking speed and efficiency.
Mode 2 (1-2s): partial shading condition. It can be
observed that all the MPPT algorithms are reinitialized
successfully when the irradiance condition changes. When
partial shading condition occurs, the tracking time of the
proposed MABC method is about 0.39s, which is faster than
PSO algorithm and standard ABC MPPT algorithm.
Although it is slower than P&O algorithm, it can be
observed that P&O algorithm has power oscillation at
maximum power point. Furthermore, the P&O algorithm
scans the P-V curve step by step, which leads to trapping
into a local optimum with 498.3W output power, which is
much smaller than the 848.9W of the PSO, 849.4W of the
ABC and 850W of proposed MABC MPPT algorithms. The
tracking accuracy of the four algorithms is 58.58%, 99.79%,
99.84% and 99.91% respectively. Therefore, compared with
other MPPT algorithms, the proposed ABC method has
excellent performance in terms of tracking accuracy and
speed.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper proposes an MABC MPPT algorithm and
compares it with conventional P&O, PSO, and standard ABC
MPPT algorithms under dynamic partial shading conditions.
The proposed MABC MPPT algorithm outperforms other
three algorithms in terms of tracking speed and accuracy.
The simulation results verify the effectiveness of the
proposed MPPT control method.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work has been supported by the China Postdoctoral
Science Foundation (Grant No. 2018M643410), the
Chongqing Special Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant
No. XmT2018033), the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (Grant No. 51707026), the Graduate Research and
Innovation Foundation of Chongqing (Grant No.CYS18007)
and the National "111" Project of China under Grant
B808036.
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