As wearables become more widely adopted, powering them from ambient energy sources can improve reliability and reduce reliance on batteries. Solar photovoltaic (PV) power is a viable power source for such emerging applications. However, because wearable applications bend and move with the user's motion, the PV panels used in these applications experience varying light intensities over multiple PV cells that reduce power generation in traditional series-string configurations. To address the PV power reduction problem, a configuration of boost converters with parallel-connected outputs are utilized, which is effective in uneven lighting conditions. Depending on the load demand and available solar power, a converter control system should quickly transition between maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and power curtailment operation. This work evaluates MPPT (perturb & observe and constant-voltage) algorithms and power curtailment (over-voltage shut-off and flexible power point tracking) methods on their effectiveness in wearable applications. Experimental results verify that the perturb & observe with flexible power point tracking effectively adapts to changes in the load and light conditions while maintaining 30% and 31% higher output power, respectively. It also maintains the maximum component temperature below 29 ∘^{\circ }C which is a safe temperature for wearable applications.

中文翻译：

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可穿戴光伏能量收集应用中转换器的功率最大化和削减控制方法的评估


随着可穿戴设备的应用越来越广泛，利用环境能源为其供电可以提高可靠性并减少对电池的依赖。太阳能光伏（PV）电力是此类新兴应用的可行电源。然而，由于可穿戴应用会随着用户的运动而弯曲和移动，因此这些应用中使用的光伏电池板在多个光伏电池上会经历不同的光强度，从而减少了传统串联串配置中的发电量。为了解决光伏功率降低问题，采用了具有并联输出的升压转换器的配置，这在不均匀的照明条件下是有效的。根据负载需求和可用太阳能，转换器控制系统应在最大功率点跟踪 (MPPT) 和限电操作之间快速转换。这项工作评估了 MPPT（扰动观察和恒压）算法和功率削减（过压关断和灵活的功率点跟踪）方法在可穿戴应用中的有效性。实验结果验证了具有灵活功率点跟踪功能的扰动和观察可以有效地适应负载和光照条件的变化，同时保持输出功率分别提高 30% 和 31%。它还将最高组件温度保持在 29 ∘^{\circ }C 以下，这是可穿戴应用的安全温度。