8 - Internet of things (IoT) and embedded systems for photovoltaic systems

Abstract

This chapter aims to present real-time implementations of some methods, described in the previous chapters, by using microprocessors (e.g., Raspberry Pi), microcontrollers (e.g., Arduino), and reconfigurable circuits such as field programmable gate array (FPGA). First, the main programmable electronic devices used in this area are described, then a state of the art on the real-time implementation of algorithms in electronic devices (such as Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and FPGAs) for solving some photovoltaic system issues, are presented. The idea is to design smart prototypes using the Internet of things (IoT) and embedded technologies. Five applications are presented in detail: (1) smart PV monitoring systems using the IoT technique and programmable boards (Arduino and Raspberry Pi), (2) FPGA-based implementation of intelligent off-grid photovoltaic simulator, (3) implementation of intelligent maximum power point tracking algorithms using FPGA device, (4) co-simulation of an intelligent fault-diagnosis method for a photovoltaic array using the Xilinx System Generator (XSG) FPGA, and (5) implementation of PV fault diagnosis techniques in the Raspberry Pi 4 device using machine learning and deep learning algorithms. Basic skills and knowledge of the ISE environment, VHDL language, Python, DSP-XSG, and devices (FPGA, Arduino, and Raspberry Pi) are needed to understand how to implement these algorithms.