Simplifying ADRC design with error-based framework: case study of a DC–DC buck power converter

Abstract

In this work, the problem of designing a robust control algorithm for a DC-DC buck power converter is investigated. The applied solution is based on a recently proposed error-based version of the active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) scheme, in which the unknown higher-order terms of the reference signal are treated as additional components of the system “total disturbance”. The motivation here is to provide a practical following of a reference voltage trajectory for the buck converter in specific cases where neither the analytical form of the desired signal nor its future values are known a’priori, hence cannot be directly used for control synthesis. In this work, the application of the error-based ADRC results in a practically appealing control technique, with compact structure, simplified control rule, and intuitive tuning (inherited from the conventional output-based ADRC scheme). Theoretical, numerical, and experimental results are shown to validate the efficacy of the error-based ADRC in buck converter control, followed by a discussion about the revealed theoretical and practical limitations of this approach.