Robust Passivity-Based Control of a Non-Inverting Buck–Boost Converter Using an Adaptive Disturbance Observer
Keywords:
Robust control, Buck–Boost converter, Passivity-based control, Disturbance observer, Port controlled Hamiltonian systems, Load disturbance rejection.Abstract
This paper presents a robust composite control strategy for a non-inverting Buck–Boost DC–DC converter that integrates Passivity-Based Control (PBC) with an adaptive Disturbance Observer (DO). Buck–Boost converters are widely used in renewable energy systems, electric vehicles, and battery-powered equipment, where the input voltage and the load are subject to frequent and often unpredictable variation. Because the converter dynamics are nonlinear, classical linear controllers such as PID lose accuracy once operating conditions drift far from their design point. The proposed strategy addresses this limitation by combining the energy-shaping and damping-injection properties of PBC with a Lyapunov-based adaptive observer that estimates the unknown load conductance on-line from measurable signals only. A state-space averaged model of the converter feeding a DC-motor load is first derived and cast into port-Hamiltonian form; an exponentially convergent disturbance observer is then designed using a logarithmic nonlinear injection function, and a robust passivity-based control law is obtained by combining feed-forward steady-state inversion with damping-injection feedback. A formal Lyapunov stability proof establishes global exponential stability in the absence of estimation error and Input-to-State Stability (ISS) with respect to the observer error. The proposed Robust Passivity-Based Control (RPBC) scheme is validated through MATLAB/Simulink simulations and through hardware-in-the-loop experiments on a TMS320F28335 + FPGA-based test bench under step changes in the input voltage, in the load resistance, and in the observer gain. Simulation and experimental results show fast disturbance rejection, settling times below 0.3 s, output-voltage overshoot below 1.5 V and steady-state error within ±0.3 V.
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