2016 15th IEEE International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications
A Study on Effects of Different Control Period of
Neural Network Based Reference Modified PID
Control for DC-DC Converters
Hidenori Maruta, Hironobu Taniguchi, Fujio Kurokawa
Graduate School of Engineering
Nagasaki University
1-14, Bunkyo-machi, Nagasaki, Japan
Abstract This paper studies about computational burden of a
reference modified PID with a neural network prediction for
dc-dc converters. Flexible control methods are required to
realize a superior transient response since the converter has a
nonlinear behavior. However, the computational burden
becomes a problem to implement the control to computation
devices. In this paper, the neural network is adopted to
improve the transient response of output voltage of the dc-dc
converter under the consideration of its computational burden.
The neural network computation part has a longer
computation period than the PID main control part. It can be
possible since the neural network gives more than one
predictions which are required for the reference modification
for each main control period. Therefore, the reference
modification can be adopted on every main control period.
From results, it is confirmed that the proposed method can
improve the transient response effectively with reducing
computational burden of neural network control.
Keywords-neural network; dc-dc converter; control period;
computational burden
I. INTRODUCTION
A digital control has attracted attention in the switching
power supply since it has a lot of advantages compared to
conventional analog control method [1]-[5]. Especially, the
digital control method for dc-dc converters is expected to
have a superior performance since it makes the complex
calculation possible. As one of the popular digital control
methods, a PID control is well known. However, the dc-dc
converter is a non-linear system and hence it is limited to
realize a superior transient response by the PID control only.
Therefore, flexible control methods are required for the
purpose of the improvement of the transient response.
Some studies have been done in the field of digital power
supply with a neural network which is kind of machine
learning. The neural network is widely used since it has a
strong potential to approximate a complicated non-linear
relation and simple algorithm [6]-[10]. In the proposed
method, the neural network control works as a predictor of
output voltage combining with the conventional PID control.
The proposed method can improve the transient response
978-1-5090-6167-9/16 $31.00 2016 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/ICMLA.2016.32
Tr iL
L
vo
Vi D C Load
Ton [n]
PWM A/D
NTon [n]
PID Controller Nvo [n]
NR
Neural Network
Figure 1. Digital control dc-dc converter of proposed method.
since the neural network is trained the output voltage when
the step change of load occurs. However, the neural network
is to need the computational cost when it makes a
complicated calculation. To satisfy this requirement, the
control period of neural network predictor is longer than that
of the PID control. It leads to the implementation of
proposed method in a variety of circuit design.
In this paper, it is confirmed that the proposed method
improves similarly the transient response in the case of
changing the control period correspond to the number of
output units. The results show that the proposed method has
a superior performance compared to conventional PID
control.
II. OPERATION PRINCIPLE OF PROPOSED METHOD
A. DC-DC Converter and control circuit
Figure 1 shows the circuit configuration of proposed
digital control dc-dc converter. Vi is the input voltage, vo is
the output voltage, L is inductor, iL is inductor current, D is
the diode. Tr is the main switch. C is the capacitor. Nvo is the
digital value of output voltage, NTon is the on-time of main
switch. In the digital control circuit, the on-time of a PWM
signal is determined after converting the output voltage vo
into Nvo. The proposed method is composed of the PID
control with the neural network. The neural network predicts
460
 PID Controller Reference Modification Stack

NTon [n] = NB - KP ( Nvo [n] - NR )

NR [n] = NR - Nvo [n+1]
N vo[n+1]

- KI ( Nvo [n] - NR )
NR [n+1] = NR - Nvo [n+2]
Nvo[n+2]
- KD ( Nvo [n] - N vo[n-1] )
NR [n+2] = NR - Nvo [n+3] TS
Nvo[n+3]
Neural Network Prediction
TS

DC-DC Converter
N vo[n]
N vo[n+1] TN

A/D Converter N vo[n-1]

N vo[n+2]
TN
N vo[n-2]
N vo[n+3]

Input Layer Output Layer

Middle Layer

Figure 2. Process of proposed method. (case of Ui = 3, Um = 6, Uo = 3)

(n-1)-th n-th (n+1)-th (n+2)-th (n+3)-th (n+4)-th (n+5)-th

Predicted Voltages {(n+3)-th}

Predicted Voltages (n-th)

vo

PID (T S )

NN(T N = 3T S )
TS
TN

Figure 3. Operation period of PID control and neural network control. (case of Uo = 3)

the output voltage and it calculates the modified value N R .
The detail about proposed method is introduced in following
subsections.
B. Neural network prediction
In the proposed method, the neural network plays two
roles. One is the predictor to learn the dynamical relationship
between input and output of the converter. The other is an
operation part for the modification of reference value in the
PID control. Figure 2 shows the process of proposed method.
The neural network consists of input layer with Ui units,
hidden layer with Um units and output layer with Uo units. In
this paper, they are selected Ui = 3, Um = 6 and Uo = 3
respectively. It is trained to predict the output voltage of dc-
dc converter. N vo [n + 1] , N vo [n + 2] , N vo [n + 3] in Fig. 2
represent the predicted voltages.
The neural network is trained by a standard back-
propagation to obtain the output corresponds to the input. A
sigmoid function is used as an activation function in each
layer to determine the output value of neural network. It is
noted that the number of predicted voltages is equal to that of
output units in the neural network. In the n-th switching
period (i.e. the n-th control period of the PID control),
N vo [n + 1] , N vo [n + 2] , N vo [n + 3] are predicted from three

461
 TABLE I. CIRCUIT PARAMETERS OF DC-DC CONVERTER

Parameter Symbol Value

v o (V)

Input Voltage Vi 20 V
Reference Output
Voltage Vo* 5V

TN t
Output Current Io 1.0 A

N R [n] N R [n+1] Inductance L 62.5/189/ H

N R [n+2]
Nvo [n-2]
Nvo [n-1] Capacitance C 139/277/417 F
Switching
Frequency
fS 100/300 kHz
Nvo [n]
1
TS =

N vo[n+1]
PID Control Period
fS
10 us/3.3 us

Nvo [n+2] Neural Network

Nvo [n+3] Control Period
TN = U oTS 30 us/20 us/10 us

Number of Bits of
Sensed Voltage 12 bits
PID Control A/D
Predicted Voltage (n-th)
Proposed Control
Predicted Voltage {(n+3)-th}

Figure 4. Predicted and sensed voltages of transient response.

(case of Uo = 3) N Ton [n] = N B K P {N vo [n] ( N R + N R )}
(3)
KI (N vo [ n] N R ) K D ( N vo [n] N vo [n 1])
former sensed output voltages N vo [n] , N vo [n 1] ,
It is noted that the proportional coefficients KP are fixed
N vo [n 2] and training of the neural network is done in
value when the reference in P control term is modified. The
advance using the data of the output voltage obtained when reference modification does not need sensitive tuning of
the only PID control is adopted. parameters and it can improve the transient response
effectively.
C. Reference modification [6]
After the training, the neural network modifies the D. Relationship of predicted voltage with control period
reference value of PID control using its predicting output In this study, the control period of neural network control
values. The conventional PID control consists of is set longer than that of the PID control to reduce the
proportional, integral and derivative terms represented as computational burden when the neural network computation
shown in Eq. (1). is adopted. Figure 3 shows the operation period of PID and
neural network control. The control period of them is
N Ton [n] = N B K P ( N vo [n] N R ) 1
(1) represented by TS = and TN = U oTS in Figs. 2 and 3.
KI (N vo [ n] N R ) K D ( N vo [n] N vo [n 1]) fS
The output voltages are predicted once every three
where NB is the bias value, KP, KI and KD are proportional, periods in the PID control. The stacked values are applied to
integral and differential coefficients. NR is a reference output the reference modification to improve the transient response.
voltage of PID control. In the proposed method, the modified The predicted voltages N vo [n + 1] , N vo [n + 2] , N vo [n + 3]
value is given by the difference between reference value NR are used to calculate the modified value in each control
and predicted voltages N vo [n + i ] . The modified value is period of PID control. The predicted and sensed voltages of
represented by Eq. (2). transient response are shown in Fig. 4. The solid line is the
transient response when PID control is only adopted. The
dashed line is the transient response of proposed method.
N R [n + (i 1)] = N R N vo [n + i ] (i = 1,2,3) (2)
The predicted voltages are drawn by the red points and the
sensed voltages are drawn by the dashed line when the
Finally, the on-time N Ton [n] of PWM signal is calculated
using Eq. (3)

462
 5.4 5.4
Overshoot : 4.10 % Overshoot : 3.61 %
5.2 5.2
1% 1%
v o (V)

v o (V)
5.0 5.0

4.8 Undershoot : 6.99 % 4.8 Undershoot : 5.82 %

t ct : 3.02 ms t ct : 3.36 ms
4.6 4.6
2.0 2.0

1.5 1.5

i L (A)
1.0 1.0
i L (A)

0.5 0.5

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
t (ms) t (ms)
Figure 5. Transient response of PID control. Figure 7. Transient response of proposed method with two output units.

5.4 5.4
Overshoot : 3.61 % Overshoot : 3.58 %
5.2 5.2
1% 1%
v o (V)
v o (V)

5.0 5.0

4.8 Undershoot : 5.82 % 4.8 Undershoot : 5.80 %

t ct : 3.36 ms t ct : 3.35 ms
4.6 4.6
2.0 2.0

1.5 1.5
i L (A)
i L (A)

1.0 1.0

0.5 0.5

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
t (ms) t (ms)
Figure 6. Transient response of proposed method with one output units. Figure 8. Transient response of proposed method with three output units.

463
 TABLE II. TRANSIENT CHARACTERISTICS ( f s = 300kHz ) 4.50 PID Control

Overshoot Difference (%)

Undershoot Overshoot Convergence 4.00 Proposed Control
Control Method
(%) (%) Time (ms) 3.50
PID 3.99 1.68 1.00 3.00
Proposed Method
2.50
3.28 1.33 0.80 2.00
(Uo = 1)
Proposed Method
3.38 1.46 0.83 1.50
(Uo = 2) 1.00
Proposed Method
3.40 1.47 0.84 0.50
(Uo = 3)
0
139 277 417
Capacitance (F)

Figure 10. Overshoot of transient response. (case of fs = 300 kHz)

9.00 PID Control
Undershoot Difference (%)

8.00 Proposed Control

7.00
1.35 PID Control
6.00

Convergence Time (ms)

5.00 1.20 Proposed Control
4.00 1.05
3.00 0.90
2.00 0.75
1.00 0.60
0 0.45
139 277 417 0.30
Capacitance (F) 0.15
0
Figure 9. Undershoot of transient response. (case of fs = 300 kHz)
139 277 417
Capacitance (F)

Figure 11. Convergence time of transient response. (case of fs = 300 kHz)

proposed method is adopted. In this case, the neural network
predicts the output voltage on every three period of the PID
control. (i.e. switching period)
III. SIMULATION RESULT
The effect of the proposed method is evaluated in
simulation results. This converter is specified by parameters
as shown Table 1. The control coefficients KP = KD = 1.0, KI
= 0.05. The load is changed from 25 (0.2 A) to 5 (1.0 A)
in simulation results.
output voltages. In Fig. 6, the undershoot, overshoot and
convergence time are 5.82 %, 3.61 % and 3.36 ms
respectively. They are almost the same values in Figs. 7 and
8. Table 2 shows the transient characteristics when the
switching frequency is 300 kHz. From these results, the
transient response is improved similarly when the control
period of neural network predictor is longer than that of PID
control. The proposed method makes it possible to obtain
practical implementation of the neural network control
without increasing the computational cost.

A. Effects of different control period of neural network

Figure 5 shows the waveform when PID control is only
adopted. In this figure, the capacitance C = 417 F, the
switching frequency fs = 100 kHz. The undershoot,
overshoot, and convergence time of transient response are
6.99 %, 4.10 % and 3.02 ms respectively. Figure 6 through 8
vary in the number of output units. It is possible to reduce
the frequency of neural network predictor since increasing
the number of them leads to a prediction of several
B. Evaluation of proposed method for different capacitor
In the case of different capacitor, the effect of the
proposed method is evaluated in graph. Figure 9 through 11
show the transient characteristics when the switching
frequency is 300 kHz. In this case, the number of the output
units is three. The proposed method effectively improves the
transient response with a decrease in capacitance. It is also
expected when the output voltage is greatly varied.

464
 IV. CONCLUSION
This study focuses on the computational burden of the
neural network based control for dc-dc converter. In the
proposed method, the control period of neural network
predictor is configured longer than that of the PID main
control part while the number of prediction is increased.
Compared to the conventional PID control, it is confirmed
that the proposed method can improve the transient response
effectively while reducing the computational burden. From
the results, it is expected that the proposed method can be
implemented using a small computation resource and
provide the flexible control method for dc-dc converters.
REFERENCE
[1] P. T. Krein, Digital Control Generations : Digital Controls for
Power Electronics Through The Third Generation, in Proc. IEEE
PEDS, pp. 1-5, Nov. 2007.
[2] D. Maksimovie, R. Zane and R. Erickson, Impact of Digital Control
in Power Electronics, in Proc. ISPSD&ICs, pp. 13-22, May 2004.
[3] S. Buso, P. Mattavelli. Digital Control in Power Electronics.
Morgan& Claypool, 2006.
465
[4] L. Corradini, D. Maksimovi, P. Mattavelli, R. Zane. Digital Control
of High-Frequency Switched-Mode Power Converters. Wiley-IEEE
Press, 2015.
[5] J. Morroni, R. Zane and D. Maksimovic, Design and
Implementation of An Adaptibe Tuning System Based on Desired
Phase Margin for Digitally Controlled DC-DC Converters, IEEE
Trans. on Power Electronics, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 559-564, Feb. 2009.
[6] H. Maruta, D. Mitsutake, M. Motomura and F. Kurokawa, Transient
Response of Reference Modified Digital PID Control DC-DC
Converters with Neural Network Prediction, IEICE Trans. on
Communications, to be pulished.
[7] S. Haykin. Neural Networks : A Comprehensive Foundation. Prentice
Hall, Central Railroad of New Jersey, 1998.
[8] G. P. Liu. Nonlinear Identification and Control : A Neural Network
Approach. Springer, 2001.
[9] H. C. Chan, K. T. Chau and C. C. Chan, A Neural Network
Controller for Switching Power Converters, IEEE PESC 93 Record,
pp. 887892, 1993.
[10] R. Leyva, L. Martinez-Salamero, B. Jammes, J.C. Marpinard, F.
Guinjoan, Identification and Control of Power Converters by Means
of Neural Networks, IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems I:
Fundamental Theory and Applications, vol.44, pp.735742, 1997.