Robust H∞ suboptimal control based on effective informed adaptive particle swarm optimisation algorithm for proton exchange membrane fuel cell system

A novel robust H_∞ control strategy used to adjust the oxygen excess ratio on the cathode side for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system is proposed. This robust H_∞ suboptimal control method is based on an effective informed adaptive particle swarm optimisation algorithm with better equilibrium characteristic between global search and local search. Owing to the existence of uncertainties and disturbances, the setup of objectives associated with various inequality constraints and the selection of weighting functions is considered as an optimisation problem in the framework of H_∞ mixed sensitivity and structure singular value analysis. The simulation results on the running process of an electrical vehicle demonstrate that this proposed method can maintain oxygen excess ratio better at the optimal operating point, so that the net output power from the PEMFC system could be increased with the decrease of the parasitic power. In comparison with prior control approaches from other researchers, the method addressed in this study has exhibited better robust performance in the presence of multiple uncertain parameters and disturbances. The feasibility and the validity of the robust H_∞ suboptimal control method proposed have been proven qualitatively from the experimental study.