VII. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
LMJ solar cells are not commercially available yet, and the
availability of the I/V characteristics of these cells is very
limited. Therefore, a simple model prototype is built in the
laboratory to validate the interconnection technique presented
in this paper. The simplified model is shown in Fig. 9. Four
voltage sources with series connected resistors having different
values have been used to emulate an LMJ cell. The output of
the dc-dc converters are connected together to a common
terminal and this terminal powers a load constructed from a
battery and resistors. The output power of the system depends
on the individual duty cycles of the dc-dc converters. The same
initial duty cycles and values of the constants for PSO are
applied as stated in Table I and II. The PSO algorithm is used
for updating the duty cycles of the dc-dc converters.
The main intention of the experimental model was to verify
how the PSO algorithm could be used to harness power from
LMJ solar cells, and the results are shown in Fig. 10. The
power axis is normalized with respect to the maximum power
achieved. It is apparent from the figure that the PSO algorithm
is driving the operating point to the maximum output power.