Adaptive Fuzzy Decoupling Control for PEMFC Air Supply System Considering Altitude Variation

Altitude variation brings control challenges to the air supply system of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC)-powered autonomous aerial vehicles (AAVs), where the coupling effect between the air supply objectives (oxygen excess ratio, OER, and cathode pressure) varies with altitude. In this article, a novel analysis method is developed to characterize the mechanism by which the altitude variation affects the coupling effect. To cope with the varying coupling effect, an adaptive fuzzy decoupling control considering altitude variation is proposed, which is independent of model parameters and exhibits greater adaptability than conventional methods. By adopting the developed coupling effect analysis, the proposed control reduces the execution time by 25.8% compared with the representative adaptive fuzzy decoupling control. Comparative experiments conducted on a controller hardware-in-the-loop testbed validate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed control in PEMFC AAV regulation under varying altitude and loading conditions. Compared with the conventional PI-based method, the proposed control achieves faster response times while reducing the mean absolute error of the two air supply objectives by 40.30% and 50.98%, respectively, which enhances the PEMFC adaptability to altitude variation during the flight mission.