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Abstract
Photovoltaic method of power generation is essentially important as they provide an alternative method of power generation. The solar array have a nonlinear voltage current characteristics where maximum power is reached .When the solar panel is partially shaded it is difficult to track the global maximum power from local peak. So there will be a need of maximum power point tracker to track maximum power. This project defines a simulation circuit in MATLAB/SIMULINK for tracking maximum power from solar panel under varying atmospheric condition and partially shaded conditions. A boost converter is used which will minimize the ripple content and it will provide duty cycle to the maximum power point tracker to track maximum power. The maximum power varies with respect to temperature and solar radiation. MPPT algorithm is used to track the maximum power and thereby improving the efficiency of the system. By manipulating the duty cycle of the boost converter the system implements Ant Colony optimization based MPPT algorithm. The Ant Colony optimization is a randomly searching algorithm which generates duty cycle randomly to reach maximum power in shortest way. The simulation was performed under various solar radiations and their waveforms are obtained for particle swarm optimization and ant colony optimization based maximum power point tracking algorithm.