During the fall quarter at Rose-Hulman 2017-18 I worked on learning about DC-DC typologies and power control techniques by building a Buck-converter to manage power draw from solar panels. The power transfer was controlled by Maximum Power-point Tracking techniques (MPPT

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In the end, I concluded that Perturb and Observe was the simplest and easiest method for me to get the best performance in a short development window. 

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I struggled with system efficiency, and my DCDC buck converter stage only ever was able to draw an input power of ~15W max out of 40 W of rated panels. 

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This could have been due to losses in the transmission lines, or poor panel angle to the sun, or most likely, poor power electronics design due to lack of experience. These things will be researched in more detail in the future.

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