Robust hybrid nonlinear control approach for stability enhancement of a constant power load DC-DC boost converter

•A robust hybrid controller by combining the advantages of the nonlinear backstepping controller and a super-twisting reaching law-based sliding mode controller will be formulated based on the developed model, which can ensure both the external disturbance rejection and faster transient performance.•This super-twisting reaching law can reduce the control signal amplitude to avoid saturation, which effectively reduces the chattering phenomenon in the control effort.•Guaranteeing the convergence of both voltage and current which in turn ensures the accurate tracking performance.•To show the effectiveness of the proposed controller in various system operating circumstances, simulation and experimental studies are conducted. This paper presents a robust hybrid super-twisting reaching law-based sliding mode controller in conjunction with a complementing recursive backstepping controller for DC-DC boost converters with constant power loads (CPLs). The key control goal is to keep the DC-bus voltage steady and constant while continuously powering the CPL. The nonlinear dynamical model of the DC-DC boost converter is translated into Brunovsky’s canonical forms, utilizing the precise feedback linearization technique to attain this control goal. It is worth mentioning that the dynamical model has been modified with bounded external uncertainties to demonstrate the restraint performance for huge loads and input voltage variations. The proposed hybrid controller is then constructed using this model. Furthermore, to ensure the large signal stability of the whole system under the designed control law, the Lyapunov stability theory is used. Numerical simulation analysis are carried out in MATLAB/Simulink to validate the performance of the designed robust controller for a DC–DC boost converter feeding a CPL when the operating point change. The results show that the designed controller outperforms both existing nonlinear controllers and a traditional PI controller in terms of ensuring the system’s stability and fast response in a variety of operating modes. Finally, in order to confirm the theoretical design and simulation results of the designed robust hybrid controller, experimental results are also provided in this paper.