Robust control of wind turbines based on fractional nonlinear disturbance observer

In order to assure maximum energy conversion, the angular velocity of the wind turbine rotor tracks a nominal profile depending on the wind speed. However, conventionally, wind flows present non‐differentiable components due to turbulence and gust winds, which affect the wind energy management. Thus, a fast and robust controller is required to induce such nominal regime for maximum energy transfer. A fractional‐order nonlinear disturbance‐observer (FNDOB) is proposed in this paper to cancel the non‐differentiable components of the wind speed, as well as dynamic uncertainties and other aerodynamic disturbances. The proposed FNDOB is based on continuous fractional sliding modes, assuring that disturbances and uncertainties are exactly compensated in finite‐time. A representative simulation study for a variable‐speed wind turbine is presented to show the reliability of the proposed scheme, and a comparative analysis with respect to a conventional linear disturbance observer based control is presented.