Embedded MPPT for Photovoltaic Systems: Low-Cost Microcontrollers, P&O and Incremental Conductance Algorithms, and IoT-Based Monitoring - A Systematic Review

Abstract

         This survey offers an embedded-oriented view of MPPT applied to PV systems, with specific attention devoted to low-cost microcontroller-based implementations and classical P&O and INC algorithms for application in IoT-supervised smart PV infrastructures. This paper synthesizes 83 recent peer-reviewed articles published from 2023 to 2025. It highlights how embedded MPPT controllers are increasingly implemented using low-cost hardware, such as Arduino , ESP32 and STM32, that support real-time duty-cycle control, remote monitoring, and PV supervision at a large scale. These results confirm that although classical P&O and INC dominate lower-memory embedded hardware, they are inherently limited by steady-state oscillations, poor adaptability to rapid irradiance transitions, and practical constraints such as finite ADC resolution and sampling delays. To address these limitations, robust and hybrid strategies for enhancement (among which Active Disturbance Rejection Control – ADRC/LADRC, sliding-mode-and super-twisting Sliding-mode or Super-twisting controllers controllers, as well as hybrid approaches such as INC–SMC and LADRC– metaheuristic optimization) always tend to outperform conventional ones by reducing ripple magnitude , decreasing the settling time while guaranteeing a higher tracking efficiency under conditions of partial shading ranging from partially clouded to dynamic operating conditions. Additionally, enables embedded MPPT systems with intelligent cyber-physical infrastructures and with predictively supervised, adaptively operated systems, using secured wireless IoT monitoring layers (WiFi, LoRaWAN, XBee, MQTT). There are still important research gaps, such as the lack of an end-to-end, unified, IoT-robust co-design, insufficient real-time resilience, and insufficient cybersecurity integration. Thus, this review suggests that the secure cyber-physical embedded MPPT model, based on ESP32 edge control, is adopted with ADRC-based stability improvement and secure IoT communication, for highly relevant PV farm installations in harsh Iraqi weather, such as Basra and desert areas.