International Journal of Trend in Scientific

Research and Development (IJTSRD)

International Open Access Journal
ISSN No: 2456 - 6470 | www.ijtsrd.com | Volume - 2 | Issue – 1

Automatic Solar Tracker with Dust Wiper Using PID Controller

Kavya S Gogi 1, Maheshan CM 2, H Prasanna Kumar 2

1
P.G Scholar, Department of Electrical Engineering, UVCE, Bangalore, India,
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical engineering, UVCE, Bangalore, India

ABSTRACT
The Earth receives 174 peta watts (PW) of incoming Keywords: Solar
olar Panel, Dust wiper, PID controller,
solar radiation at the upper atmosphere. Approximately Acclerometer, DC motor.
30% is reflected back to space while the rest is
absorbed. Solar energy is an alternative for fossil fuels I. INTRODUCTION
as it is non-polluting,
polluting, clean, reliable and renewable
source of energy.. It does not pollute the air by releasing Currently, many alternative energy sources appear to be
harmful gases like carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide or technically useful. One of them is solar energy. The
sulphur oxide. So, the risk of damage to the panels are the fundamental solar-energy
solar conversion
environment is reduced. Thus the use of solar devices component. Conventional
entional solar panels, fixed with a
was more suggested and the traffic signal and street certain angle, limit their area of exposure from the sun
lights inn villages was installed using solar panel but the during the course of the day. Therefore, the average
solar PV modules are generally employed in the dusty solar energy is not always maximized. Sun-tracking
Sun
environments and the dust gets accumulated on the systems are essential for many applications such as
front surface of the module and blocks the incident thermal energy storage systems and solar energy based
light form the sun and it reduces the power genera
generation power generation systems in order to improve system
capacity of the module, the power output reduces if the performance. The system always keeps the plane of the
module is not cleaned for a regularly. In order to panel normal to the direction of the sun. By doing so,
regularly clean the dust, this research presents a control maximum irradiation and thermal energy would be
application of a sun tracker that is able to follow the taken from the sun. The elevation angle of the sun
sun with high accuracy and clean ean the dust on the panel remains almost invariant in a month and varies little in
without the necessity of either a precise procedure of a year. Therefore, a single axis position control scheme
installation or recalibration. The designed tracking may be sufficient for the collection of solar energy in
system consists of sensors, microcontroller, drivers for some applications. In flat panel photovoltaic (PV)
dc motors and gear- bearing arrangements with applications, trackers are used to minimize the angle of
supports and mountings.ngs. DC motor is used to move the incidence between the incoming sunlight and a
system panel so that sun’s beam is able to remain photovoltaic panel. Thus increases the amount of
aligned with the solar panel and also clean the dust on energy produced from a fixed amount of installed
the panel which improves the efficiency of the solar power generating capacity. In concentrated
concen
panel. Simulation and experimental results are obtained photovoltaic (CPV) and concentrated solar thermal
to a low
w cost single axis solar tracker and are exposed. (CSP) applications, trackers are used to enable the
Energy saving factors are taken into account, which optical components in the CPV and CSP systems. The
implies that, among other factors, the sun is not optics in concentrated solar applications accepts the
constantly tracked with the same accuracy, to prevent direct component of sunlight light and therefore
th must
energy over consumption by the motors. be oriented appropriately to collect energy. Tracking

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) ISSN: 2456-6470
systems are found in all concentrator applications which is the case in tropical countries like India. The
because such systems do not produce energy unless dust gets accumulated on the front surface of the
pointed at the sun. Global power consumption currently module and blocks the incident light from the sun. It
stands at approximately 15 TW the vast majority of reduces the power generation capacity of the module.
which is generated by the combustion of fossil fuels. The power output reduces as much as by 50% if the
The associated release of carbon di oxide from these module is not cleaned for a month. In order to regularly
anthropogenic sources has dramatically altered the clean the dust, a automatic cleaning system has been
composition of the atmosphere and may detrimentally designed, which senses the dust on the solar panel and
impact global temperature, sea levels, and weather also cleans the module automatically. This automated
patterns. The terawatt challenge is the effort to supply system is implemented using 8051 microcontroller
up to 30 TW of carbon-free power by the mid-21st which controls the DC gear motor. This mechanism
century. consists of a sensor (LDR). While for cleaning the PV
modules, a mechanism consists of a sliding brushes has
PROBLEM STATEMENT been developed. In terms of daily energy generation,
A solar tracker is used in various systems for the the presented automatic-cleaning scheme provides
improvement of harnessing of solar radiation. The about 30% more energy output when compared to the
problem that is posed is the implementation of a system dust accumulated PV module.
which is capable of enhancing production of power by
2. A Performance Analysis of Brushless DC Motor by
30-40%. The dust collected on the solar panel reduces
using PID Controller-Kautik R. Patil-PG Student,
the efficiency of the panel decreasing or lowering the
Department of Electrical Engineering, Matsyodari
panel output.
Shikshan Sanstha’s, College of Engineering and
OBJECTIVE Technology Nagewadi, Jalna. Increase in need of
industry for high productivity is placing new demands
The main objective is to obtain maximum efficiency on mechanisms connected with electrical motors. This
from single axis solar tracking system and to clean the leads different problems in operation due to fast
solar panel at regular intervals of time to improve the dynamics and instability. The stability of the system is
efficiency of the panel. essential to work at desired set targets. The non- linear
To achieve this objective effects caused by a motor frequently reduce stability,
which reduces the controller’s ability to maintain speed
1. Single axis solar tracker to be built using the or position at set points. Hence number of the industrial
Sensors. process applications requires speed & position control
2. PID algorithm has to be implemented for solar of DC motor. A brushless DC motor described as
panel tilt error minimization. magnet being the rotor and its stationary windings
3. To achieve efficiency of the solar panel voltage forming the stator. This design provides many
using Windshield wiper. advantages over the brush DC motor. Brushless DC
4. Aim to implement prototype system. (BLDC) motor drives are becoming widely used in
various consumer and industrial systems, such as servo
motor drives, home appliances, computer peripherals,
II. LITERATURE SURVEY and automotive applications in recent years because of
their high efficiency, silent operation, compact form,
Literature review has information on the papers that has reliability, and low maintenance.
been referred to have a brief idea on the prototype
model implementation, four papers mentioned below 3. Tracking of Sun for Solar Panels and Real Time
has been reviewed to analyze the single axis tracking, Monitoring Using LabVIEW-Bipin Krishna, Manipal
real time tilt and voltage monitoring and tilt error Institute of Technology, Department of Instrumentation
minimization using PID. & Control. Sun is a very abundant source of power.
Even so, only a fraction of the entire energy is
1. Microcontroller based Automatic cleaning of Solar harnessed and that too not efficiently. The main cause
Panel -S. B. Halbhavi-Department of Electrical & of this is the high cost of installation of solar cells. Also
Electronics Engineering, Gogte Institute of solar cells are mostly kept fixed, so they do not obtain
Technology, Belgaum Karnataka, India. The solar PV the optimum amount of sunlight throughout the day.
modules are generally employed in dusty environments The development of a simple process to track the sun

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) ISSN: 2456-6470
and attain maximum efficiency using Microcontroller which means that the solar panel is facing the sun and
and LabVIEW for real time monitoring. the light intensities falling on the four LDRs are equal
or slightly different.
4. Self-Cleaning and Tracking Solar Photovoltaic Panel
for Improving Efficiency- Bandam Abhilash, In general, the panel should be rotated towards East
Department of Electrical Engineering Indian Institute of direction in order to make it ready for operation on the
Technology, Bombay Powai, Mumbai-400076- next day.
Electricity is one of the basic necessities of mankind.
As the demand of electricity is increasing, there is need Block Diagram of solar tracking and Panel Cleaning
to exploit renewable sources of energy. power shortage
The figure 2 shows the panel placed with 4 LDRs
in India, the use of solar energy could be beneficial to
which conducts and passes current according to
great extent. The number and size of the Photovoltaic
intensity of light. These value of voltage is read by
(PV) systems are growing and consequently the amount
arduino controller and then computes the difference in
of the investments and the related opportunities and
voltage of intensity of LDRs to achieve the maximum
risks are increasing. To make solar energy more
direction facing solar panel towards sun by controlling
fruitful, the efficiency of solar array systems must be
the axis by the help of DC motor which is controlled
maximized. For the efficiency evaluation of PV panels,
using PWM and PID controller as shown below. The
that has been discussed with particular attention to the
accelerometer is placed on top of the panel to monitor
presence of dust and maximum intensity of light on the
the axis direction in terms of degree.
panel surface. Mainly, the effects of the dust and
intensity of light on the efficiencies of the PV panels
have been highlighted. This paper gives the brief
description of the design and construction of
microcontroller based cleaning and tracking system.

III. METHODOLOGY
The main concept of the solar-tracking system is to
sense the sun light by using four light dependent
resistors (LDRs). Each LDR is fixed inside the hallow
cylindrical tubes. For controlling the angle of tilt
positioned towards the direction of maximum sunlight,
the LDR assembly is fixed onto the flat-solar panel,
shown in Figure 1. The differential signals of each pair
of LDRs representing the angular error of the solar
panel are employed to re-position the panel in such a
way that the angular errors are minimized. If the Figure 2, block diagram
difference between LDR1 + LDR2 and LDR3 + LDR4, Figure also shows the block diagram of close loop PID
gives error signal that is minimized using PID system of DC motor. The input variable of the PID
controller. controller is the velocity error ωe calculated as
difference between the LDRs voltage values.
The actual velocity of motor, in revolutions per minute
(RPM), is calculated based on frequency of encoder
waveform multiplied by 60.
∗
RPM =

Where f is the frequency of encoder waveform and Ns

Figure 1, Front surface of Solar panel with LDR’s at
is the number of pulses per revolution (equal with the
panel ends.
number of transparent sections from encoder disk). A
If the error signals are smaller than or equal to the value frequency variation of 1 Hz corresponds to RPM
of tolerance, arduino controller generates no signal;
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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) ISSN: 2456-6470
2456
variation of 60, due to the low resolution (PPR=1
(PPR=1). To option. Most of these cleaning systems work like
reduce this dependence a median filter is used. windshield wipers, brushing dust away from the solar
panels with a spray hose and
nd mechanical arm. Consider
The PID controller adjusts the output voltage level of self-cleaning
cleaning panels for large commercial or public
the H-bridge
bridge circuit by increasing or decreasing the utility sites, especially those in remote, dry, or
duty cycle of the PWM signal. hazardous locations.
Wipers may be powered by a variety of means,
although most in use today are powered by an electric
motorr through a series of mechanical components,
typically two 4-bar
bar linkages in series or parallel and
vehicles with air operated brakes sometimes use
pneumatic wipers which are powered by tapping a
small amount of pressurized air from the brake system
Figure 3, dc motor control block diagram to a small
mall air operated motor mounted on or just above
The H-bridge L298n is used as motor driver to control the windscreen. These wipers are activated by opening
the motor from Lab VIEW via Arduino board and a valve which allows pressurized air to enter the motor
Arduino provides control signals to the DC motor and .The Early wipers were often driven by a vacuum motor
allows to drive motors in both directions, clockwise powered by manifold vacuum. This had the drawback
dr
(CW) or counter-clockwise
clockwise (CCW), by reversing the that manifold vacuum varies depending on throttle
polarity of the motor supply voltage. The main position, and is almost non-existent
existent under wide-open
wide
components are four switching elements S1, S2, S3 and throttle, when the wipers would slow down or even
S4 (transistors), actuated diagonally. The block diagram stop. This problem was overcome somewhat by using a
of the used H-bridge circuit is shown. combined fuel or vacuum booster pump.
Windshield wiper is a mechanical sweeper that wipes
water off a windshield. Arm is a movable part.
Articulation is a part that attaches the wipes blade to the
arm. Blade is apart that supports the wiper and is
attached to the wiper arm. Wiper rubber is a piece of
rubber used to wipe the window. Fluted shaft is a
grooved axle that rotates the wiper arm.

Figure 4, H-bridge
bridge circuit diagram
The operation of an H-bridge
bridge circuit is described as
follows. The motor has two leads. To turn the motor in
CW direction, a positive voltage will be applied to the Figure 5 ,Windshield wiper.
left lead, and the right lead should be connected to
ground. In this case S1 and S4 are switched
ched on, and S2
and S3 are switched off. Inverse, if we want to rotate
the motor in CCW direction, S1 and S4 are switched
off, and S2 and S3 are switched on. The voltage
polarity is reversed and this fact causes the motor to
rotate in the opposite direction.

Solar panel cleaning

For solar panels in hard to reach areas, automatic
cleaning systems and cleaning robots are a popular

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) ISSN: 2456-6470
2456

Figure 5.6 Hardware Module Setup

The above figure shows the hardware working module
setup of final develeped prototype module
Figure 8, Front panel showing control parameters
Front panel for Solar Tracking
In the above figure 8, the temperature and angle
calibration scales are used to remove offset. Also, the
PID values are also shown. The wiper initialization and
controlling parameters are also shown.

IV - RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Solar panel voltage and power output results

time Voltag current Resistance power

e (V) (A) (ohm)
6 AM 3.16 0.0632 50 0.2
Figure 7, Front panel display of solar tracker, LDRs 7 AM 6.32 0.1264 50 0.8
Variation and panel tilt angle 8 AM 10.34 0.2049 50 2.1
9 AM 15.32 0.3065 50 4.7
The above figure 7, shows temperature of the solar 10 AM 17.60 0.3520 50 6.2
panel as well as its tilt angle based on the actual 11 AM 19.87 0.3974 50 7.9
position of the sun in real time and it varies from -140 12 PM 20.12 0.4024 50 8.1
to +140 degrees. The LDR sensors which are placed on 1 PM 19.23 0.384 50 7.4
either side of the panel are shown in figure. 2 PM 18.9 0.377 50 7.14
The sensitivity voltage output of all the four LDR’s will 3 PM 19.49 0.387 50 7.6
be displayed on the front panel. The differential error 4 PM 17.88 0.3577 50 6.4
between the sum of LDR1+LDR2
R1+LDR2 and the sum of 5 PM 14.14 0.2828 50 4
LDR3+LDR4 is shown in error meter. 6 PM 3.87 0.0774 50 0.3
7 PM 1.4 0.028 50 0.039
When the wiperr starts wiping the solar panel
panel, a green
light is indicated on the front panel at that time the The tabular column gives the information of how the
tracking is stopped for few seconds or minutes as per voltage, current and power varies for a tilt panel
calibration of the wiper delay parameter . according to time.

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) ISSN: 2456-6470
The dust falling on the solar panel was wiped for
regular intervals of time , thus increasing the efficiency
and life of the solar panel thus overcoming two major
disadvantage of solar panel real time use.

VI - FUTURE WORK
The dual axis is recommended upon large systems
where a high power generation is required, that is
because the annual axis increasing power during the
year, so when considering a single solar panel of (36W)
the saved power will be a very small fraction of that.
Dust sensor with high sensitivity can be used in order to
automatically clean the solar panel rather regular time
intervals using fuzzy logic. Real time monitoring of the
Figure 9, Graph representing the Time versus
entire plant can be implemented using SCADA or HMI
voltage/power /current.
REFERENCES
I-V Characteristic curve of the analysis
1) Microcontroller based Automatic cleaning of Solar
A current-voltage (I-V) curve shows the possible
Panel -S. B. Halbhavi-Department of Electrical &
combinations of current and voltage output of a
Electronics Engineering, Gogte Institute of
photovoltaic device. A PV device, such as a solar
Technology, Belgaum Karnataka, India. 2015
module, produces its maximum current when there is
no resistance in the circuit that is when there is a short 2) A Performance Analysis of Brushless DC Motor by
circuit between its positive and negative terminals. using PID Controller-Kautik R. Patil-PG Student,
Department of Electrical Engineering, Matsyodari
Shikshan Sanstha’s, College of Engineering and
Technology Nagewadi, Jalna. 2010
3) Tracking of Sun for Solar Panels and Real Time
Monitoring Using LabVIEW-Bipin Krishna,
Manipal Institute of Technology, Department of
Instrumentation & Control. 2014
4) 4. Self-Cleaning and Tracking Solar Photovoltaic
Panel for Improving Efficiency- Bandam Abhilash,
Department of Electrical Engineering Indian
Institute of Technology, Bombay Powai, Mumbai-
400076. 2014
Figure 10, I-V characteristics of the experimental 5) Naveenkumar, R. and D.P. Krishna, Low Cost Data
analysis. Acquisition and Control using Arduino Prototyping
Platform and LabVIEW. International Journal of
V - CONCLUSION
Science and Research, 2013. 2(2): p. 366-369.
A single axis solar tracker that can produce maximum 6) Zouari, F., K.B. Saad, and M. Benrejeb, Adaptive
voltage and turn in particular direction depending upon Internal Model Control of a DC Motor Drive
the light intensity falling on the light dependent System Using Dynamic Neural Network. Journal of
resistors was built successfully and the analysis of the Software Engineering and Applications, 2012.
prototype system was done and PID Algorithm was 5(03): p. 168.
applied to minimize the solar panel tilt error.
LDR characteristics were analyzed and single axis solar
tracker is simulated and tested successfully.

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