Design of prototype dual axis tracker solar panel controlled by geared dc servo motors

Abstract

Sunlight sensing for maximum illumination, providing initial position and delays of PV panel, design of an adequate control unit for minimal consuming servo motors are the main challenges of solar tracking systems. That is the objective of this paper to design and implement an automatic control for directing maximum solar illumination to a photovoltaic (PV) panel. The proposed prototype dual axis solar tracker panel is used to optimize the conversion of solar energy into electricity by orienting the panel toward the real position of the sun, at a cost of mechanical complexity and maintenance need, for the best efficiency. In hardware development, two geared DC servo motors are pulse width modulation (PWM) controlled by a drive unit moving the panel using four light dependant resistors (LDR) to provide analog signals processed by a simple and low energy ATMEGA328P microcontroller with Arduino. For the software part, after data processing, a C++ programming controls two DC servo motors to position light sensors in the most favorable direction, where solar panel and sensors will be perpendicular to the sunlight.