A NEW LINKAGE WITH LINEAR ACTUATOR FOR TRACKING PV SYSTEMS WITH LARGE ANGULAR STROKE

摘要

This paper focuses on the development of an optimized photovoltaic tracking system involving low-cost, relative simple mechanisms, with linear actuators able to insure strokes comparable with those resulted when using gear rotary actuators. Starting with a rhombus linkage, with a linear actuator on the diagonal used for the elevation motion till 90°, a new performance solution is generated. This new linkage allows large angular strokes by using an asymmetric rhombus and an eccentrically positioned linear actuator. The kinematical modeling of this linkage and the synthesis algorithm, developed for a numerical example regarding the azimuth tracking of a photovoltaic platform, are presented in the paper.