3D tracking system at maximum solar emissivity with microcontroller

摘要

In this paper a smart real-time tracking and positioning for a solar cell or solar panel in order to maximize the solar energy recovered from the electromagnetic radiation from the Sun. The idea of the paper is to use a mathematical transform from the Cartesian coordinates to spherical coordinates, with the mechanical part implementation based on two changes (the azimuth change and angular change) using two actuators, made of precision stepper motors. The system will position and correct the positioning of the solar panel by reading in real-time the instantaneous current on a test load (different from the real charging circuit load), the current is digitized using the internal analog to digital convertor of a microcontroller and stored in a memory buffer. The position for the maximum solar electromagnetic radiation that can to reach the solar panel is determined by periodic scanning for the maximum generated current. In order to scan for the maximum current, the solar cell's orientation is changed for the horizontal angle and azimuth. The solar panel will be rotated in small increments a few degrees in both directions and the instantaneous current will be recorded along with the orientation. The rotations will be for the horizontal angle and azimuth (up and down). A two steps algorithm is used to determine each local maximum. The first step determines the average component using the analog to digital convertor with lower resolution. The second step involves a higher resolution search in the vicinity of the maximum from step one. The higher resolution current data will be stored in a memory buffer along with the corresponding horizontal position and azimuth. With the latest current data and the values stored in the memory buffer, the microcontroller will perform corrections to the position of the solar panel.