Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to design and develop an IR and sprinkler based embedded controller operated robotic arm for automatic dust removal system to mitigate the dust effect on the solar panel surface, since dust accumulation normally affected by real weather conditions is one of the serious concern for the deterioration of photovoltaic (PV) system output.
Design/methodology/approach
The system is a wet cleaning device which provides a cheap silicon rubber-based wiping operation controlled by the pulse width modulation-operated motors of robotic arm. The IEEE 1149.1-compliant mixed signal-embedded platform of C8051F226DK is involved to command the complete system.
Findings
A prototype of 30 WP system is capable of producing an inspiring average value of 11.26 per cent in energy increase, 13.63 per cent in PV module efficiency and 85.20 per cent in performance ratio of the system after 73 days of cleaning in summer season. In addition, a total of 1,617.93 W power; 1,0516.55 Wh energy; and 350.55 KWh/KWP final yield was found during the entire cleaning period.
Originality/value
A novel technique of the implementation of IR sensor and sprinkler in dust mitigation is proposed in this paper. The IR sensor is used as a versatile object which can manage the robotic arm setting and control the automatic switching between cleaning and charging, as well as identify the thermal condition of solar panel for overheating.
Product handling is carried out by the conveyor belts, which are moved by one or more electric motors. Hot products heat up the rollers of conveyor belt, which in turn affect the motor shaft temperature and a reduction in motor performance is observed. To overcome this overheating problem, a novel solarpowered master-slave arrangement of motors is proposed, which is operated by a robotic arm-based motor shifting mechanism controlled by an industry standard IEEE 1149.1 specification-based mixed signal embedded controller C8051F226DK. Another embedded controller of Nuvoton's N76E003AT20 is used for the temperature detection. The speed of master-slave motors is controlled by a PWM technique. The indigenously developed hardware prototype of the proposed system extracted 11.38% more solar energy than conventional supply and reported an encouraging 52.69% energy saving during the product handling on conveyor belt. As compared to the traditional methods, the experimental work achieved higher temperature reduction of the motor up to 34.26% and guaranteed the safe operation of motor. The master-slave technique, first of its kind, utilizes solar power for the motor operation during the cooling process. The proposed motor cooling approach is free from air, liquid, and PCM (phase-changing material)-based cooling. Thus, the work does not face any leakage problems and health hazards due to the wastage of water, oil and other costly and toxic cooling materials. Additionally, the motors are used with their original dimensions without any changes in motor casing. These different factors make the work competitive among other motor cooling options.
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