In this work, soft actuators made of shape memory polymers (SMPs) are used to actuate and control a solar tracker in response to heat generated by sunlight. To achieve this, a thermo-mechanical design of a solar tracker is 4D printed. The results show that the black-colored elliptical-shaped solar tracker can shrink and tilt by up to 30° when exposed to sunlight with a response time of 30 s, enabling the solar cell to remain exposed to the highest light intensity and therefore, allowing for continuously optimizing the solar cell power output.
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