Contents

LIST OF ACYRONEMS ............................................................................................................................... 2

Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 3
INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 4
System Objective ................................................................................................................................ 5
System components................................................................................................................................ 5
1.Mechanical Components ................................................................................................................. 5
2.Electrical Components ..................................................................................................................... 6
3.Sensers ............................................................................................................................................. 9
4. Actuators and drivers. ................................................................................................................... 10
OPERATING PRINCIPLE OF DUAL AXIS SUN TRACKING SOLAR PANEL .................................................. 11
Working flow of solar-tracker system:.............................................................................................. 12
SYSTEM CONTROL UNIT ........................................................................................................................ 13
COMPONENT BLOCK DIAGRAM ........................................................................................................ 13
GENERIC COMPONENT BLOCK DIAGRAM ......................................................................................... 14
CONTROL SYSYTEM WORKING PRINCIPLE ............................................................................................ 14
BLOCK DIAGRMA OF CONTROLLER SYSTEM ..................................................................................... 15
CONTROL STRATEGY OF Automatic Solar Tracking System (ASTS) ....................................................... 15
Automatic Control............................................................................................................................. 15
Manual Control ................................................................................................................................. 16
Stand Alone System Control Unit...................................................................................................... 17
Computer Based Control Unit ........................................................................................................... 18
Sun Tracker Hardware Design ........................................................................................................... 18
ADVANTAGE AND DISADVANTAGE ................................................................................................... 19
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................... 20
Reference .............................................................................................................................................. 21

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LIST OF ACYRONEMS
PLC……………………………………………Programmable logic control

PV………………………………………………photovoltaic

LDR……………………………………………Light Dependent Resistor

MPPT…………………………………………Maximum power point tracking

DC…………………………………………….Direct current

AC……………………………………………..Alternative current

EMI…………………………………………..Electromagnetic interference

EMC………………………………………………….………...Electromagnetic Compatibility

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ABSTRACT
The key element in mechatronics system design is the concurrent synergetic integration,
modeling, simulation, analysis and optimization of multidisciplinary knowledge through the
design process from the very start of the design process, and toward constrains like higher
performance, speed, precision, efficiency, lower costs and functionality, resulting in products
with more synergy. This paper proposes the conception and development of smart solar
tracking system, based on mechatronics design approach, such that the design and execution
of a solar tracker system dedicated to the PV conversion panels. The proposed Multi -
directional solar tracker device ensures the optimization of the conversion of solar energy into
electricity by properly orienting the PV panel in accordance with the real position of the sun.
The operation of the experimental model of the device is based on a DC motor intelligently
controlled by a drive unit that moves a mini PV panel according to the signals received from
four simple but efficient light sensors. On detecting the maximum intensity of the sunlight the
panel will rotate according to that direction, tracking maximum output power. The output
power from the panel is fed to a boost converter and is stored in a rechargeable battery and
supplied to the loads.

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INTRODUCTION
In remote areas the sun is a cheap source of electricity because instead of hydraulic generators
it uses solar cells to produce electricity. While the output of solar cells depends on the intensity
of sunlight and the angle of incidence. It means to get maximum efficiency; the solar panels 1
must remain in front of sun during the whole day. But due to rotation of earth those panels
can’t maintain their position always in front of sun. This problem results in decrease of their
efficiency. Thus to get a constant output, an automated system is required which should be
capable to constantly rotate the solar panel. The Automatic Sun Tracking System (ASTS) was
made as a prototype to solve the problem, mentioned above. It is completely automatic and
keeps the panel in front of sun until that is visible. The unique feature of this system is that
instead of taking the earth as its reference, it takes the sun as a guiding source. Its active sensors
constantly monitor the sunlight and rotate the panel towards the direction where the intensity
of sunlight is maximum. In case the sun gets invisible e.g. in cloudy weather, then without
tracking the sun the ASTS keeps rotating the solar panel in opposite direction to the rotation of
earth. But its speed of rotation is same as that of earth’s rotation. Due to this property when
after some time e.g. half an hour when the sun again gets visible, the solar panel is exactly in
front of sun. Moreover the system can manage the errors and also provides the error messages
on the LCD display. In manual mode, through the software (GUI) at computer, the solar panel
can be rotated at any desired angle.

The installed power can be increased by adding panels, which is one of the most
attractive features of PV systems. The low conversion efficiency of PV module and the
variation of the output power due to changes in atmospheric conditions such as solar
irradiation and temperature variation, requires specific control technique to ensure maximum
power point operation in order to harvest maximum power from each module. A DC-DC
BOOST converter with high voltage gain is employed to step up the output DC voltage from
the PV module to a high voltage level without losing the overall efficiency of the
system. Energy conversion is most efficient when the rays fall perpendicularly onto the
solar panels. Thus, the work is divided into three main parts namely the mounting system, the
tracking controller system and the electrical power system. In solar tracking systems, solar
panels are mounted on a structure which moves to track the movement of the sun throughout
the day. There are two mediums of tracking, electrical and mechanical tracking. In the both
the methods respective components are used with different strategies to get the maximum
power output. There are three methods of tracking: active, passive and chronological tracking,

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but maximum power tracking gives the maximum output power from the panel there by giving
the maximum efficiency from the panel.

System Objective
The objective of this system is to control the direction of the solar panel by using mechatronic
System that responds to the changing light intensity.

SYSTEM COMPONENTS
1.Mechanical Components
 Bolt and nut
 Spur Gear
 Worm Gears

a. Spur Gear

Spur gears or straight-cut gears are the simplest type of gear. They consist of a cylinder or disk
with teeth projecting radically. The edge of each tooth is straight and aligned parallel to the
axis of rotation. These gears mesh together correctly only if fitted to parallel shafts. No axial
thrust is created by the tooth loads. Spur gears are excellent at moderate speeds but tend to be
noisy at high speeds.

Fig: Spur gear

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 b. Worm Gears

Worm gears are capable of high speed-reduction ratios as well as ensuring that there is no
inertial backlash to the driving source. This is ideal for a solar tracking system as the tracker
needed to move both slowly and with minimal influence from inertia.

Fig: worm gear

c. Bolt and nuts

Bolt and nuts are temporary fasteners which are used to join two parts together. In this project
we used hexagonal bolt and nuts.

Fig: bolt and nuts

d. Body (Frame)

It is used to make support to the system components.

2.Electrical Components
 photovoltaic solar panels (PV)
 rechargeable battery
 microcontroller
 motor drive
 Relays

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  Comparator

these components are connected to the sensors and the solar rotation mechanism

The electrical part components are described as follow:

a. Microcontroller (Arduino Mega 2560)

Arduino is used to develop interactive objects, taking inputs from a variety of switches or
sensors, and controlling a variety of lights, motors, and other physical outputs. The boards
can be assembled by hand or purchased preassembled; the open-source IDE can be
downloaded for free. Moreover, The Arduino Mega 2560 is a microcontroller board based on
the ATmega 2560.
It has:
 54 digital input/output pins (of which 14 can be used as PWM outputs),
 16 analog inputs,
 4 UARTs (hardware serial ports),
 A 16 MHz crystal oscillator,
 A USB connection,
 A power jack,
 An ICSP header, and
 A reset button
In addition, the Arduino programmer is based on the processing integrated development
environment (IDE) and uses a variation of the C and C++ programming languages.
b. Battery:
The tracker needs a power source to keep it running due to the irregularity of the power
received from the solar panel. A rechargeable battery is used; the battery as it is connected to
the tracking system is also connected to the output of the solar panel to keep it charging.
c. photovoltaic solar panels (PV)
Solar chargers convert light energy into DC current. They are generally portable, but can also
be fixed mount. Fixed mount solar chargers are also known as solar panels. Solar panels are
often connected to the electrical grid, whereas portable solar chargers as used off-the-grid.
Solar panels (arrays of photovoltaic cells) make use of renewable energy from the sun and
they are clean. The solar cells on the calculators and satellites are also called photovoltaic
(PV) cells, which as the name implies (photo meaning "light" and voltaic meaning
"electricity"), convert sunlight directly into electricity. A module is a group of cells
connected electrically and packaged into a frame (more commonly known as a solar panel),
which can then be grouped into larger solar arrays.
PV cells are made of special materials called semiconductors such as silicon, which is
currently used most commonly. Basically, when light strikes the cell, a certain portion of it is
absorbed within the semiconductor material. This means that the energy of the absorbed light
is transferred to the semiconductor. The energy knocks electrons loose, allowing them to flow
freely forming an electric current. PV cells also all have one or more electric field that acts to
force electrons freed by light absorption to flow in a certain direction. This flow of electrons
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is a current and by placing metal contacts on the top and bottom of the PV cell, the current
can be drawn off for external use. This current, together with the cell's voltage (which is a
result of its built-in electric field or fields), defines
the power (or wattage) that the solar cell can produce.

Fig: PV Solar panel

d. Relay
It is an electrically operated switch used for switching of large currents. It uses an
electromagnet to operate a switching mechanism mechanically.
There are four parts in every relay:
 Electromagnet
 Armature that can be attracted by the electromagnet
 Spring and
 Set of electrical contacts

Fig: relay

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 e. Comparator
The main function of the comparator is to act as a switch to turn on the relay and rotate the
motor. The comparator is designed to compare the error voltage with two threshold values.
The threshold value is defined as the input voltage at which the output changes states.
f. Input filter
The PV solar panel uses either Electromagnetic interference (EMI) filter or Electromagnetic
Compatibility (EMC) filter. For this project we will use an EMI filter in order to converts the
desired output variable to electric form for later manipulation by the controller.

3.Sensers
In solar tracking system design, any light sensitive device can be used as input sensor unit to
detect and track the sun position. Based on sensors readings, and generated sun tracking error,
the control unit generates the voltage used to command the circuit to drive the motor, that
outputs the rotational displacement of electric motor, which is the motion of solar tracking
system.
Light sensor selection
Light detecting sensor that may use to build solar tracker include:
 phototransistors
 photodiodes
 LDR (Light Dependent Resistor) and
 LLS05-A light sensor
A suitable, inexpensive, simple and easy to interface sensor is analog LDR. There are two
main solar tracking system arrangements; 1) one-axis (one directional) sun tracking system
using two light detectors and 2) two-axis (two directional) sun tracking system using four
light sensitive sensors, in both cases, sensors are mounted on the solar panel and placed in an
enclosure, the LDRs are screened from each other by opaque surfaces.
The sensors that were used in this work are the photo resistors. Photo resistors are
semiconductors (just like solar panels) and have a reduced resistance when light is incident
upon them.

Fig: LDR (Light Dependent Resistor or photo-resister)

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4. Actuators and drivers.
DC motors:
Electric motors most used for solar tracker are PMDC and stepper motors, the proper
selection of motor and drive combination can save energy and improve performance. In a dc
motor, an armature rotates inside a magnetic field. Basic working principle of DC motor is
based on the fact that whenever a current carrying conductor is placed inside a magnetic field,
there will be mechanical force (torque) experienced by that conductor. All kinds of DC
motors work in this principle only. Hence for constructing a dc motor it is essential to
establish a magnetic field
Stepper motors:
It is an electromechanical device which converts digital pulse inputs to incremental shaft
rotation. It is a brushless DC electric motor which is used for precision positioning control
applications.

Fig: stepper motor

It divides the full rotation into a number of equal steps. The motor's position can then be
commanded to move and hold at one of these steps without any position
sensor for feedback (an open-loop controller), as long as the motor is carefully sized to the
application in respect to torque and speed. Since they accept direct digital commands and
produce a mechanical motion, the stepper motors are used widely in industrial control
applications. Stepper motors effectively have multiple "toothed" electromagnets arranged
around a central gear-shaped piece of iron. The electromagnets are energized by an
external driver circuit or a micro controller. To make the motor shaft turn, first, one
electromagnet is given power, which magnetically attracts the gear's teeth. When the gear's
teeth are aligned to the first electromagnet, they are slightly offset from the next
electromagnet. This means that when the next electromagnet is turned on and the first is
turned off, the gear rotates slightly to align with the next one. From there the process is
repeated. Each of those rotations is called a "step", with an integer number of steps making a
full rotation. In that way, the motor can be turned by a precise angle.

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OPERATING PRINCIPLE OF DUAL AXIS SUN TRACKING
SOLAR PANEL

3D model of solar-tracking system

The basic operation or working principle depends upon the intensity of light falling on solar
panel. There are different types of sensor is there on the panel each with different
functionality. This sensor sends their output to controller. Then the controller executes

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predefined task in its software. Finally, using actuators and relay the panel will orient itself to
high light intensity concentration direction. This can simply describe as:

Dual-axis solar-tracking control system composed of PLC, sensors, signal processing

units, PV cells, electromagnetic and mechanical motion control modules and power
supply system.
Panel detects the sun light strength to sensors
The sensors output is given to the PLC which compares it and produces an equivalent
output so as to rotate the motor and align the panel in the direction of light.

Working flow of solar-tracker system:

 Flowchart of tracking algorithm for azimuth control.

 Flowchart of tracking algorithm for elevation control

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SYSTEM CONTROL UNIT
COMPONENT BLOCK DIAGRAM
The block diagram of the developed closed-loop solar tracking system is illustrated in Figure
1,
describing the composition and interconnection of the system. For the closed-loop tracking
approach, the solar tracking problem is how to cause the PV panel location (output) to follow
the sunlight location (input) as closely as possible. The sensor-based feedback controller
consists of the LDR sensor, differential amplifier, and comparator. In the tracking operation,
the LDR sensor measures the sunlight intensity as a reference input signal. The unbalance in
voltages generated by the LDR sensor is amplified and then generates a feedback error voltage.
The error voltage is proportional to the difference between the sunlight location and the PV
panel location. At this time the comparator compares the error voltage with a specified
threshold (tolerance). If the comparator output goes high state, the motor driver and a relay are
activated so as to rotate the dual-axis tracking motor and bring the PV panel to face the Sun.
Accordingly, the feedback controller performs the vital functions: PV panel and sunlight are
constantly monitored and send a differential control signal to drive the PV panel until the error
voltage is less than a pre-specified threshold value.

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sunlight comparator plant PV panel
location EMI + Arduino mega Motor location
filter driver and PV
2560 panel
relay
_

feedback

Closed loop specific blocks diagram of solar-tracking system

GENERIC COMPONENT BLOCK DIAGRAM

Generic component block diagram is not show specific variable parameters rather it shows
the general representation of the given variables.

Control input plant

Desired input

Input Comp- ACTUATOR

controller PROCESS Actual output
filter arator

Sensor

Closed loop Generic component block diagram of solar-tracking system

CONTROL SYSYTEM WORKING PRINCIPLE

The maximum efficiency of a solar panel is extracted using two combined techniques. The first
one we have to implement is a micro-controller based Solar-tracking system. The system
checks the position of the sun and controls the movement of a solar panel so that radiation of
the sun comes normally to the surface of the solar panel and the second is to install an MPPT

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charge controller which makes the Inverter to work at maximum power point. So that under
any climatic conditions maximum power is extracted. This way we make efficient use of both
solar panel and solar-energy from sun. There are different methods of tracking out the power
form the panel.

The working principle of dual axis solar system is as follows:

 Auto-track control system is composed of PLC, sensor, signal processing unit, PV cells,
electromagnetic and mechanical motion control modules and power supply systems.
 Panel detect the sun light strength to the sensor,
 The sensor output is given to the PLC which compare it and produce an equivalent
output so as to rotate the motor and align the panel with the maximum sun light
direction.

BLOCK DIAGRMA OF CONTROLLER SYSTEM

Fig 3. control system

CONTROL STRATEGY OF AUTOMATIC SOLAR TRACKING

SYSTEM (ASTS)
For a successful operation, the ASTS has two types of control approach:

Automatic Control
With the help of an efficient algorithm (written in C) only one Master Microcontroller is being
used to manage the automatic operation of ASTS. This controller has following functions:

• Senses all of six sensors.

• Drives stepper motor.

• Drives LCD.

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• Controls the warning indicators e.g. buzzer, LED’s etc.

• Communicates (by parallel port) with the slave microcontroller.

The central driving components of automatic control are only six sensors. Their operation has
been explained on the previous page.

Manual Control
As no human made system is so perfect so an unpredictable fault may occur in the any system.
That is why a manual control option was also kept in ASTS. While designing this part of control
two objectives were kept in mind:

• The manual control should work efficiently.

• It should be as user friendly as possible.

Following two approaches have been used to accomplish the manual control.

• Standalone system control Unit

• Computer based control unit

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Figure 5. Control circuit Chart showing automatic operation of ASTS

Stand Alone System Control Unit

It is a simple user interface, which includes onboard LCD, Keypad, Buzzer and a complete
PCB of the system circuit. The LCD (Hitachi HD44780) displays different messages, which
can help the user in manually operating the system. While the keypad includes keys of Numeric
Digits, Emergency Stop, clock wise rotation and counter clockwise rotation. Using keypad a
user can manually rotate the solar panel by entering angle from 0 to 180. The angle value is
limited to only 180 values because after sunrise, the earth almost rotates only 180 degrees and
then the sun disappears. The advantage of this unit is that to run the system it does not need
computer but its disadvantage is that at a time it controls only one solar panel. In figure-1 this
unit shown in yellow color, in middle of solar panel and computer terminal.

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Computer Based Control Unit
This is completely software based control, written in VB 6.0. It incorporates a GUI (figure-6)
and a Database, linked with Microsoft Access. Using this software the computer serially
communicates (RS232) with the ASTS. The Slave microcontroller (89c51) of the system makes
this communication successful. Due to some fault if the solar panel stops rotating, then with
the help of this software a user can:

• rotate the solar panel manually.

• stop all operations of ASTS (in emergency case)

The database of this system can be used to keep records, which can be retrieved even after a
long time. While saving the new data, the database automatically takes the date and time from
the computer and keeps them saved along with the data, entered by the human being. The
advantages of computer-based control include:

• Facility of Database.

• At a time this software can handle three ASTS systems.

• It has an attracting GUI.

Sun Tracker Hardware Design

Figure 4 presents one of the hardware circuits of the proposed Sun tracker for azimuth tracking.
The entire system has two hardware circuits with both of azimuth direction and elevation
direction to drive the dual-axis AC motor. The developed Sun tracker is comprised of three
modules, which are the LDR-based sensing circuit, comparator and a motor driver with a relay.

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Figure. Complete control circuit diagram of the Sun tracker for azimuth tracking.

To track the sunlight, it is necessary to sense the position of the Sun and for that an electro-
optical sensor is needed. The proposed Sun tracker uses the electro-optical sensor for self-
calibration. A LDR or photo resistor is a variable resistor whose electrical resistance depends
on the intensity of the light falling on it. The LDR resistance decreases with incident light
intensity increasing. As seen in the first part of Figure 4, the LDR sensor is a part of the voltage
divider circuit in order to give an output voltage.

ADVANTAGE AND DISADVANTAGE

ADVANTAGE:

 Simple
 Low cost
 Eco-friendly
 We monitor directly using PC
 Tracking accuracy is more
 Reduce the usage of power from power grid

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DISADVANTAGE:

 Solar electricity is not available at night and is less available in cloudy weather
condition. Therefore, the complimentary power system is required.
 Limited power density
 Solar system produces DC which must be converted AC when used in currently
existing distribution grids.

CONCLUSION
The PV array output power delivered to a load can be maximized using MPPT control systems.
It consists of a power conditioner to interface the PV output to the load. In this project, the
system consists of a high-efficiency, Boost type dc/dc converter, and a microcontroller based
unit which controls the dc/dc converter directly from the PV. And, in this scheme we
implemented multi directional tracking which tracks the sun continuously. In case of failure of
supply main supply can be connected to overcome the power interruption.

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REFERENCE
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photovoltaic system”, IEEE International Conference on Automation, Quality and Testing, Robotics, May
2008, Vol. 3, pp. 434 – 439
2. A. Yazidi, F. Betin, G. Notton, G. A. Capolino, “Low cost two-axis solar tracker with high precision
positioning,” First International symposium on Environment Identities in Mediterranean Area, July 2006,
pp. 211 – 216
3. J. Beltran, etl. “Design, manufacturing and performance test of a solar tracker made by a embedded
control,” Proceedings of the Electronics, Robotics and Automotive Mechanics Conference, 2007, pp. 129-
134
4. P. R. Mukund, Wind and Solar Power Systems, CRC Press, 1999
5. Ignacio Luque-Heredia, etl. “A sun tracking error monitor for photovoltaic concentrators,” Electronics,
Robotics and Automotive Mechanics Conference, Sept 2007, pp. 129 – 134
6. O. Oltu, etl. “Solar panel energetic efficiency optimization method, based on an specific detector and
orientation microsystem,” International Semiconductor Conference, Oct 2007, Vol. 1, pp. 127 – 130
7. http://www.progressivedyn.com/battery_basics.html
8. M. A. Quintana, etl. “Recent advances in outdoor performance evaluation of PV systems,” Twenty Third
IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, May 1993, pp. 1197 – 1202

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