A Control Strategy for an Autonomous Robotic Vacuum Cleaner for Solar Panels

Abstract: Accumulation of dust on the surface of solar panels reduces the amount of radiation reaching it. This leads to loss in generated electric power and formation of hotspots which would permanently damage the solar panel. This project aims at developing an autonomous vacuum cleaning method which can be used on a regular basis to maximize the lifetime and efficiency of a solar panel. This system is implemented using two subsystems namely a Robotic Vacuum Cleaner and a Docking Station. The Robotic Vacuum Cleaner uses a two stage cleaning process to remove the dust from the solar panel. It is designed to work on inclined and slippery surfaces. A control strategy is formulated to navigate the robot in the required path using an appropriate feedback mechanism. The battery voltage of the robot is determined periodically and if it goes below a threshold, it returns to the docking station and charges itself automatically using power drawn from the solar panels. The operation of the robotic vacuum cleaner has been verified and relevant results are presented. The DC Charging circuit in the docking station is simulated in Proteus environment and is implemented in hardware. An economical, robust Robotic Vacuum Cleaner which can clean arrays of Solar panels (with or without inclination) interlinked by rails and recharge itself automatically at a docking station is designed and implemented.