Dual-axis solar tracking system: A combined astronomical estimation and visual feedback

Abstract

This paper presents a proposed technique for dual-axis solar tracking system using fusion based approach of an astronomical based estimation and a visual sensor based feedback to locate and track sun position continuously time by time. The astronomical based calculation is used to estimate azimuth and elevation angles of a dual-axis solar power plant with respect to the time and location of the plant. Meanwhile, the visual based correction is used to localize the sun on the captured image when the camera can detect the sun (i.e. at sunny). The main purpose of this designed method is to improve efficiency of a dual-axis solar power plant system in absorbing sun energy continuously time by time with stable performance in various weather conditions. According to the simulation results, it shows that the proposed algorithm outperform to the only astronomical algorithm based. The sum squared error on azimuth and elevation angles resulted from the proposed algorithm along the simulation are 0.3688 and 0.3874 degree, respectively. On the other hand, the astronomical algorithm only method result sum squared error 1.0997 and 1.2877 degree on azimuth and elevation angles, respectively.