Solar Panel Cleaning Robot

Volume 3, Issue 3, March– 2018 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
Solar Panel Cleaning Robot

Babu K, Dinesh kumar P, Kamala priya S, Kathirvel P
1,2,3UG Students, Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering, INDIA
4Assistant Professor of Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering Dr. Mahalingam College of Engineering and
Technology, Pollachi, INDIA
Abstract:- The dust particles accumulating on the solar The cleaning of dust particles on the solar panel is a
panels will prevent the solar energy from reaching the huge problem because it’s time consuming process and
solar cells, thereby reducing the overall power requires lot of man power and money. To remove this
generation. Power output is reduced as much as by 50%, limitation, robotics can be used as it eliminates human
if the module is not cleaned for a month. In order to labour and at the same time more economical and
regularly clean the dust, an automatic cleaning system autonomous.
which removes the dust on the solar panel is developed.
In this paper, the problem is reviewed and the method
for dust removal is discussed. A robot cleaning device is
developed and it travels the entire length of the panel. A
PIC microcontroller is used to implement robots control
system. The robot provided a favourable result and
proved that such a system is viable by making the
robotic cleaning possible, thus helping the solar panel to
maintain its efficiency.
Keywords:- PV panels, Brush, DC motors, microcontroller,

battery, Dust effects.
Fig.1:- solar panel
I. INTRODUCTION II. ANALYSIS OF DUST ON PANEL
After the invention of the solar cell, the solar The accumulation of dust on the surface of a
technology reached the skies by implementing solar panels photovoltaic module, decreases the radiation reaching the
that use the solar energy to generate electrical energy. solar cell and causes loss in the generated voltage and
Renewable energy is used in all the industries and they use power. Dust doesn’t only reduce radiation on the solar cell,
huge solar panels in more numbers in the form of an array. but also changes the dependence on the angle of incidence
On the other hand it has also started playing a major role in of such radiation. According to research, daily energy loss
the household usage. Now the problem with the along a year caused by dust deposited on the surface of the
implementation of solar panels is, their maintenance. PV module is around 4.4%. During long periods without
Different cleaning methods are used to clean the solar panels rain, daily energy loss can be higher than 20%. In addition,
to maintain their efficiency [1]. After one year of exposure the irradiance loss is not constant throughout the day and is
without cleaning, the systems were cleaned using strongly dependent on the sunlight incident angle and the
pressurized distilled water spray with brushing for one of the ratio between diffuse and direct radiations. When studied as
plant that showed 6.9% energy generation efficiency a function of solar time, the irradiance loss is symmetric
[2].There are many factors that affect PV panel’s power with respect to noon, where they reach the minimum value.
efficiency, such as, shadow, snow, high temperatures,
pollen, bird droppings, sea salt, dust and dirt. The main PV module performance has been tested under the
factor that affects a PV panel’s efficiency is dust, which can deposition of different pollutants (red soil, ash, sand,
reduce its efficiency by up to 50%, depending on the calcium carbonate and silica). According to the obtained
environment. results, a drop of PV module’s voltage and output power is
observed when dust particles are deposited on the PV
Cleaning dirty panels with commercial detergents module depending on the mass accumulated and the type of
can be time consuming, costly, hazardous to the pollutant. Moreover, larger reduction occurs when the PV
environment or even corrode the solar panel’s frame. module’s temperature is increased. In addition to that,
Ideally, solar panels should be cleaned every few weeks to keeping the PV modules clean and cool, results inefficient
maintain peak efficiency, which is especially hard to do for system performance. Power generation in the solar panel
large solar panel arrays. There is a need for an automated with dust and without dust with varying load resistance is
cleaning solution to this problem which can service large experimentally determined. [4]
ground based solar array up to an operating park of 22,000
panels (20,000 Square meters).
IJISRT18MA169 www.ijisrt.com 196

ISSN No:-2456-2165
III. NEED FOR AN AUTOMATIC PANEL CLEANER returns back to the carrier robot. The carrier robot moves to
the next panel and the process is continued.
Accumulation of dust on even one panel, reduces
their efficiency in energy generation. That is why; the B. Carrier Robot
panel’s surface should be kept as clean as possible. Current
human based cleaning methods for Solar panels are costly in The carrier robot detects the solar panel with the
terms of time, water and energy usage. No automation has help of IR sensor and stops when the sensor output becomes
taken place in cleaning the solar panels, so, there exists a high. The sensors are used to sense the start and end of
need for developing automatic cleaning machines which can panels. It helps the robot to understand where to stop and
clean and move easily on the glass surface of the panels. where to start. When the carrier robot detects the panel, the
output of the IR sensor becomes high and it stops the
movement of the carrier robot. At this time, the transmitter
IV. PV EFFICIENCY sends the signal to the cleaning robot to perform its cleaning
action.
Efficiency in photovoltaic solar panels is measured by The movement of the carrier robot is performed
the ability of a panel to convert sunlight into usable energy by the driver circuit. After cleaning the panel, the cleaning
for human utility. Maximum efficiency= {(max power robot reaches the carrier robot and transmits the signal to the
output)/(incident radiation flux*area of collector)}*100. carrier robot. As soon as the carrier robot receives the signal,
the carrier robot along with the cleaning robot travels to the
V. METHODOLOGY next panel and the process is continued. The transmitter and
the receiver action actions are carried out by means of the
The proposed solar panel cleaning robot is used to transmitter and the receiver module.
remove the dirt and dust deposited on the solar panel thus
helping the solar panel to absorb the maximum quantity of  Block Diagram
energy.
The proposed system consists of two main parts, IR PIC TX/RX
the first is the cleaning robot and the second is the carrier SENSOR MODULE
robot. The carrier robot acts as a carrier that carries a
cleaning robot by moving from one panel to another. The
cleaning robot travels along with the carrier robot, covering
the entire length of the panel. The brush which is attached to DRIVER DC
the cleaning robot takes away the dirt and dust from the CIRCUIT MOTOR
panel. The robot is programmed with a microcontroller
which controls its operations and its movement from one Fig. 2:- Block Diagram
panel to the other panel. C. Cleaning Robot
The main criterion of the cleaning system design When the carrier robot stops its movement by
is its ability to clean multiple panels in a solar farm using a detecting the panel, it transmits the signal to the cleaning
single robot. Such a system is considerably much simpler robot. The cleaning robot, after receiving the signal from the
than having multiple robots in the same farm working carrier robot, travels to the entire length of the panel in
simultaneously. forward directions.
On moving in forward direction, the cleaning robot
In practice, cleaning of solar panels should be removes the dust and dirt accumulated in the panel with a
frequently done which makes the process more laborious brush which is attached to it. After reaching the time
and expensive [5].In this paper, the effects of accumulated duration, it travels in reverse direction and reaches the
dust on the performance of the solar panels are investigated carrier robot. On reaching the carrier robot, it again
by referring the results obtained by experimentation in dusty transmits the signal to the carrier robot. The carrier robot
atmosphere of different levels [3]. An auto cleaning robot to after receiving the signal, starts to move and when it senses
work as the auto cleaner which is equipped on the solar the panel, it stops again and the process is continued.
panel is also proposed.
DRIVER PIC TX/RX
A. Working Principle CIRCUIT MODULE
EE
The carrier robot, along with the cleaning robot DC
moves towards the solar panel and stops its movement by DRIVER DC
MOTOR
sensing the solar panel. The carrier robot then sends the CIRCUIT MOTOR
signal to the cleaning robot. By receiving the signal, the
cleaning robot travels to the entire length of the solar panel
in both forward and backward directions and cleans the BRUSH
panel for the specified time duration. After cleaning, it
Fig. 3:- Cleaning Robot Block Diagram

ISSN No:-2456-2165
D. RF Module – Transmitter & Receiver  Receiver Block Diagram
The RF modules are 433 MHz RF transmitter and

receiver modules [7][10]. The transmitter draws no power
when transmitting logic zero while fully suppressing the
carrier’s frequency. It thus consumes significantly low
power in battery operation. When logic one is sent, carrier is
fully on 4.5mA with a 3volts power supply[9]. The data is
sent serially from the transmitter which is received by the
tuned receiver. Transmitter and the receiver are duly
interfaced to two microcontrollers for data transfer [8]
 Transmitter Block Diagram
Fig. 6:- Receiver Block Diagram

 Circuit Diagram
Fig. 4:- Transmitter Block Diagram
 Circuit Diagram
Fig. 7:- ReceiverCircuit Diagram
 Flow Chart
Fig. 5:- Transmitter Circuit Diagram

Fig. 8:- Flow Chart

ISSN No:-2456-2165
Performance of PVPanels”
VI. CONCLUSION http://docseurope.electrocomponents.com/webdocs/003
0/0900766b80030030.pdf.
This project highlights the effect of dust, dirt, [5]. Ravi Tejwani, Chetan S Solanki. “360° Sun Tracking
pollen, sea salt, and bird droppings on the PV systems’ with Automated Cleaning System for PV” Department
efficiency. Dust has a major impact on the efficiency and of Energy Science andEngineering, Indian Institute of
performance of the solar panels. The reduction in the peak Technology Bombay.
power generation can be up to 10 to 30%. Power reduction [6]. http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valvano/Datasheets/L293d.
was observed due to dust accumulation on the panels and pdf
this can be improved by using robotic cleaning method. It [7]. www.ieee.org/explore.
has increased Power generation capacity of the solar panels. [8]. http://www.mikroe.com.
Easy maintenance, low cost and less power usage are few [9]. https://en.m.wikipedia.org.
advantages of this process. Finally, the reduction in the peak [10]. www.edgefvxkits.com.
power generation can also be overcome by using this
cleaning system.
The device is lightweight because most of its
material is made of aluminium. Comparing the costs of
cleaning by Manual operation and Automatic operation, the
cost for automatic cleaning is proved to be more economic
and significantly less cumbersome, particularly, in systems
with large number of solar panels. Frequent and periodical
cleaning ensures that the solar panels work consistently with
a good transmittance at all times [6].
VII. FUTURE SCOPE
The device that is developed, reduces the number

of workers needed to clean the arrays significantly. Further
development could be done to optimize the system to be
smaller, lighter and easier to assemble in higher volumes
and to become more user-friendly. The next focus will be on
diversifying the robot’s functionality by including auto-
inspection, communication and self-diagnostic features.
The installation of a thermal camera module that

will allow for inspection of the panels since the cleaning
head is in direct contact with every individual panel. Cold
spots just under the glass surface will indicate a section of
panel that remains un-cleaned and will prompt the cleaner to
make another pass if needed. Solar panel energy can be used
instead of using individual battery. Wireless cameras can be
also attached for perfect wireless operation.
REFERENCE
[1]. Qi zhang, xiao-long lu, jun-hui hu, “A solar panel

cleaning system based on a linear piezoelectric
actuator” Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China, 25-27
Oct. 2013
[2]. S.A. Sulaiman, H.H. Hussain, N.S.H. Leh, and M.S.I.
Razali, Effects of Dust on the Performance of PV
Panels, World Academy of Science, Engineering and
Technology, 58, 588-593, 2011.
[3]. J.Zorrilla-Casanova, M. Piliougine, J. Carretero, P.
Bernaola, P. Carpena, L. Mora-Lopez, M. Sidrach-de-
Cardona. “Analysis of dust losses in photovoltaic
modules” world renewable Energy Congress
2011.Sweden, 8-13 May 2011.
[4]. Shaharin Anwar Sulaimana, Atul Kumar Singh,
MiorMaar of MiorMokhtara, Mohammed A. Bou-
Rabee, “Influence of Dirt Accumulation on

Solar Panel Cleaning Robot

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Volume 3, Issue 3, March– 2018 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology

Solar Panel Cleaning Robot

Keywords:- PV panels, Brush, DC motors, microcontroller,

I. INTRODUCTION II. ANALYSIS OF DUST ON PANEL

IJISRT18MA169 www.ijisrt.com 196

IJISRT18MA169 www.ijisrt.com 197

The RF modules are 433 MHz RF transmitter and

 Transmitter Block Diagram

Fig. 6:- Receiver Block Diagram

Fig. 4:- Transmitter Block Diagram

Fig. 7:- ReceiverCircuit Diagram

Fig. 5:- Transmitter Circuit Diagram

IJISRT18MA169 www.ijisrt.com 198

VII. FUTURE SCOPE

The device that is developed, reduces the number

The installation of a thermal camera module that

[1]. Qi zhang, xiao-long lu, jun-hui hu, “A solar panel

IJISRT18MA169 www.ijisrt.com 199

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