Rover Robot for Solar Panel Cleaning and Monitoring

Abstract

Regular cleaning of solar panel results in high efficiency and low damage cost. On an average, the efficiency of an unclean solar panel is 3% less than that of a clean panel. Regular inspection of solar panels helps in averting fire accidents caused by damaged panels and wires. In this work, design, and development of a rover robot for cleaning and monitoring of solar panel is presented. It is controlled wirelessly using bluetooth module from a range of 10 m. Four high torque geared DC motors are used for driving the robot. Two track belts are attached to the wheels on the left and right side of the rectangular robot chassis to achieve increased contact with the solar panel. This enables the robot to operate at an inclination angle of 10°. The robot is controlled using AT mega 328 microcontroller. The proposed design incorporates the placement of a roller brush and water nozzles at the front periphery of the robot. A camera is also attached to the chassis that enables monitoring of the solar panel. The robot helps to clear off the dust from the solar panel at an extremely fast rate with less human interaction. The robot covers a distance of 3000 m in 60 min. Unlike other cleaning methods, the robot has low manufacturing and maintenance cost. The designed robot is capable of cleaning and monitoring large solar fields simultaneously.