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

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 can 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 by 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 set 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 the hardware. An economical and robust Robotic Vacuum Cleaner which can clean arrays of solar panels (with or without inclination) interlinked by rails and recharges itself automatically at a docking station is designed and implemented.