Development of The Smart Photovoltaic Panel Cleaning Robot

DOI: 10.14416/j.ind.tech.2022.06.006

Authors

  • Peerapon Chanhom Smart System and Energy Conversion Research Unit, Division of Electrical Engineering, Department of Industrial Education, Rajamangala University of Technology Suvarnabhumi (Nonthaburi Campus)
  • Donson Pongphab Department of Electrical Technology, Faculty of Industrial Technology, Lampang Rajabhat University
  • Wipada Wongsuriya Smart System and Energy Conversion Research Unit, Division of Electrical Engineering, Department of Industrial Education, Rajamangala University of Technology Suvarnabhumi (Nonthaburi Campus)
  • Peerasak Phaophang Smart System and Energy Conversion Research Unit, Division of Electrical Engineering, Department of Industrial Education, Rajamangala University of Technology Suvarnabhumi (Nonthaburi Campus)
  • Pattanapong Sinpaithoon Smart System and Energy Conversion Research Unit, Division of Electrical Engineering, Department of Industrial Education, Rajamangala University of Technology Suvarnabhumi (Nonthaburi Campus)
  • Nattarut Panmatcha Smart System and Energy Conversion Research Unit, Division of Electrical Engineering, Department of Industrial Education, Rajamangala University of Technology Suvarnabhumi (Nonthaburi Campus)

Keywords:

Cleaning robots, Solar cells, Smart systems, Internet of things

Abstract

This research has designed and developed a smart photovoltaic panel cleaning robot. It has a working mechanism that combines a robot side movement with rails and a cleaning brush up-down movement with the sling. The smart robot uses an Arduino UNO microcontroller to control the main mechanisms, such as a cleaning brush, a water spray pump, and whole robot movement systems. Users can operate the robot in both automatic and manual control modes via mobile phone by using Blynk application connected via Node MCU ESP8266. The functional test results show the smart robot cleans photovoltaic panels with a tilt angle of 15 degrees at a rate of approximately 2.19 minutes per square meter using an average power consumption of approximately 1.40 watt-hours per square meter. A case study was given on the smart robot cleaning solar panels with three levels of dirtiness: very dirty, medium, and low. During the period of similar light intensity, the test results showed relatively good cleaning performance of the robot, considering the power generated by the solar panels before and after cleaning. All three levels were approximately the same.

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Published

2022-06-30

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 2 (2022): May-August

Section

บทความวิจัย (Research article)

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

ผลงานวิจัยและบทความวิชาการที่ปรากฏในวารสารนี้ เป็นความคิดเห็นอิสระของผู้เขียน ผู้เขียนจะต้องเป็นผู้รับผิดชอบต่อผลทางกฎหมายใด ๆ ที่อาจจะเกิดขึ้นจากบทความนั้น กองบรรณาธิการและคณะจัดทำวารสารฯไม่จำเป็นต้องเห็นด้วยเสมอไป