International Journal of Wireless and Microwave Technologies (IJWMT)
IJWMT Vol. 12, No. 6, 8 Dec. 2022
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Design of an IoT-Enabled Solar Tracking System For Smart Farms
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Author(s)
JD Motha
1,*
M.W.P Maduranga
1
NT Jayatilaka
1
Index Terms
IoT, Smart Farming, PV systems, Robotics
Abstract
This paper presents a novel IoT system to eliminate the need for human intervention for solar panel maintenance purposes in smart farms. For the convenience of the consumer, a wireless sensing system could be implemented to automate these functions. This would eliminate the cost of any additional labor charges for panel maintenance as the system implemented would automatically calculate the position as per the current time of the day and adjust the panel's position accordingly to harvest the most amount of sun rays into the PV panel. Unlike the conventional tracking method where the panel is rotated hourly, we propose a fixed set of Sun Altitude and Azimuth angle ranges that are hardcoded to each panel position so that throughout the year whenever these angles fall out of range it jumps to the next position. The system results in a straightforward method by retrieving the current date/time from the RTC module and calculating the respective Sun Altitude and Azimuth angle to determine the position to adjust the position of the panel accordingly, thus producing effective power outputs and strong sun tracking results.
Cite This Paper
JD Motha, MWP Maduranga, NT Jayatilaka, "Design of an IoT-Enabled Solar Tracking System For Smart Farms", International Journal of Wireless and Microwave Technologies(IJWMT), Vol.12, No.6, pp. 1-13, 2022. DOI:10.5815/ijwmt.2022.06.01
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