Structural analysis of solar panel cleaning robotic arm

Author(s): Amit Kumar Mondal and Kamal Bansal

Source: Current Science , 25 March 2015, Vol. 108, No. 6 (25 March 2015), pp. 1047-1052
Published by: Current Science Association

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 TECHNICAL NOTES

Structural analysis of solar panel cleaning robotic arm

Amit Kumar Mondai and Kamal Bansal

The efficiency of solar photovoltaic (SPV) panels depends upon the amount of solar irradiance and spec
content. SPV panels are being widely used because of their economic and environmental merits. The p
formance of SPV panels gets degraded due to factors like air pollution, bird droppings, dust, snow accu
lation, etc. An automatic and integrated solar panel cleaning robotic arm (SPCRA) with four-degree
freedom has been designed to overcome the above factors. The arm has two prismatic and two revolu
joints. SPCRA has a unique end effector with a water sprinkler, air blower and a wiper installed as a sin
unit on it. Few traits like anti-interloped design, automated grid cleaning mechanism, efficient algorithm,
all-weather cleaning support, and plug-n-play strategy with optimum costs make it a versatile system
cleaning the SPV panels.

With the growing cost of energy and automation capabilities. Existing solu Configuration of SPCRA
adverse effects of conventional fuels tions are also dependent on geographical
over the environment, implementation terrain
of and area of application. Depend Users of SPCRA
green fuels like solar power is on ingdeon these factors, existing solutions
It is intended that users of SPCRA are
mand. Solar power is mainly harnessed can be further compared on the basis of
by solar photovoltaic (SPV) panels. cost,
Its ease of use, performance rate, etc. the SPV installation companies, manu
These solutions are not universally ap
efficiency degrades due to accumulation facturing companies and their end-users.
of dust and debris over SPV panels1. plicable for all situations (Table 2). The The consumers having SPV-based power
Table 1 gives an overview of theexisting
im solutions are not only limited to plants (installed in arrays) find it difficult
to clean them with current methods as
provement in efficiencies using thethe
cur Earth, but are being used in Mars as
well.
rent PV technologies. Dust is the most listed in Table 3.
common factor which decreases the effi The developed solar panel cleaning
ciency of such technologies. It acts as an robotic arm (SPCRA) is a robotic arm Arrangements of SPCRA
obstruction for the incident light to reach that can clean SPV panels. SPCRA is an
the cells, causing reduced efficiency due ergonomically designed system with SPCRA consists of a robotic arm, rail
to lower power output. Dust accumula traits like anti-interloped design, auto guided system, chain sprocket assembly
tion occurs at different rates in different mated grid cleaning mechanism, efficient and end effector.
parts of the world depending upon the algorithm, all-weather cleaning support, The four-degrees of freedom (DOF)
local wind conditions2, panel orientation3 plug-n-play strategy and economical es robotic arm is powered with worm
and nature of dust4. tablishment costs. The system includes a geared 12 V DC servo motor and is
Different cleaning methods are cur guide rail that will be installed parallel to mounted on a base, installed over a rail
rently being used both at industrial as the pre-installed SPV panels. The anti guided platform. Base and rail-guided
well as domestic level. Labour-based interloped design will prevent damage to platform is coupled with a geared system
cleaning method for SPV panels is the SPV panels in case of any adverse which is powered with a side shaft 12 V
costly, time-consuming and requires incident. The guide rails will support the DC geared motor. The chain sprocket as
technical skill, which also leads to wast base of the cleaning arm, which will be sembly installed on the arm is powered
age of water and energy and lacks driven by a motor and controlled by by a side shaft 12 V DC geared motor
ultrasonic/proximity sensors. The arm with bidirectional encoder fitted on the
adjustment always ensures that the sys assembly. Rail-guided system rolls over
tem is parallel to the cleaning surface. a T-beam made up of mild steel with the
Table 1. Efficiencies of different solar The inclination of the arm is controlled help of a gear mechanism attached with a
photovoltaic technologies by the ultrasonic/proximity sensors in side shaft 12 V DC geared motor. The
PV technology Efficiency (%) stalled at the specific pre-defined angle end effector has water-sprinkler, air
(depending on individual panels). The blower and wiper. The end effector is
Carbon nanotubes (CNT)19 3-4 arm is made up of a hollow rectangular attached to the chain sprocket system
Amorphous silicon20 5-7 beam, so as to properly utilize the space which slides on the arm.
Poly crystalline silicon21 8-12 of the robotic arm and to provide a To observe the whole process, camera
Dye-synthesized22 11.1 dynamic balance. The motion of the surveillance has been provided using
Mono crystalline silicon23 15-18
Other thin films 16-20
cleaning head is controlled by the ultra Logitech HD webcam5. The camera is
sonic/proximity sensors installed at the kept at a distance which can cover the
(CdTe, CIS, etc.)24'25
upper and lower ends of the arm. Worm whole SPV panel arrays. The SPV panels
Triple junction under Up to 37.4
concentrated Sun26 geared DC servo motor and DC motors can be cleaned periodically depending
Hot
Hotcarrier
carriersolar cell27
solar 66
cell27
66 are used to control the direction and in upon the information received from the
clination of the robotic arm. camera.

CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 108, NO. 6, 25 MARCH 2015 1047

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TECHNICAL NOTES

Table
Table2.2.
Comparison
Comparison
of cleaning
of cleaning
systems28
systems28

Cleaning
Cleaning system
system Advantage
Advantage Disadvantage
Disadvantage

Solar
Solarpanel
panelcleaning robot
cleaning robot29 Washing
Washing andand
wiping,
wiping,
both process
both process Horizontal
Horizontalshifting
shiftingofofthe
therobot
robotover
over
thethe
PV PV
are
arepresent.
present. module
module results
resultsin
inskidding.
skidding.
Weight
Weight ofofthe
therobot
robotisisover
over the
the
SPVSPVmodule.
module.
Gekko
Gekko solar30
solar Self-regulating
Self-regulating and flexible,
and flexible,
uninterrupted
uninterrupted
Limitation
Limitationofofinclination
inclinationupuptoto
45°.
45°.
cleaning
cleaning operations.
operations. Complex,
Complex, vaccum-based,
vaccum-based,gear,
gear,
belt
belt
system.
system.
Gekko
Gekko solar
solarfarm31
farm31 Self-regulating
Self-regulating and flexible,
and flexible, Limitation
Limitationof
ofinclination
inclinationupup
toto
30°.
30°.
uninterrupted
uninterrupted cleaning
cleaning
operations.
operations. Complex
Complex gear
gearbelt
beltsystem.
system.
Wash
Wash panel's
panel'ssolar
solar
panel
panel
cleaning
cleaning
Able
Abletotoclean
clean
dust dust
and bird
and
droppings.
bird droppings. Human
Human intervention
interventionisisrequired
required
to to
start
start
thethe
robot32 operation
operation and
andwhile
whilemoving
moving from
from oneone
rowrow
to another.
Hector33
Hector' Compatible,
Compatible, integrated
integratedwith
withall supplies.Performance is slow.
allsupplies.
Operational
Operational dayday and
and night.
night. Feeding has to to be
be done
done regularly
regularly
Solar
Solar brush34
brush Automated robot. Heavy weight.
Works up to an inclination of 35°. Initial cost is high.
Wireless controlled. Requires human intervention.
Rechargeable. Performance speed is very slow.
PIC
PIC microcontroller35
microcontroller Self-regulating and flexible, Complex chain, sprocket-based structure.
and
andPLC-based
PLC-basedcleaning36
cleaning uninterrupted cleaning operations. Single-panel-based design.

Heliotex's 'Automatic solar Water

Water reaches
reaches toto every
every part
partofofthe
theSPV
SPVTreated
Treated water
water required.
required.
panel cleaning system'37 modules. Filter
Filter hashas to
to be
bechange
changeperiodically.
periodically.
Helps in cooling of SPV modules, which Huge
Huge wastage
wastage of ofwater.
water.
increases the efficiency.
TuffFab's
Tuff Fab's nano
nano clearclear38 Long-lasting. Cleaning
Cleaning is is still
stillrequired,
required,but
butwithwithless
less
effort.
effort.
EDS for standing-wave
standing-wave Highly efficient at high gas pressure. Removal Removal is is difficult
difficultwhen
whengas gas(atmospheric)
(atmospheric)
electric curtain39 No mechanical movement to scratch the pressure
pressure is is below
belowaacertain
certainlimit.
limit.
protective surface. Dust
Dust removal
removal capability
capabilitydepends
dependsonon the
the
size
size
of the
the particles
particlesdeposited.
deposited.
Requires
Requires highhigh voltage.
voltage.
EDS for multiphase Efficient and can be used to remove dust Requires
Requires Digital
DigitalSignal
SignalController,
Controller, which
which is is
electric curtain4tMl2 from a variety of surfaces. costly.
No mechanical movement to scratch the Requires switching devices for converters,
protective surface. hence more maintenance is required.
Efficient with and without use of external Requires high voltage.
power supply.
Greenbotic's
Greenbotic's GB1GB143 Able to clean dust and bird droppings. Human intervention is required to start the
operation and while moving from one row to
another.

Mechanical design of SPCRA Table 3. Characteristic features of different methods of cleaning

Methods Features
In the design of the SPCRA, many
Excessive loss of water.
factors are considered such as weight, Water sprinkler
sprinkler
assembly and disassembly of parts, Spreading of water/reach is not uniform.
Economically not viable for SPV plants.
workspace, load capacity, speed, repeat
Human effort Costly as person has to be a technically
ability and accuracy, volume, energy, trained.
efficiency and cost6. Rigid-link manipu Reach is not uniform.
lators require light, stiff structures to Existing cleaning modules available Cleaning robot weight is directly put
achieve high accuracy and low inertia. (like Clean Anti Prof, Cleaning Ant Junior, over the SPV panels.
While designing the manipulator various Gekko Junior G4, etc.) Power consumption is more.
factors were taken into consideration. Performance area is less.

These included DOF of end factor7, Proposed

path robotic arm Minimum consumption of water.
constraints and motion solution8, place Power consumption is less.
Performance area is more.
ment, design and aesthetics of the robot9,
material required to withstand all the
forces and structural stability10. The
Analysis
design parameters such as size of end ef of stiffness8'13, and displace tion13 and calibration techniques14 have
ment of manipulator links has been done been used to correct errors in accuracy.
fector11 and the working mechanisms12
were also taken into consideration. with the help of solid works. Optimiza While designing manipulator arm, light

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 TECHNICAL NOTES

weight material15 with high strength with was

the guide rail. Because of the other gear arrangement and (iii) self-weight of
chosen. components placed on it, the counter the component.
The robotic arm has four DOF, it com weight tilts while the robotic arm is tilted Stress, strain and displacement are
prises of two revolute and two prismatic towards the SPV panels. To make the analysed using the software solidworks.
joints. Design of the robotic arm shouldbase area small and with high strength, The results of the structural stability
focus on its weight. Designed end effec we made it circular and the material used analysis of SPCRA are in Table 5. This
tor weight is 500 g, which includes was mild steel. analysis indicates that we need to release
weight of cleaning head mechanism. The The rail-guided platform is made up of the stress from the specified location. It
length of the robotic arm is 1.4 m. The mild steel. It carries the whole structure can be done either by heat treating the
robotic arm is connected with the worm of the robot, which includes arm and component to bring it to a specified
geared 12 V DC servo motor placed at base (and its components, shown in Fig strength or using the same material for
the bottom of the link in the base. The ure 1). Considering the gross weight of welding as the base material to maintain
advantage of the worm gear assemblythe is: robot, material strength and ease ofthe uniformity of the properties.
(i) right angle power transmission and fabrication, mild steel is selected for the
(ii) no need of stall torque, worm gear rail-guided platform. Complete robot is
Basic tasks of SPCRA
arrangement will hold the load duringmoved no with the help of a 12 V side shaft
power. DC motor, which is coupled with the T
Hence, the robotic arm consumes less beam rail (made up of cast iron) using Figure 2 shows the basic tasks of
power and SPV panels are protected gear mechanism. Structural analysis SPCRA. The working of SPCRA is as
follows:
from any mishap. The material of the shows that it is the major load-bearing
arm is chosen as aluminium (AI6063; component and hence has to be structur
Grade T5) for light weight and high ally sound and stable. The base of the • Initially SPCRA will come to its
strength. The chain sprocket assembly arm (along with gear system and other home position P0 shown in Figure 2.
from Vex Robotics16 is made up of rein parts) and the arm itself are kept on top • From its home position it will go to
forced material and can transmit heavy of it, which exerts a combined load of its position PI, which will be deter
loads up to 22.6 kg over long distances. few kilo Newton of force. The self mined using an ultrasonic sensor18
To move this chain sprocket assembly weight of the structure is also considered kept in one of the ends of SPCRA's
side shaft geared DC motor (85 rpm)17 in the analysis. The structure is made rail-guided system. These positions
with bi-directional encoder is fitted hav purely out of mild steel, except the arm are prior marked via mild steel rods
ing a stall torque of 21 kg/cm @ 12 V. which is made from aluminium. The me kept at a proper distance in propor
The base holds the arm with the help of chanical properties of the selected matetion to the cleaning length (wiper
worm geared 12 V DC servo motor rials are given Table 4. length).
placed at the bottom of the link. It also The types of load exerted on this com reaching its first position, the
• On
holds few other parts of the robotic as ponent include: (i) normal load due to guide rail system will stop and the
sembly like blower, mini water tank with the base and the arm arrangement; (ii) aarm will start tilting towards the SPV
pump, and side-shaft DC motor coupled torque applied to at a distance by the panels. When the arm becomes paral
lel (adjusted during the fitting/
construction) to the SPV panel, it
stops and now the cleaning head
comes into play.

Figure
Figure 1.
1. Complete
Completeoverview
overviewofof
the
the
SPCRA
SPCRA
system.
system.

Table
Table 4.
4. Mechanical
Mechanicalproperties
propertiesofof
cast
cast
iron
iron
and
and
aluminium
aluminium
(Arm)-6063-T5
(Arm)-6063-T5

Property Iron Aluminium

Elastic modulus 6.61781 x 101

1010 N/m2 6.9 x 1010 N/m2
Shear modulus 5 x 1010 N/m2 2.58 x 1010 N/m2 Figure 2. SPCRA testing
testing field.
field. PO:
P0:
Density 7200 kg/m3 2700 kg/m3
kg/m3 Home condition; P1, P2: Positions 1 and
Tensile strength 1.51658xx10s
1.51658 108N/m2
N/m2 1.45 x 108 N/m2 2 of SPV panel 1; P3, P4: Positions 3 and
Compressive strength 5.72165xx108
5.72165 108N/m2
N/m2 5.72165
5.72 1 65x x10"
108N/m
N/m2 4 of SPV panel 2; Red, blue lines are halt
points of SPCRA.

CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 108, NO. 6, 25 MARCH 2015 1049

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TECHNICAL NOTES

• Cleaning head starts from the top of Table

Table 5.5.Structural
Structuralstability
stability
analysis
analysis
of SPCRA
of SPCRA
the inclined SPV panel to its base, Values
where it stops. The cleaning area
(from top to bottom of SPV) is de Part Property Minimum Maximum
cided using ultrasonic sensors which
are placed on the top and the bottom Rail
Railguided
guided
system Displacement
system (mm) 10~30
Displacement
3.7 x 10~" (m
Stress 0 4.53 x
x 10"7
1(T7
of SPCRA's arm.
Strain 0 0.2
• Now the arm lifts itself a few degrees
Circular
Circular base
baseDisplacement
Displacement(m)
(m)
1.72
1.72x10^
x 10"4 10~33
10~33
up and during this time simultane Stress 102.5 710450.8
ously the cleaning head goes up. By Strain 0 0.748
this, position 1 is cleaned and now Arm Displacement
Displacement (mm)(mm) 10-30
10~3° 0.3654
SPCRA moves to position 2. Stress
Stress (N/m2)
(Nim2) 696696 6,389,769
6,389,769
• After cleaning of row 1, SPCRA Strain
Strain 7.4
7.4 x
x 10"9
10"9 6.9
6.9 xx10"5
10"5
comes out and enters the semi
curricular path where it stops in be
tween and rotates 180° and proceeds
Table 6. SPV specifications
further.
• On reaching, beginning of row 2, the PV module/array Specification
entire above-mentioned process is re
Type Thin film solar module (double junction a-Si)
peated. Class A
Application class
Nominal Pm 50 W
Figure 3 shows the SPCRA model with Maximum system voltage (Vsm) 1000 V
labelling. Open circuit voltage (Voc) 62 V
Short circuit current (/sc) 1.42 A
Dimension 1245 x 635 x 7.5 mm
Results

The PV system has an installed capacity Table 7. Weekly power loss due to natural soiling depending on
ambient conditions
of base 100 kW, which consists of two
modules. It was installed on a flat con
Days Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4
crete base in the ground. The SPV mod
ules were thin-film silicon wafers with 1 -17.3567 20.0256 3.4166 -28.6655
2 -5.95497 14.23332 0.23062 49.50207
anti-reflective coatings to maximize
3 -3.97074 4.05834 12.62366 4.67615
sunlight absorption. The modules were
4 29.37738 25.29583 8.8253 25.08953
installed at an angle of 29.8°C (= 30°C). 5 20.15533 12.37975 14.78451 24.89871
The set-up was installed using metal 6 27.76095 17.34945 21.72536 51.53253
frames. One SPV was left (uncleaned
(periodically) throughout the monitoring
period and the other was cleaned excess Table 8. Energy consumption of SPCRA for

Average No. of Total time Energy consumed

Action
Action current (A)
current
cycles
(A) cycles
consumed
consumed
(sec)
(sec)(mAh)
(mAh)

SPCRA platform motion 0.385 3 18 5.775

on guide rail
ARM motion (rotatory) 0.65 6 8.25 8.9375
Base platform rotation 0.41 1 6 0.6833
Cleaning head 0.39 12 24 31.2

Total 46.5958

time six days, the uncleaned panel

before tak
done tocleaned using mimic
SPCRA.
scenario. As th
the efficiency
circuit Monitoring
current results d
modules was k
other Monitoring
cleaned. of the test rig, data collec D
the tion, performance
SPV moduleanalysis and reporting
were done. Data were collected
conditions likefor a

Figure
Figure3.3.Actual
Actualphotograph
photograph
of SPCRA. period of four weeks from 1000 toetc
of SPCRA.temperature, 1700 h

1050 CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 108, NO. 6, 25 MARCH 2015

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 TECHNICAL NOTES

Days

Figure 4. Weekly power loss due to natural soiling under ambient conditions.

over an interval of 30 min (SPV specifi Considering the above value for a 5. http : //www. logitech.com/en-us/product/
week = 63 W. hd-webcam-c525
cations are given in Table 6). Data were
monitored for both the SPV modules Amount of energy saving for a single 6. Song, W. K., Lee, H. and Bien, Z., Ro
(cleaned and uncleaned), and the follow
SPV module = 63 - 35.708 = 27.292 W. botics Autonomous Syst., 1999, 83-94.
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Conclusion 8. Kakizaki, T., Jpn. Soc. Mech. Eng.,
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variation of SPV module surface
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