Robotic Arm Sol
Robotic Arm Sol
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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.
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.
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.
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
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
Total 46.5958
Figure
Figure3.3.Actual
Actualphotograph
photograph
of SPCRA. period of four weeks from 1000 toetc
of SPCRA.temperature, 1700 h
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.
7. Rivin, E. I., Holbrook, R., Bhatt, S. and
ing observations were made: % Enhancement in efficiency = 9.1%.
Bhattacharya, A., ASME: Dyn. Syst. Con
trol, 1987, 6, 253-259.
(i) Short circuit current (7SC): Drop in 7SC
Conclusion 8. Kakizaki, T., Jpn. Soc. Mech. Eng.,
due to soiling, was observed over 1991,57, 1961-1968.
the period for a week. 9. Nof, Y. S., Handbook of Industrial Ro
We have discussed the cleaning technolbotics, John Wiley, New York, 1985.
(ii) Energy yield: The effective loss in
ogy using an electromechanical system10. Khurmi, R. S., A Textbook of Machine
terms of power is shown in Table 7.
for SPV. The system has been analysedDesign, S. Chand and Co Ltd, 2005.
As the dust accumulation increases,
and optimized for high effectivity. 11.
TheRivin, E., Mechanical Design of Robots,
the power loss is highest on the last
external system developed does not afMcGraw-Hill, 1988.
day of the week, compared to first 12. Andeen, G. B., Robot Design Handbook,
fect the actual performance of SPV, since
day, which has been shown in Fig McGraw-Hill, New York, 1988.
ure 4.
it is not coupled with the panels.
As the tests were conducted on 50 W 13. Leu, M. C., Dukovski, V. and Wang, K.,
(iii) SPV Module Temperature: Day wise In Proceedings of Symposium Robotics
variation of SPV module surface
SPV panels, the efficiency enhancement
value is less. If the same tests were con
Manufacturing Automation, 1985, pp.
temperature and short circuit cur 137-143.
ducted over SPV modules of higher
14. Roth, Z. S., Mooring, B. and Ravani, B.,
rent, 7SC.
wattage rating (keeping the same surface Robotics Automation, 1987,3(5), 377-385.
area), then the efficiency enhancement
15. Priebe, H. M. J. and Paul, C., Robotics
From Table 8, the power consumption would have been a much better signifi Automation, 1987.
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