AUTOMATIC SOLAR TRACKING SYSTEM FOR POWER GENERATION USING

MICROCONTROLLER AND SENSOR

1S.SIVASAKTHI M.E.,

Assistant Professor, Department of Electronics &

communication Engineering, TRP Engineering

College(SRM Group) Irungalur, Trichy-621105.

Tamilnadu, India.

Email ID- ssivasakthiae@gmail.com

2E.VINODHA

3T.VASANTHAKUMARI

4D.VINITHA

5P.BALAKAVI

UG Scholar B.E.,(ECE) TRP Engineering College (SRM GROUP), Irungalur, Tiruchirappalli – 621 105, Tamilnadu, India. Email ID- vinodha12elango@gmail.com

Abstract This paper deals with a microcontroller based solar panel

tracking system. By tracking the solar, more and more energy is to be generated as the panel is always perpendicular to the Sun's

intensity. Renewable energy is rapidly gaining importance as an

energy resource as fossil fuel prices fluctuate. The solar tracker will tend to maximize the amount of power absorbed by Photo

Voltaic systems. Development of solar panel tracking system has

been ongoing for several years. Now the wheel which is fixed at

the base will move the panel from the shaded region to solar illuminated region, by using a sensor to detect high intensity

radiation from the sun. It is advantageous to have the solar

tracking system tracks the location of the high light intensity region, such that it generates more energy by absorbing the rays

which is radiated from the sun. The objective is to design and

implement an automatic solar tracking mechanism using

embedded system design with minimum cost and reliable structure. Keywords— Solar Tracking System, Solar panel, Microcontroller AT89C51, LDR Sensor, DC Gear motor.

I.INTRODUTION

Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun harnessed

using a range of ever-evolving technologies such as solar heating,

photo voltaic’s, solar thermal energy, solar architecture and

artificial photosynthesis. It is an important source of renewable

energy and its technologies are broadly characterized as either

passive solar or active solar depending on the way they capture and

distribute solar energy or convert it into solar power The system

will tend to maximize the amount of power absorbed by

PhotoVoltaic systems.It has been estimated that the use of

a trackingsystem,over a fixed system, can increase the power

output by 40%-70%. Design requirements are: i)during the time that the sun is up,the system must follow the sun‘s position in

the sky.ii)It should be totally automatic and simple to

operate[9].Shading will have an adverse effect on all the solar

technologies discussed here and should be avoided PV panel performance is exceptionally susceptible to shading. When

shade falls on a PV panel, that portion of the panel is no longer

able to collect the high-energy beam radiation from the sun. If that shading happens during the peak hours of operation (10

a.m.– 2 p.m.), the production of the panel can be greatly

reduced. It is possible to align the tracking heliostat normal to

sun using electronic control by a micro controller.

The block diagram of the system is shown in Fig.1

II. WORKING PRINCIPLE AND METHODOLOGY

The Sun tracking solar panel consists of four LDRs, solar panel

and gear motor and ATMEL Micro controller. Four light dependent resistors are arranged on the edges of the terrace.

Light dependent resistors produce low resistance when light falls on them. The gear motor connected to the panel rotates the panel

in the direction of Sun. Panel is arranged in such a way that light

on four LDRs is compared and panel is rotated towards LDR which have high intensity i.e. low resistance compared to other.

Gear motor moves the panel towards the LDR.

When the intensity of the light falling on right LDR is more,

panel slowly moves towards right and if intensity on the left

LDR is more, panel slowly moves towards left. In the noon time, Sun is ahead and intensity of light on both the panels is

same. In such cases, panel is constant and there is no rotation. TheLDRcombinationplays the vital role. Actually these

combinations of signals are fed to the microcontroller 8051and

this directs the motor associated to it. The required bit pattern is shown in TABLE I.

LDR1 LDR2 LDR3 LDR4

1 1 0 0

0 1 1 0

0 0 1 1

1 0 0 1

When the stepper motor gets the last bit sequence of the table, the stepper motor will move to its initial position again follow these steps again,as the sun traverse from the beginning in next day.

III. COMPONENTS USED

The majorcomponentsofthissystemareasfollows.

1. Microcontroller8051(Atmel89C51used) 2. Encoder & Decoder 3. LDRs 4. Motordriver L293D 5. Gear motor

Other auxillary components are: 1. Resistor(10KΩ.1KΩ.) 2. Capacitor(10µF,33pF) 3. Crystaloscillator(11.0592MHz) 4. 5Vand12Vpowersupply

Except these Components the connecting wire, Circuit board othedevices are used a USB based flash Magic

Programmer is used to‗burn ‘the chip (to load the program in the chip). A PC with software, compiler Keil C51 simulatorisused.

IV. DETAILEDDESCRIPTION OFTHE SYSTEM

The complete circuitry of this project mainly can be shown

in sections.These are:

The sensor part:

Light Dependent Resistors are the resistors whose resistance

values depend on intensity of the light. As the intensity of light falling on the LDR increases, resistance value decreases. In dark, LDR will have maximum resistance. LDRs are connected to port0 in which they convert the analog signal to digital.

Encoder and transmitter:

Encoders are designed for creation of accurate and fast

feedback according to the coordinate for all the electric motor types. This will combine the signals and give as single output which is given to RF transmitter.

Decoder and receiver: The received signal in the RF receiver is given to the decoder. A decoder is a circuit that changes a code into a set of signals i.e it converts the single

output into no of signals. It is given to the microcontroller part for further processing.

The Microcontroller part:

The interfacing circuitry of the Unipolar Gear Motor with

microcontroller AT89C51 is used. The AT89C51 provides a set

of standard features: 4 Kbytes of flash, 128bytes of RAM, 32

I/Olines, two 16-bit timer/counters, five vector two-level Interrupt architecture. Here we have used L293D as the motor

driver. Port 0 is getting the input from the output of the LDR in particular bit pattern. Using program it is compared the bit

pattern and send signal to the motor driver to drive the gear motor in specified direction.

Motor driver:

L293D with gear motor part: The L293D is a quadruple high-current half-H driver designed to provide bidirectional drive currents of upto 600mA at voltages from 4.5V to 36V. It is designed to drive inductive loads such as relays, solenoids, dc and bipolar stepping motors, as well as other high-current / high- voltage loads in positive-supply applications.

A DC motor in simple words is a device that converts direct current (electrical energy) into

mechanical energy. Gear motors are designed to have a lot of force, or torque, while operating at low

speeds. They have an output of 1,200 to 3,600 revolutions per minute, or RPMs, and use the power

of a magnetic field. When the signal is received from the microcontroller, it will move towards the LDR

where it has high intensity.

V. SOFTWARE PART The microcontroller chip AT89C51 is directed as the

program in its flash memory instructs it. So it is obvious to load the program into the chip. Program is

written in KEIL C51and compiled. If any

compilation error occurs, then it is debugged. Then the HEX-code is generated. Then the program is

simulated in 8051 simulator. This gives an

opportunity to see what will be the result of the code.

If the code gives desired result then the USB based flash magic is used to load the program; or to ‗burn‘

the chip. USB based flash magic is basically a

universal programmer. After downloading the HEX

code in the chip is again connected to the main circuit. Protous is also used to draw the circuit for

similationg to get the result.

VI. CONCLUSION

In this project a solar tracker has been developed to increase the amount of power generated by the solar

panel as the sun traverses across the sky. An 8051

microcontroller was used to control the movement of the solar panel. The system is designed to be

automatic ; such that energy generated by the solar

panel would be used to charge two lead acid

batteries.. All the readings are taken very carefully during the project to eliminate the errors as many as

possible. Solar Energy is one of the most popular

renewable sources nowadays. It is being widely used also, and within some more years it will be very

popular that it will be used for many purposes, in

industries and household as well. So it is most

important fact to utilize the maximum energy of the sun so that maximum power can be generated.. In

many places experiment is being done on this fact

how it is possible to make full use of the day light. This project has got a bright future scope further.

Accuracy of this solar panel can be increased further

and number of steps can be increased as well to get

more accurate desired output. Timer circuit is also be integrated with this so that this system responses

more accurately. Even in a cloudy day when intensity

of sunlight may vary at different time of a day, the timer circuit can be more that handy to drive the solar

panel correctly in that low light. As per energy

concerned solar energy is one of the most

promising energy which is going to be a main source of energy in near future. A cost effective intelligent sun tracking system to extract maximum

solar energy possible has been designed.

VII.REFERENCES

[1] B.Suchitha Samuel, J.Mrudula, ―Design of ‖ Intelligent Solar Tracker Robot for Surveillance, International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical, Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering, Vol. 2, Issue 10, October 2013. [2] Bhavesh Pandey1, Anita Agrawal,‖ ―Automatic Sun Tracking System Using PSoC, International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, Vol. 1, Issue 1, November 2012. [3] Sobuj Kumar Ray, Md. Abul Bashar, Maruf Ahmad & Fahad Bin Sayed , ―Two Ways of Rotating Freedom‖ Solar Tracker by Using ADC of Microcontroller , Global Journal‖of Researches in Engineering General Engineering , Volume 12 Issue 4 Version 1.0 Year 2012. [4] Mazidi Md.Ali, Mazidi J.G.,―The 8051‖ Microcontroller and Embedded systems , Pearson Education, 2nd edition. [5] kais i. abdul-lateef, ―a low cost single‖-axis sun tracker system using pic microcontroller, diyala journal of engineering sciences, vol. 05, no. 01, pp.65-78, june 2012.

[6] Meghana Sharma, ―An Efficient‖ Low Cost Solar Tracker Using Microcontroller, IOSR Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IOSR-JEEE), Volume 9, Issue 4 Ver. V (Jul – Aug. 2014), PP 37-40. [7] Mostefa Ghassoul, ―Design of an Automatic Solar Tracking‖ System to Maximize Energy Extraction, International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering, Volume 3, Issue 5, May 2013. [8] http://www.8051projects.net/stepper-motor-interfacing/step-sequence.php

[9] http://www.hbeonlabs.com/reports/Time Operated Solar Tracking System_Report.pdf

[10]http://www.icee.usm.edu/ICEE/conferences/asee

2007 /papers

/1213_A_MICROCONTROLLER_BASED_SOLAR

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