Automated Solar Power System

Submitted by-

Aman Sahu (19BEC1180)

P. Uday Bhaskar (19BEC1398)

J Component – Report
A project report submitted to
DR. JAGANNATH M
in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the course of

ECE2010 – Control Systems

SCHOOL OF ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING(SENSE)

VELLORE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CHENNAI - 600127

December 2021

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 BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that this project report entitled “Automated Solar Power System” is a
bonafide work of P UDAY BHASKAR 19BEC1398, AMAN SAHU 19BEC1180 who carried
out the Project work under my supervision and guidance for ECE2010 – Control Systems.

DR. JAGANNATH M
Associate Professor Senior
School of Electronics Engineering (SENSE),
VIT University, Chennai
Chennai – 600127.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

SERIAL TITLE PAGE

NUMBER NUMBER

5
1 ABSTRACT

6
2 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

3 INTRODUCTION 7

4 OBJECTIVE AND WORKING PRINCIPLE 8

5 BLOCK DIAGRAM 9

6 COMPONENTS REQUIRED 10 - 12

7 TRANSFER FUNCTION ANALYSIS 13 - 17

8 SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION AND ANALYSIS 18 - 22

9 OBSERVATION AND RESULT 23

10 CONCLUSION 23

11 REFERENCES 24

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 ABBREVIATIONS & ACRONYMS

LDR Light Dependent Resistor

MOSFET Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor

PV Photovoltaic Cell

IDE Integrated Development Environment

DC Direct Current

ADC Analog-to-Digital Converter

LUX Luminous Flux

PWM Pulse Width Modulation

USB Universal Serial Bus

CMOS Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor

RISC Reduced Instruction Set Computer

I/O Input/ Output

VCC Supply Voltage

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 1. ABSTRACT
Solar energy is rapidly advancing as an important means of renewable energy resource.It is
radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of ever-evolving
technologies such as solar heating, photovoltaic, solar thermal energy etc.

Trackers direct solar panels or modules toward the sun. These devices change their orientation
throughout the day to follow the sun’s path to maximize energy capture. The use of solar
trackers can increase electricity production by around a third, and some claim by as much as
40% in some regions, compared with modules at a fixed angle.

This Project presents the designing of a solar tracking system which is based on Arduino UNO
and which provides movement of solar panel in the direction of maximum sunlight incident.
As a result of which we get more efficient system which is compact, low cost as well as easy
to use.

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 2. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We wish to express our sincere thanks and deep sense of gratitude to our project guide, DR.
JAGANNATH M, Associate Professor Senior (Sr.), School of Electronics Engineering, for her
consistent encouragement and valuable guidance offered to us in a pleasant manner throughout
the course of the project work.
We are extremely grateful to Dr Sivasubramanian A, Dean of School of Electronics
Engineering, VIT Chennai, for extending the facilities of the School towards our project and
for her unstinting support.
We also take this opportunity to thank all the faculty of the School for their support and their
wisdom imparted to us throughout the course.
We thank our parents, family, and friends for bearing with us throughout the course of our
project and for the opportunity they provided us in undergoing this course in such a prestigious
institution.

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3. INTRODUCTION

With the unavoidable shortage of fossil fuel sources in the future, renewable types of energy
have become a topic of interest for researchers, technicians, investors and decision makers all
around the world. New types of energy that are getting attention include hydroelectricity, bio
energy, solar, wind and geothermal energy, tidal power and wave power. Because of their
renewability, they are considered as favourable replacements for fossil fuel sources. Among
those types of energy, solar photovoltaic (PV) energy is one of the most available resources.
This technology has been adopted more widely for residential use nowadays, thanks to research
and development activities to improve solar cells’ performance and lower the cost. According
to International Energy Agency (IEA), worldwide PV capacity has grown at 49%per year on
average since early 2000s. Solar PV energy is highly expected to become a major source of
power in the future.

However, despite the advantages, solar PV energy is still far from replacing traditional sources
on the market. It is still a challenge to maximise power output of PV systems in areas that don’t
receive a large amount of solar radiation. We still need more advanced technologies from
manufacturers to improve the capability of PV materials, but improvement of system design
and module construction is a feasible approach to make solar PV power more efficient, thus
being a reliable choice for customers. Aiming for that purpose, this project had been carried
out to support the development of such promising technology.

One of the main methods of increasing efficiency is to maximise the duration of exposure to
the Sun. Tracking systems help achieve this by keeping PV solar panels aligned at the
appropriate angle with the sun rays at any time. The goal of this project is to build a prototype
of light tracking system at smaller scale, but the design can be applied for any solar energy
system in practice.

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 4. OBJECTIVE AND WORKING PRINCIPLE

The goal of this Project was to develop a laboratory prototype of a solar tracking system, which
is able to enhance the performance of the photovoltaic modules in a solar energy system. The
operating principle of the device is to keep the photovoltaic modules constantly aligned with
the sunbeams, which maximises the exposure of solar panel to the Sun’s radiation. As a result,
more output power can be produced by the solar panel. The work of the project included
hardware design and implementation, together with software programming for the
microcontroller unit of the solar tracker. The system utilised an ATmega328P microcontroller
to control motion of two servo motors, which rotate solar panel in two axes. The amount of
rotation was determined by the microcontroller, based on inputs retrieved from four photo
sensors located next to solar panel. At the end of the project, a functional solar tracking system
was designed and implemented. It was able to keep the solar panel aligned with the sun, or any
light source repetitively. Design of the solar tracker from this project is also a reference and a
starting point for the development of more advanced systems in the future.

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5. BLOCK DIAGRAM AND ANALYSIS

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 6. COMPONENTS REQUIRED

1) Ardunio UNO

Arduino/Genuino Uno is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328P (datasheet). It

has 14 digital input/output pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a
16 MHz quartz crystal, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header and a reset button. It
contains everything needed to support the microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer
with a USB cable or power it with a AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get started. You can
tinker with your UNO without worrying too much about doing something wrong, worst case
scenario you can replace the chip for a few dollars and start over again.
"Uno" means one in Italian and was chosen to mark the release of Arduino Software (IDE)
1.0. The Uno board and version 1.0 of Arduino Software (IDE) were the reference versions of
Arduino, now evolved to newer releases. The Uno board is the first in a series of USB
Arduino boards, and the reference model for the Arduino platform; for an extensive list of
current, past or outdated boards see the Arduino index of boards.

2) SERVO MOTOR

A servo motor is a type of motor that can rotate with great precision. Normally this type of
motor consists of a control circuit that provides feedback on the current position of the motor
shaft, this feedback allows the servo motors to rotate with great precision. If you want to
rotate an object at some specific angles or distance, then you use a servo motor. It is just
made up of a simple motor which runs through a servo mechanism. If motor is powered by a
DC power supply then it is called DC servo motor, and if it is AC-powered motor then it is
called AC servo motor. For this tutorial, we will be discussing only about the DC servo motor
working. Apart from these major classifications, there are many other types of servo motors
based on the type of gear arrangement and operating characteristics. A servo motor usually
comes with a gear arrangement that allows us to get a very high torque servo motor in small

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and lightweight packages. Due to these features, they are being used in many applications
like toy car, RC helicopters and planes, Robotics, etc.

3) LDR:

Light dependent resistors, LDRs or photo resistors are often used in electronic circuit designs
where it is necessary to detect the presence or the level of light.
These electronic components can be described by a variety of names from light dependent
resistor, LDR, photo resistor, or even photo cell, photocell or photoconductor.
Although other electronic components such as photodiodes or photo-transistor can also be
used, LDRs or photo-resistors are a particularly convenient to use in many electronic circuit
designs. They provide large change in resistance for changes in light level.
In view of their low cost, ease of manufacture, and their ease of use, LDRs have been used in
a variety of different applications. At one time LDRs were used in photographic light meters,
and even now they are still used in a variety of applications where it is necessary to detect
light levels.
Light dependent resistors are widely available: - they are normally stocked by electronic
component distributors, and in view of the way the electronics industry supply chain operates
these days, this is the normal way to obtain them. Electronic component distributors large and
small will typically have a good selection.

4) BREADBOARD:

A breadboard is a rectangular plastic board with a bunch of tiny holes in it. These holes let
you easily insert electronic components to prototype (meaning to build and test an early
version of) an electronic circuit.
5) JUMPER WIRES:

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Jumper wires are simply wires that have connector pins at each end, allowing them to be used
to connect two points to each other without soldering. Jumper wires are typically used with
breadboards and other prototyping tools in order to make it easy to change a circuit as
needed. Fairly simple. In fact, it doesn’t get much more basic than jumper wires.

6) RESISTOR:

Resistors are electronic components which have a specific, never-changing electrical

resistance. The resistor's resistance limits the flow of electrons through a circuit.

They are passive components, meaning they only consume power (and can't generate it).
Resistors are usually added to circuits where they complement active components like op-
amps, microcontrollers, and other integrated circuits. Commonly resistors are used to limit
current, divide voltages, and pull-up I/O lines.

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7 . TRANSFER FUNCTION ANALYSIS:

Transfer function of LDR sensor:

Transfer function of LDR sensor: G1=__-0.003127__

s + 0.08683

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Transfer function of servo motor:

Transfer function of Servo Motor: G2=___1.077 e04____

3.439 e-07 s2 + s

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Transfer function of Control unit (controller):

G3 =_ _-_2.154 e04 s - 1.87 e 03

4.694 e -09 s2 + 0.012508 s

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 Transfer function of system:

G =G1 G2 G3

= __-0.003127__x ___1.077 e04____ x-4.694 e -09 s2 – 0.012508 s__

s + 0.08683 3.439 e-07 s2 + s 2.154 e04 s + 1.87 e 03

= _______________-1.264 e -05 s2 – 3.36 s__________________

7.4 e-04 s4 + 7 e-04 s3 + 10.77 e-04 s2 +9.3 e-03 s + 8.11 e-02

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 8. SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION AND ANALYSIS:

ALGORITHM

1. First of all, both the servos are declared and object is created to control the servomotors.
2. The variables posx and posy are used to store the reference servo positions.
3. The ADC input pins for LDRs are selected for dual direction movement and one for
reference.
4. A tolerance or a constant value is selected to establish the working of the motors.
5. The servos are attached on digital pins to the servo object.
6. The required analog pins are selected as input using pinMode(pin , mode)
7. The servos are sets to mid-point or original position with a 1000ms or 1sec delay to
catch up with the user
8. Three variables are chosen to read the analog values and map it into integers value
between 0 and 1023.
9. If the difference between the two variables is less than the tolerance value, then it will
stay to its or original location else it shows movement towards the direction of
maximum intensity of light by incrementing or decrementing the values of posx and
posy.
10. The position is then written to servo and the loop repeats till it encounters any changes
in the values of input greater than the minimum tolerance.
11. If the position becomes greater than 150˚then position will be set to 150˚onlyand if the
position of the motor is less than 30˚then it would be kept at 30˚onlyas the lower and
upper limit angles are chosen to be 30˚and 150˚respectively.

CODE FOR ARDUINO :

#include <Servo.h>
int topLeftLight = 0;
int topRightLight = 0;

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int bottomLeftLight = 0;
int bottomRightLight = 0;
int LeftLight = 0;
int RightLight = 0;
int TopLight = 0;
int BottomLight = 0;
int t=50;
int i;
float posa;
float a=0.1;
//Declare two servos
Servo servo_9;
Servo servo_10;

void setup()
{
Serial.begin(9600);
pinMode(A2, INPUT); //Light sensor up - left
pinMode(A3, INPUT); //Light sensor up - right
pinMode(A4, INPUT); //Light sensor bottom - left
pinMode(A5, INPUT); //Light sensor bottom - right
servo_9.attach(9); //Servo motor right - left movement
servo_10.attach(10); //Servo motor up - down movement
}

void loop()
{
topLeftLight = analogRead(A2);
topRightLight = analogRead(A3);
bottomLeftLight = analogRead(A4);
bottomRightLight = analogRead(A5);
//EWLight = ((bottomRightLight + topLeftLight) / 2);
//BottomLight = ((bottomRightLight + bottomLeftLight) / 2);
//LeftLight = ((topLeftLight + bottomLeftLight) / 2);
//RightLight = ((topRightLight + bottomRightLight) / 2);
if (topRightLight < bottomLeftLight){
posa=bottomLeftLight*a*1.2;
Serial.println(posa);
for(i=(posa-1);i<posa;i++){
servo_10.write(i);
delay(t);}
}
else if(topRightLight >bottomLeftLight){
posa=159-topRightLight*a;
//Serial.println(posa);
for(i=posa;i>(posa-1);i--){
servo_10.write(i);
delay(t);
}
}

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 if (bottomRightLight<topLeftLight){
posa=topLeftLight*a*1.4;
Serial.println(posa);
for(i=(posa-1);i<posa;i++){
servo_9.write(i);
delay(t);}
}
else if(bottomRightLight>topLeftLight){
posa=189 - bottomRightLight*a;
Serial.println(posa);
for(i=posa;i>(posa-1);i--){
servo_9.write(i);
delay(t);
}
}
}

CODEANALYSIS:

Number of Lines: 60

CODE FOR MATLAB TRANSFER FUNCTION:

FOR SERVO

clc
clear all

% servo motor data

% Ra, armor resistance [Ohms]
Ra = 0.34;
% La, armature inductance [H]
La = 0.007;
% Ia, current in the armature [A]
Ia = 8;
% J, motor and load moment of inertia, referring to the motor axis
[kg m2]
J = 63.9 * 10 ^ -4;
% C, viscous damping coefficient of the motor and load, referring to
the motor shaft [Nms / rad]
C = 18400;
% T, torque developed by the motor [Nm]
T = 1.8;
% kb, generator constant
% [V.s / rad]
kb = 314;
% k, motor constant [Nm / A]
k = 0.19785;
% transfer function calculation:

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% motor gain value, km:
Km = k / Ra * C + k * kb;
% value of the motor time constant, Tm:
Tm = (Ra * J / (Ra * C + k * kb));
% Transfer function, G (x)
s = tf('s');
G = Km / (s * (Tm * s +1))

FOR LDR:

clc;
clear all;
resistance=[0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000];
illumination=[1000 100 50 6 0.8 0.1];

Ts = 1;
idd = iddata(illumination(:),resistance(:) , Ts)
ff_sys = tfest(idd,1)

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SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION ON TINKER CAD:

HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION:

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 9.OBSERVATION AND RESULTS:

In this Dual Axis Solar Tracker, when source light falls on the panel, the panel adjusts its
position according to maximum intensity of light falling perpendicular to it.
The objective of the project is completed. This was achieved through using light sensors that
are able to detect the amount of sunlight that reaches the solar panel. The values obtained by
the LDRs are compared and if there is any significant difference, there is actuation of the panel
using a servo motor to the point where it is almost perpendicular to the rays of the sun.
This was achieved using a system with three stages or subsystems. Each stage has its own role.
The stages were;
• An input stage that was responsible for converting incident light to a voltage.
• A control stage that was responsible for controlling actuation and decision making.
• A driver stage with the servo motor. It was responsible for actual movement of the
panel.

The input stage is designed with a voltage divider circuit so that it gives desired range of
illumination for bright illumination conditions or when there is dim lighting. The potentiometer
was adjusted to cater for such changes. The LDRs were found to be most suitable for this
project because their resistance varies with light. They are readily available and are cost
effective. Temperature sensors for instance would be costly.
The control stage has a microcontroller that receives voltages from the LDRs and determines
the action to be performed. The microcontroller is programmed to ensure it sends a signal to
the servo motor that moves in accordance with the generated error.
The final stage was the driving circuitry that consisted mainly of the servo motor. The servo
motor had enough torque to drive the panel. Servo motors are noise free and are affordable,
making them the best choice for the project.

10.CONCLUSION:

In this 21st century, as we build up our technology, population & growth, the energy
consumption per capita increases exponentially, as well as our energy resources (e.g. fossils
fuels) decrease rapidly. So, for sustainable development, we have to think alternative methods
(utilization of renewable energy sources) in order to fulfil our energy demand.
In this project, Dual Axis Solar Tracker, we’ve developed a demo model of solar tracker to
track the maximum intensity point of light source so that the voltage given at that point by the
solar panel is maximum. After a lot of trial and errors we’ve successfully completed our project
and we are proud to invest some effort for our society. Now, like every other experiment, this
project has couple of imperfections.
(i) Our panel senses the light in a sensing zone, beyond which it fails to respond.
(ii) If multiple sources of light (i.e. diffused light source) appear on panel, it calculates
the vector sum of light sources & moves the panel in that point.
This project was implemented with minimal resources. The circuitry was kept simple,
understandable and user friendly.

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 11.REFERENCES:
• https://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/ArduinoUno
• https://www.arduino.cc/reference/en/libraries/servo/
• https://www.arduino.cc/reference/en/language/functions/communication/serial/
• https://circuitdigest.com/article/servo-motor-working-and-basics
• https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/electronic_components/resistors/light-
dependent-resistor-ldr.php
• https://www.tinkercad.com/things/4O9DJp40i33-terrific-
wolt/editel?sharecode=tEL3Gr6kbkMLYFJMinUTJ7jSX0rXW8fTxc6_KsFF9t4

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