Microcontroller-based sun path tracking system

Abstract EN

The objective of this paper is to design and construct a solar tracking system based on a microcontroller.

The system design depends on some mathematical equations to send three signals to drive circuit to change the position of the solar cell by changing the polarity of two motors.

These mathematical equations are used to compute the solar height angle (elevation) and the solar horizon angle (azimuth), whereas the usage of the fixed solar cells does not accomplish the desired object, that means the use of fixed solar cells does not grant a suitable output during a day and a season, where the sun position differs at the morning to the noon and at the setting of the sun, this is due to the spherical shape of Earth and to its rotation around the sun. The solar cell is controlled vertically and horizontally at period equal to one hour, whereas the stored data that denote of the sun position is computed each hour from the sunrise to the sunset, the amount of the stored data is different from a day to another, this variation is produced by the difference of day length during the year, whereas the amount of computed data at the summer is more than the amount of computed data at the winter.

The microcontrollers vouch for processing the data and issue the commands to actuators to change the orientation of the solar cell.

All obtained results are very acceptable, when the system has tested in certain days.

By using the microcontroller, the project efficiency is improved, and the cost of hardware is reduced. Keywords: Microcontroller, Solar cell, DC-motor, Elevation and Azimuth angles, Encoder.