Solar Powered PV Panel Cleaning Robot
S Santosh Kumar, Shiva Shankar, K. Srikanta Murthy
Abstract
Solar energy is the abundant renewable energy on earth which doesn't pollute the environment while producing the energy using Solar Photo Voltaic (PV) panel. Efficiency of the PV panel depends on the amount of light falls on it, due to the azimuth angle of solar panel, deposition of dust on PV panel reduces the efficiency of the energy generated. To increase the efficiency of the PV panel, periodically it has to be cleaned. This paper proposes a solar panel cleaning robot which periodically cleans PV panel autonomously, the surface of the panel is cleaned by blowing air, spraying the liquid and wiping out the dust with wiper and drying the wet content on the panel using cylindrical brush. The proposed robot is controlled remotely by Internet of Things (IoT) which reduces the human effort in the solar plant and can be remotely monitored. Also the robot is a self-powered generates the power required by Solar PV panel mounted on the robot. The proposed system increases the efficiency of the power generation by periodically cleaning using Robot.