Robust and Accurate Positioning Control of Solar Panel System Tracking based Sun Position Image

This study contains the robust and accurate
positioning control design for solar panel system consisting of
elevation and azimuth axis tracker. The ultimate objective of
the study is to ensure the solar panel move accurately to follow
its tracking reference against mechanical load and other
disturbances. The tracking reference was the images of actual
sun position. Image processing result as the initial reference
and high precision encoder as the controller feedback path
were intended to obtain the accurate position of hardware
response. Sliding Mode Controller (SMC) with Proportional
Integral Derivative (PID) Sliding Surface was employed as
control technique that guarantee the solar panel system robust
against disturbances or load variation. The proposed method
was evaluated through software simulation and hardware
validation. The software for the simulation and validation was
LabVIEW. While the software for image processing was Vision
Assistant. From hardware validation, accuracy of the solar
panel system to track the sun position image for elevation and
azimuth were 2.622% (0.03007˚) and 0.244% (0.00893˚),
respectively. These results indicate that the solar panel system
was available to move accurately to track the sun position both
in azimuth and elevation axis.