Soft computing based solar follower using Raspberry pi 4B

Abstract

The proposed work deals with image based solar tracker utilizing raspberry pi 4B. The system works fine with a webcam supporting the digital image processing within the raspberry pi model 4B board which manages to arrest the Sun's Image during hazy days due to clouds. India is the country that acquires Sunlight all-round the year. Sunlight can be utilized as substitute energy to fossil fuels or hydroelectricity for the generation of electricity. There are numerous methods which are available to expand the harvesting of solar energy but few are expensive and others can't provide accurate position of the Sun during hazy Sunlight. Raspberry Pi is the foremost board which is used to replace the CPU (central processing unit) to develop and process the Sun image. The two servo motors consisting of tilt \& pan are helping to position the web camera to track the position of the Sun. The system provides easy execution of Sun followers with the ability to find the centroid of the Sun on sky pictures. The Raspberry board then sends the instruction to the driver and it rotates in line with the trajectory of the Sun. The result states that tracking error reduced to 0.040 on haze or cloudy days with the use of raspberry pi model 4B.