Design of a Mechatronic Sensor System for Solar Energy Demand Based Monitoring

Abstract

This study was able to design a mechatronic sensor system for solar energy demand based monitoring which consists of mechanical, electronic and software component implementation. The mechanical component consists of a flexible angular tilting mechanism that is able to vary the angle and orientation of the solar panels. The angular and orientation variations facilitated the discovery of applicable angles for a given energy demand to boost energy efficiency. The electronic component consists of a microcontroller system that uses current and voltage sensors. It was used to automatically acquire the actual solar energy absorbed by the panel for a given tilt angle and orientation. Finally, the software component consists of an algorithm that is used to trigger the recording of the sensors data at a specific period of time. The data stored can be used to analyze different scenario of solar energy demand. The result of the experiments showed that the mechatronic sensor system was able to gather solar power profile and total power produced for a given solar tilt angle and orientation. Initial experimental results show an energy profile shift of 115.67mins when comparing the East to the West facing solar panel.