Adaptive control of solar tracking system

In this study, an adaptive controller of a solar tracking system is designed and its performance is evaluated through computer simulation. To achieve this goal, two tracker systems based on open- and closed-loop control strategies are studied. The instantaneous and total errors that represent the differences between the tilt and rotation angles of both the open- and closed-loop systems are analysed. An adaptive controller that regulates the electric signals to the motors is designed. Owing to uncertainty in the sun position data, the performance of solar tracker suffers degradation. Towards this end, sun position data are analysed to extract the error sources. The designed control system objective is to keep the tracker perpendicular to sunlight at all times during the day and eliminate modelling errors such as sun position data deviations, friction and environmental changes. System performance is verified through computer simulation where the controller corrected for modelling errors and date changes from the date used for algorithm design. More specifically, in the first case the square error reduces from 15.43 to 12.18 degrees² for azimuth angle and from 39.05 to 19.09 degrees² for altitude, whereas in the latter case the square error reduces from 236.92 to 105.90 degrees² for azimuth angle and from 402.82 to 40.40 degrees² for altitude.