DEVELOPMENT OF AN AUTOMATED PHOTOVOLTAIC PANEL DUST CLEANING ROBOT USING FUZZY LOGIC CONTROLLER

Abstract

The accumulation of dust particles on solar panels can hinder the transmission of solar energy to the solar cells, resulting in a decrease in overall power generation. If the panels are not cleaned for a month, the power output can be reduced by up to 44.6%. To address this issue, an automatic robot cleaning system has been developed to remove dust from the photovoltaic (PV) panels. This paper focuses on designing an intelligent cleaning system based on fuzzy logic with an Arduino microcontroller. By considering temperature, dust levels, and the output current and voltage of the panel as input variables for the fuzzy logic membership functions, the system is able to operate efficiently. Four membership functions have been determined for each of these input variables. These membership functions determine whether the cleaning robot should be activated or not. The main objective of the design is to minimize efficiency losses caused by dust and dirt on the panel surface and maximize electrical energy production. Evaluation results revealed that the system increases the energy gain by 55.4% when the cleaning robot is deployed to clean the PV panels.