Development of a Hybrid Active-Passive Solar Tracker Using GPS Tracking and Image Processing

In the presented work, the authors propose an innovative hybrid system of an active-passive solar tracker using GPS tracking by employingSG2 algorithm, which is a fast implementation of the popular Solar Position Algorithm (SPA),combined with active tracking using image processing algorithms and a commercial webcam as the sensing element. The analysis of acquired images with web camera allows accurate extraction of information about the position of the sun with respect to both elevation and azimuth. The main advantage of this system is its high flexibility to work in extreme conditions when the position of the sun is not very clear due to weather conditions such as cloud cover. The system has the ability to trackthe sun in both, real-time that is independent on the spatiotemporal coordinates of the location, and passively which is dependent on the spatiotemporal coordinates of the location. The information extracted from the cam-GPS system is used to control the two servo motors, one each for the azimuth and altitude axis of the dual mechanism of the solar tracker to realize the optimal alignment of the payloads attached with the solar tracker with the objective of increasingthe power generation.