Cleaning Various Length of Solar Panels using Modular Robot

Cleaning Various Length of Solar Panels using Modular Robot

Rahul V Bhakare1,  Vikramsingh B Vakte2, Nitin S Aher3

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sanjivani K.B.P. Polytechnic Kopargaon

Abstract. This paper discusses about the design and feasibility study for building a modular robot for cleaning solar panels. The objective was to design a universal module for transmission and manipulation that can be used with different length of solar panels and different arrangements in solar panel. The concept of a modular solar panel cleaning robot is an automatic system that is easy to set- up, low cost, and applicable with various size of solar panels. After the design and prototype processes, the robots are aimed to reduce dust on solar panel and consequently increase the performance in producing electricity.

Since there are various configurations for arranging the solar panel, this robot can be modified using an advantage of modular robots. The principle of working is to clean a solar panel with water, spiral brush, and rubber sweeper. The modular concepts were validated for the solar panel with a range of 1 to 4 meters in both testing and field environments. The solar panels cleaning robot can clean dirt and dust on the panel and increase the power generation of the solar panels. The target applications for this design can be extended for a solar farm, solar rooftop, and floating solar panels.