Four-quadrant Photodetector Based Feedback Mechanism for Dual Axis Sun Tracker System

摘要

This paper describes the hardware and algorithm implementation of fourquadrant photodetector based feedback mechanism for dual axis Sun tracker system with a brief overview of the Sun tracker system. A microcontroller is used to compute the solar position using astronomical algorithm as a function of position and time in real time. It orients the dual axis Sun tracker by driving the azimuth and elevation stepper motor through the driver unit. A Sun pointing device with a front end four quadrant detector along with its signal processing unit is used as a feedback mechanism for the Sun tracker system. The feedback mechanism corrects the error in the solar position and track the Sun with high accuracy. Application case studies for Sun tracking approach have also been discussed in the present work.