The Development of Sun-Tracking System Using Image Processing
This article presents the development of an image-based sun position sensor and the algorithm for how to aim at the Sun precisely by using image processing. Four-quadrant light sensors and bar-shadow photo sensors were used to detect the Sun’s position in the past years. Nevertheless, neither of the...
Main Authors: | , , |
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
MDPI AG
2013-04-01
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Series: | Sensors |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/13/5/5448 |
Summary: | This article presents the development of an image-based sun position sensor and the algorithm for how to aim at the Sun precisely by using image processing. Four-quadrant light sensors and bar-shadow photo sensors were used to detect the Sun’s position in the past years. Nevertheless, neither of them can maintain high accuracy under low irradiation conditions. Using the image-based Sun position sensor with image processing can address this drawback. To verify the performance of the Sun-tracking system including an image-based Sun position sensor and a tracking controller with embedded image processing algorithm, we established a Sun image tracking platform and did the performance testing in the laboratory; the results show that the proposed Sun tracking system had the capability to overcome the problem of unstable tracking in cloudy weather and achieve a tracking accuracy of 0.04°. |
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ISSN: | 1424-8220 |