UTILIZATION OF ROBOTICS FOR SOLAR PANEL CLEANING AND MAINTENANCE

Abstract

In this study, a portable and low-cost solar panel cleaning robot with a functioning to blowaway dust was designed and built to incur labor costs.The robot is service effective, environmentallyfriendly, energy independent, self-automated, long durable, and cost-effective. After cleaning operation,output voltage and current in solar panel increased by 8.02% and 18.78%, respectively. Moreover, theimage processing with the photos taken by a camera fixed on the robot made classification according tocolor changes in the solar panel. Therefore, it can be concluded that the automated and multifunctionalrobot may facilitate the solar panel surface cleaning and be an applicable maintenance method throughremote monitoring of the surface conditions.