Mobile Robot Solar Tracking for Fault-Tolerant Panel Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current solar tracking systems lack a highly-available and fault-tolerant solution that effectively utilizes multiple robots to maintain constant alignment with the sun, leading to inefficiencies and increased maintenance costs.
Innovation Solution
A multi-agent coordinated system of redundant mobile robots with a central task coordinator that manages and reassigns tasks to ensure continuous operation, optimizes battery life, and minimizes maintenance costs by using a rail-based transportation system and wireless communication to adjust and calibrate solar surfaces in response to environmental factors and robot performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a single robot is used for solar tracking, then device complexity is reduced, but reliability decreases due to lack of redundancy
Solution Approach 1:
The solar farm is divided into multiple zones, each managed by individual robots. The system segments the tracking task across multiple independent agents rather than using a single centralized system, enabling redundancy and fault tolerance while distributing complexity across manageable units
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple identical robot units are deployed as redundant copies. Each robot is a duplicate of the same design with identical capabilities, allowing any robot to replace another in case of failure. This copying approach ensures reliability through redundancy without requiring complex heterogeneous systems
2Reliability
If multiple robots are deployed for redundancy, then fault tolerance improves, but maintenance costs increase due to more moving parts
Solution Approach 1:
By using multiple identical robot copies with standardized components and designs, the system enables simplified maintenance. When a robot fails, it can be quickly replaced by another identical unit from the fleet, reducing repair complexity and costs compared to maintaining diverse, non-interchangeable systems
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a replaceable robot fleet where degraded or failed robots can be removed from service and replaced with fresh units. The task coordinator manages this by reassigning tasks to remaining functional robots, allowing maintenance without system downtime and reducing overall maintenance costs through strategic replacement rather than complex repair
3Productivity
If robots continuously track the sun, then energy production increases, but robot battery consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of continuous operation, robots perform periodic tracking passes across the solar farm. The task coordinator schedules intervals between passes and manages robot recharging cycles, allowing solar surfaces to maintain position between active robot interventions. This periodic action reduces battery consumption while still achieving productive tracking coverage
Solution Approach 2:
The system maintains continuous solar tracking functionality through coordinated robot fleets rather than continuous robot motion. Multiple robots can perform tracking simultaneously on different zones, and the task coordinator ensures seamless handoff between robots, maintaining continuous useful action on solar surfaces while distributing energy consumption across the fleet over time
4Productivity
If a central task coordinator manages all robots, then coordination efficiency improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The central task coordinator performs multiple functions: task assignment, performance monitoring, fault detection, and dynamic reassignment. This universal control unit manages the entire robot fleet with a single system that handles diverse coordination needs, improving efficiency compared to distributed coordination while consolidating complexity into a manageable central entity
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a highly-available and fault-tolerant solar tracking system and the process required to manage such a system. A fleet of multiple, redundant mobile robots managed by a task coordinator is deployed to track solar panels in a solar farm in alignment with the sun. Each robot has a control unit for engaging with a coupler connected to one or multiple solar panels and adjusting their orientation, as well as communicating with the task coordinator to receive tasks. The task coordinator senses various events such as robot failure/deterioration, as well as various environmental conditions, and sends tasks reconciled with event types. The system is highly-available and fault-tolerant as it remains operational as long as there is one operational robot. The task coordinator assigns tasks to the mobile robots so as to optimize battery life or other factors, such as, e.g., overall maintenance costs across the fleet.