Application of A Computer Vision Method for Soiling Recognition in Photovoltaic Modules for Autonomous Cleaning Robots

Abstract

It is well known that this soiling can reduce the generation efficiency in PV system. In some case according to the literature of loss of energy production in photovoltaic systems can reach up to 50%. In the industry there are various types of cleaning robots, they can substitute the human action, reducing cleaning cost, be used in places where access is difficult, and increasing significantly the gain of the systems. In this paper we present an application of computer vision method for soiling recognition in photovoltaic modules for autonomous cleaning robots. Our method extends classic CV algorithm such Region Growing and the Hough. Additionally, we adopt a pre-processing technique based on Top Hat and Edge detection filters. We have performed a set of experiments to test and validate this method. The article concludes that the developed method can bring more intelligence to photovoltaic cleaning robots.