Design and Implementation of an Autonomous Mobility Algorithm for Photovoltaic Panel Surface Cleaning Robots Based on Webots

Abstract

An autonomous mobile robot that cleans the surface of Photovoltaic (PV) modules is designed and implemented. The robot follows a pre-defined trajectory on the solar panel surface to clean the accumulated dust. The path planning algorithms are developed and tested using an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and ultrasonic sensors through a micro-controller. The proposed system is capable of rapidly identifying edges, working on incline surfaces, and self-navigating. Webots simulator is used throughout the design and development phases to model, program, and simulate the robot’s localization, motion control, path planning, and measurement system. After applying path planning algorithms that ensure complete coverage of the solar panel’s surface area, the results show that the robot successfully wipes the PVs with an error of 2.11% in the robot orientations measured by an IMU sensor and 5.4% in the ultrasonic readings used to detect the PV’s edges.