Extended Summary

pp.86-91

Dual Axis Light Sensor for Tracking Sun

Miki Shibata Non-member (University of Toyama, shibata@adm.u-toyama.ac.jp) Toyokazu Tambo Member (University of Toyama, tambo@eng.u-toyama.ac.jp)
Keywords : Sun Tracking, Photodiode, Light Sensor

Output Voltage [V]

We have developed convenient light sensors to control a platform of solar cell panel. Dual axis light sensor in the present paper has structure of 5 PD (photodiode) light sensor which is composed of 5 photodiodes attached on a frustum of pyramid. Light source can be captured in front of the sensor by rotating the X and Y axis as decreasing the output deviation between two pairs of outside photodiodes. We here report the mechanism of sun tacking using the dual axis 5 PD light sensor and the fundamental results performed in the dark room. The dual axis 5 PD light sensor is shown in Fig.1. It is improtant for tracking performance to capture the light source smoothly at first. The capture of light source is done by decreasing the differnce of output between the oposit and outside photodiodes, whose area is 5.85.8 mm2. There are two combinations at the sensor, S2-S1 and S4-S3 photodiodes. Two axes are assigned X and Y as shown in Fig.1. The sensor is rotated around X axis parallel to the defference of S4 and S3 output and rotated around Y axis parallel to that of S2 and S1 output. The differnce of photodiode output originates in the incident angle dependence of light beam. The reference direction is normal to the surface. The magitude of the photodiode output obays the Lamberts law. That is the magnitude is in proportion to light intensity and cosine function of incident angle. The relationship of the deviation angle x from light source and the output of S3, S0 and S4 photodiodes on the Y axis is plotted in Fig.2. The deviation angle x means the angle difference around X-axis of direction between the light source and the normal vector of S0 surface. The output of the vertical axis represents voltage after conversion of current - voltage amplifier using 200k resistance. Each curve obeys the Lamberts law almost in the region under incident angle

of 60o. In Fig.2, two kinds of light intensity are used. It is reasonable that the difference between S3 and S4 output at a given deviation angle under intense light (L-3) is bigger than that under weak light (L-1). Therfore, the real deviation signal ex for control is normalized at the output of S0 to eliminate the intensity dependence, as follows.
ex = I S3 I S 4 = 2 tan x I S0

The sensor is repeadedly moved with getting the feed-back signal until the direction of normal vector on the S0 surface reachs that of light source. The magnitude of the feed-back signal is represented as Kpex, where Kp is proportinal gain. Figure 3 shows Step response with various proprtional gains away from 20o. The proper proportional gain was around 4000. In summary, we proposed the dual axis 5 PD light sensor for tracking the sun in the sky. In the present paper, the mechanism and the results of fundamental measurement in the dark room were showed. The sensor procedure includes the mechanism of independent on light intensity. Therefore, it is of use when the intendity of sun change. Futhermore, we showed that the step response could be controlled with some proportional gains. The sensor is also useful where the sun is hid by buildings or hills. We are now making the solar tracking system practicable.

3
L-3 IS3

IS0

IS4

2 1 L-1 0 -90

-60

-30 0 30 60 Deviation Angle x []

90

Fig. 2.

Deviation Angle x vs. Output Voltage of

Photodiode

Deviation Angle x []

20 10 0

Kp 500 1000 2000 4000 8000

-10 10 Sampling Times 20

Fig. 1.

Dual Axis 5 PD Light Sensor

5

Fig. 3. Step Response