Helianthus – a Low Cost High Efficient Solar Tracking System Using AVR Microcontroller

A solar tracking system is a generic term used to describe devices that orient various payloads toward the sun. Payloads can be photovoltaic panels, reflectors, lenses or other optical devices. This paper describes a potential solar system using two stepper motors, light sensor and a concave mirror. This method not only improves power collection efficiency by about 65% by developing a system that tracks the sun to keep the solar panel at perpendicular to its rays but also decreases the overall cost of production. This solar tracking system is designed, practically implemented and experimentally tested. The design details and the experimental results are shown. Index Terms — ATMEGA16 (AVR Family) Microcontroller, Concave Mirror, Darlington Pair Transistor, LDR Sensor, Power Optimization, Renewable Energy, Tracking system. ——————————  ——————————