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RICE'24
2nd Research, Innovation & Creativity Exhibition 2024
Project ID:
SCEN101
Solar Tracking System Based on Image Processing Algorithm
Project Title:
Category:
Science & Engineering
Inventors:
Ng Khai Le, Dr. Tan Jia Hou, Mr. Leong Kah Meng, Dr. Dalilah binti Nordin
Institution/Company:
Southern University College
Invention Description/ Abstract:
The image processing algorithm has become more useful for different applications over the year besides of object tracking. This project is to develop a solar tracking system based on image processing algorithm. I called this system "image based solar tracking system". The camera used is the phone ip camera which will provides ip address for the PC to store the frame into the Python variable, then do the image processing and then actuate the motor to position the solar panel to be perpendicular to the center of the sun. The system and prototype are still in the proposal and testing progress. Why we want to do this image based solar tracking system is because of the from the previous FYP project which is called the "development of solar tracking system", we found out that the active based system unable to perpendicular to actual sun position. Although the results seem to be have, but not really. We always concerned about how to make the solar panel to be perpendicular to the sun is because it can increase the panel output power efficiency.
Invention Technical Description
The image processing algorithm is using the methods of matching template images, masking with different range of BGR values and so on. All of this have been arranged as 'filter'. Opencv, an open source Python library is the core of completing the tasks in image processing. The prototype of image based solar tracker is made of polyform to save the cost. Image processing algorithm primarily using the method of converting an image or frame into HSV format and filtering the noises and unwanted objects to track the sun precisely. To know which direction the motor should be moving to, we separate the frame into 9 regions, each region represented one direction. Besides of direction predictions, the algorithm we have also included how to calculate the efficiency, and this is the main parts of our system. In addition to being a solar tracking system in and of itself, image processing algorithms can also be used to stack other solar tracking systems, such as active based solar tracking systems, with the goal of evaluating other solar tracking systems' efficiency. The efficiency is basically the displacement between the center location of the frame and the current sun location in the frame. Besides, I was planned to stack image processing algorithm into active based solar tracking system, so whenever the active based system finds the highest light intensity location, the image processing will wind up the rest to position the solar panel to the center of the sun in frame. The order of the active based and image based can be reversed, which might produces different results.
Demostration/ Presentation Video
Poster/ Broucher/ Invention Photo
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