Abstract

• The research paper presents the design of automatic solar tracking control system based on microcontroller. It consists of the optimize hardware design, which is controlled by a firmware. The source code for the project is written in Mikro C Pro programming language. The main objective of this paper is to provide the maximum energy from solar panel and gives higher efficiency for the solar cells. This designed system is to control the solar panel to remain aligned with direction of the sun. The microcontroller based control circuit drives the DC motor. Microcontroller PIC16F887 is used for controlling the movement of the solar panel. DC motor is controlled by the microcontroller that receives the signals from the transistor driver of light dependent resistor (LDR). The light sensor (LDR) tracks the path of the sun by detecting the light intensity. The design of automatic solar tracker can be categorized into three sections. These are sensor unit, control unit and motor driving unit. For demonstration simplicity, the LED indicators are used to show the rotation of DC motor.