Design and Development of Tilted Single Axis and

Azimuth-Altitude Dual Axis Solar Tracking Systems

Shashwati Ray Abhishek Kumar Tripathi

Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Mining Engineering
Bhilai Institute of Technology National Institute of Technology
Durg-491001 (C.G.)India Surathkal (Karnataka)-769 008 India
Email:shashwatiray@yahoo.com Email:abhinitrkl12@gmail.com
Abstract—The green energy also called the renewable energy, by the direct beam drops off with the cosine of the angle
has gained much attention nowadays. Among the renewable between the incoming light and the misalignment of the panel
energy solutions, solar energy is the very vital source that can be also known as angle of incidence.
used to generate power. Electricity from the sun can be converted
through photovoltaic (PV) module. The efficiency of solar module The sun travels through 360◦ east to west a day, but from
depends on sun intensity, if the intensity is more then efficiency is the perspective of any fixed location the visible portion is
more. Since the position of sun continuously changes throughout 180◦ during a half day period. Local horizon effects reduce
the day, the intensity of sun rays is not uniform on PV module. this somewhat, making the effective motion about 150◦ . A
So, for getting more sun rays on PV module solar tracker plays
a much vital role. A solar tracker is a device for operating a
solar panel in a fixed orientation between the dawn and sunset
solar photovoltaic panel, especially in solar cell applications and extremes will see a motion of 75◦ on either side, and will lose
requires high degree of accuracy to ensure that the concentrated 75% of the energy in the morning and evening. Rotating the
sunlight is dedicated precisely on to the power device. panels to the east and west can help recapture these losses. A
tracker rotating in the east-west direction is known as a single-
This paper describes in detail about the design, develop- axis tracker. The sun also moves through 56 degrees north to
ment and fabrication of two Prototype Solar Tracking Systems
south over the period of a year. The same set of panels set
mounted with a single-axis and dual-axis solar tracking con-
trollers to generate 10.3 volts, 1.5 watts capable of charging at the midpoint between the two local extremes will thus see
mobile batteries. The rays from the sun should fall perpen- the sun move 23◦ on either side, causing losses of 8.3%. A
dicularly onto the solar panels to maximize the capture of the tracker that accounts for both the daily and seasonal motions
rays and this is done by pointing the solar panels towards the is known as a dual-axis tracker.
sun and following its path across the sky. The solar tracking
systems -Tilted Single Axis Tracker (TSAT) and Azimuth-Altitude The main challenge is to maximize the capture of the rays
Dual Axis Tracker (AADAT) are designed, implemented and of the sun upon the solar panels, which in turn maximizes
experimentally tested. The design details of TSAT and AADAT the output of electricity. A practical way of achieving this is
are described which detect the sunlight using Light Dependent by positioning the panels such that the rays of the sun fall
Resistor (LDR) sensors. The control circuit for the systems is perpendicularly on the solar panels by tracking the movement
based on Atmega8 Microcontroller which is programmed to of the sun [2]. This can be achieved by means of using a solar
detect the sunlight through the LDR sensors and then actuate panel mount which tracks the movement of the sun throughout
the DC geared motor using L293D motor driver to position the
the day. A Solar Tracker is a device in which solar panels
solar panel where it can receive the maximum sunlight.
are fitted which track the motion of the sun across the sky
Keywords: Solar energy, Solar tracker, Photovoltaic module, ensuring that the maximum amount of sunlight strikes the
AADAT, TSAT. panels throughout the day. It will attempt to navigate to the best
angle of exposure of light from the sun. In order to produce
I. I NTRODUCTION maximum power output, the solar tracker is designed with a
motor so that the solar panel will move towards the position
Solar energy is the best alternative of electric power of the sun. It moves according to the sun’s movement and is
generation among all renewable energy. In solar energy solar controlled by the continuous rotation of the motor or actuator
power can be converted in to electric power by the use of solar which is programmmed to control the tracking system. Hence,
photovoltaic panel which are usually made from silicon [1]. it is able to extract useable electricity from the sun at maximum
Photovoltaic (PV), is a technology in which light is converted power output by maintaining the angle of incidence. Since the
into electrical power. One of the applications of PV is in the solar panels are very expensive, the solar tracker should be
solar tracker system. designed at low cost and to be used comfortably.
Sunlight has two components, the direct beam that carries Photovoltaic trackers can be classified into two types: Non
about 90% of the solar energy, and the diffuse sunlight that Concentrating or Standard Photovoltaic (PV) Trackers and
carries the remainder. As the majority of the energy is in Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) Trackers [3]. Each of these
the direct beam, maximizing collection requires the sun to be tracker types can be further categorized by the number and
visible to the panels as long as possible. The energy contributed orientation of their axes, their actuation architecture and drive
978-1-4673-6540-6/15/$31.00 c 2016 IEEE type, their intended applications, their vertical supports and
foundation type. Considering the number and orientation of provided to limit the rotation of upper base, the function of the
the tracker’s axes, the trackers are grouped as single axis and limiters or stoppers is to stop the rotation of the rotating base
dual axis trackers. at final position at the evening and reset at its initial position,
when the lightening condition falls below certain threshold
Single axis trackers have one degree of freedom that acts as value.
an axis of rotation. The axis of rotation of single axis trackers
is typically aligned along a true North meridian. It is possible
to align them in any cardinal direction with advanced tracking
algorithms. There are several common implementations of
single axis trackers and one of them is tilted single axis tracker
(TSAT). All trackers with axes of rotation between horizontal
and vertical are considered tilted single axis trackers. Typically
they have the face of the module oriented parallel to the axis
of rotation. As a module tracks, it sweeps a cylinder that is
rotationally symmetric around the axis of rotation.
Dual axis trackers have two degrees of freedom that act
as axes of rotation. These axes are typically normal to one
another. The axis that is fixed with respect to the ground can
be considered a primary axis. The axis that is referenced to
the primary axis can be considered a secondary axis. Dual
axis trackers allow for optimum solar energy levels due to
their ability to follow the sun vertically and horizontally. No Figure 1. Mechanical Design of Tilted Single Axis Tracker
matter where the sun is in the sky, dual axis trackers are able
to angle themselves to be in direct contact with the sun. One Figure 2 shows the position of stoppers or rotation limiters.
of the common implementations of the dual axis tracker is In TSAT two stoppers marked as Stopper1 and Stopper2
azimuth altitude dual axis tracker(AADAT). are used which are connected to microcontroller pins, one
for the initial position and the other for final position. Two
An azimuth altitude dual axis tracker has its primary axis metal contacts are attached in rotating base, these contacts
vertical to the ground. The secondary axis is then typically are connected to 5 volts supply. When either of the metal
normal to the primary axis. One axis is a vertical pivot shaft contacts touch the nearest stopper, then the respective pin
or horizontal ring mount that allows the device to be swung to of microcontroller goes high and following the programmed
a compass point. The second axis is a horizontal elevation pivot algorithm the motor stops rotating.
mounted upon the azimuth platform. By using combinations
of the two axis, any location in the upward hemisphere may
be pointed. Such systems may be operated under computer
control according to the expected solar orientation, or may
use a tracking sensor to control motor drives that orient the
panels toward the sun.
According to [4], the use of single-axis tracking can
increase the electricity yield by as much as 27 to 32 percent.
On the other hand, a dual-axis solar tracker follows the angular
height position of the sun in the sky in addition to following Figure 2. Position of Stopper
the suns east-west movement reports that dual-axis tracking
increases the electricity output as much as 35 to 40 percent The solar power incident on earth surface varies throughout
[5]. the year and depends on the angle of axis of rotation of
the solar panel from vertical, i.e., the tilt angle θ , and the
II. D ESIGN AND W ORKING OF TSAT geographical location of the place. The geographical location
of Bhilai is 21◦ N 81◦ E. Therefore the average solar power
A. Mechanical Design incident through out the year on the solar panel will be
The complete mechanical design of TSAT having one maximum if we fix the axis of rotation of solar tracker at
solar panel is shown in Figure 1. The base of TSAT has the an angle 69◦ from vertical or 21◦ from horizontal facing the
dimension 20in × 15in on which a tilted upper base is mounted north.
and the tilt angle of the upper base is 21◦ . On the upper base
the two columns are made to support the upper most rotating B. Working
base on which the sensor and solar panel are mounted. The
sensor senses the sun rays and sends the analog signal to the Initially facing the east, the tracker tracks the sun and aligns
microcontroller which in turn controls a DC motor through the the solar panel perpendicular to the incident light. It turns the
motor driver. panel along the sun path in every 10 minutes. Since the sun
moves with 15◦ per hour, i.e, in every 10 minutes it rotates
The movement of rotating base is controlled by the DC 2.5◦ , so the tracker tracks the sun with a precession of 2.5◦
motor, which is mounted on one of the columns to align the [6]. At evening the tracker stops tracking and when light falls
solar panel perpendicular to the sun. The rotation limiters are below the threshold value then the tracker turns the solar panel
in east position. Next day it starts tracking from east and the
cycle repeats.

C. Tracking Controller Circuit Design

The sensor senses the sun rays and sends signal to the
microcontroller to control the solar panel’s position. Each sen-
sor consists of two Cadmium Sulphate (CdS) light dependant
resistors (LDRs). The complete schematic diagram of control
circuit of TSAT is shown in Figure 3. In the control circuit
two LDRs connected in series with two potentiometers form
a LDR sensor. The 12 volts, 3.5 rpm DC motor positions the
solar panel. Microcontroller Atmega8 is used here for storing Figure 4. Block Diagram of Complete System
program, receiving input from LDR sensor, converting it to
digital value and giving appropriate command to the motor
driver for controlling a DC motor. Motor driver IC L293D
drives the DC motor forward and backward according to the
input signal coming from the micocontroller. S0 is a reset
switch used to reset the microcontroller and run the program
from starting. S1 and S2 represent the contacts for the stoppers.
Voltage Regulator IC 7805 is used to provide 5 volt supply Figure 5. Calculation of tilt angle β of LDR
to all the circuit components. Crystal Oscillator of 8 Mhz
(shown in Figure 3 as ’X’) is used to provide a stable clock
signal for the digital integrated circuits. The capacitors C1, To calculate the best angle position β for the LDR sensors
C2, C3 are used as filters and C4 is used for decoupling the to be placed, first a graph is plotted between the voltage
microcontroller from supply. difference of the two LDR sensor outputs and variation of
angle α for different values of β, viz., 25◦ , 35◦ , 45◦ ,55◦ and
65◦ . The other details of the calculation of angle α can be
found in [8]. The plot is approximately linear, i.e., voltage
difference is directly proportional to α when β is chosen as
25◦ .
Figure 6 shows the complete design of LDR sensor, which
shows the position of LDR on the surface of LDR sensor panel
which is tilted at an angle 25◦ with respect to the horizontal
plane. This sensor is mounted on the rotating surface on which
the solar panel is mounted.

Figure 6. LDR Sensor tilted at an angle β = 25◦

Figure 3. Schematic Diagram of Complete System D. Working of Control Circuit

The block diagram of complete system is shown in Figure 1) The sensor consist of two LDRs positioned at β =
4 showing the supply distribution to the elements of the 25◦ and connected across a 5 volt supply with a
control circuit and the flow of control signal from sensor to potentiometer connected in series.
microcontroller and from microcontroller to motor driver. 2) The LDR have the characteristic that the resistance
of LDR decreases as the light intensity falling on it
LDR is connected in series with the potentiometer (refer increases.
Figure 3). Output voltage taken from the junction of LDR and 3) We measure the output voltage across the potentiome-
potentiometer changes with the change in resistance of LDR. ter, which varies according to the resistance of LDR.
The solar tracker panel is installed with the two LDR sensors. 4) As the light intensity on LDR increases, resistance of
Assuming both the sensors are placed in parallel with the PV LDR decreases, hence the output voltage measured
panel, the effective irradiance is similar. As a result, the tracker across the potentiometer increases. Similarly, when
is unable to perform the tracking of the sun. To circumvent this, light intensity decreases the output voltage also de-
the two sensors are positioned at β ◦ and 180 – β ◦ respectively creases.
as seen in Figure 5. When the sun rays are incident on the solar 5) When the sun is at middle of the sensor panel, the
panel, the LDR sensors generate different voltages according light falling on both sensors are same, hence the
to the changes in the sun rays incidence angle α [7]. output voltage from both sensor will be same.
 6) When the sun moves towards any side of a sensor
(when the sun rotates from east to west), the angle
of incidence of light changes for both sensors, hence
light intensities on both sensors differ and there is
a continuous voltage difference between the sensor
output voltages.
7) The output voltages across the LDRs are converted
into digital value in the microcontroller with the help
of inbuilt analog to digital converter.
8) The microcontroller compares the two digital values Figure 8. Complete angular view of Azimuth Altitude Dual Axis Solar
of LDR sensors. When the difference become more Tracker
then 20 (equivalent to 0.0977volts), the microcon-
troller sends the digital signal to the motor driver to In this design of AADAT we have three stoppers stopper1,
rotate the motor fixed to the solar panel, such that stopper2 and stopper3, one for the upper rotating base and
the difference between two values of LDR sensors other two for the lower rotating base respectively. Stopper1
become less than 20. After the panel takes its new shown in Figure 9 stops the rotation of motor when the metal
position the difference between the two digital values contact touches stopper by sending the signal to the control
become less than 20, hence the motor stops rotating. circuit. Hence, it stops the rotation of upper base and it comes
9) The process continues and in this way this solar to its initial tracking position at evening to start tracking on
tracker tracks the movement of sun from east to west. next morning. Stopper2 and Stopper3 shown in Figure 10 and
Figure 11 respectively are used to stop the rotation of lower
III. D ESIGN AND W ORKING OF A ZIMUTH -A LTITUDE base at final position at evening and at the time of resetting
D UAL A XIS T RACKER the position for tracking at next day.
The sun’s position in the sky not only changes from east to
west, but the latitude of the sun’s path also varies throughout
the year. The AADAT starts tracking the sun at morning and
ends tracking at evening and automatically comes to its initial
position for tracking the sun next day. The whole movement
of the system is driven by two DC geared motors controlled
by the control circuit and LDR sensors. The whole system is Figure 9. Stopper1
powered by the 9 volts rechargeable batteries which can be
charged by the solar panel itself that makes the whole system
independent of any external power supply.

A. Mechanical Design
The complete Mechanical Design of Azimuth Altitude
Dual Axis Tracker is shown in Figure 7 and Figure 8 below,
Figure 10. Stopper2

Figure 11. Stopper3

Figure 7. Mechanical Design of Azimuth Altitude Dual Axis Solar Tracker The same mechanism is used for Stopper1, three metallic
contacts are used, one is fixed on one column and other two
The dimension of the lower base is about 15in × 15in. are on the lower rotating base.
The circular rotating base is of 12 inches diameter supported
by three caster wheels and a DC motor is mounted with the B. Tracking Controller Circuit
upper rotating base and shaft of this motor is rigidly coupled
with the lower base so when the motor shaft rotates, the whole The Figure 12 shows the complete circuit diagram of
upper base rotates with the motor because the shaft of the control circuit and the sensor. The components used in control
motor is coupled with the fixed lower base. circuit are same as those used in TSAT. The changes only are
enlisted below.
On the circular rotating base, two columns are made to
support the upper rotating base on which solar panel and sen- 1) Four LDR sensors are connected in series with the
sors are mounted. The axis of rotation of upper rotating base four potentiometers of resistance 10 Kohm each to
is perpendicular to the axis of rotation of lower rotating base. form four potential divider circuits.
 depends on circuit requirements like noise immunity, working
frequency and voltage levels etc. The fabrication process of
the printed circuit board determines to a large extent the
price and reliability of the equipment. The layout of the PCB
incorporates all the information of the board.
The following steps were taken while preparing the circuit
1) PCB Designing:
2) Layout Design:
3) Etching Process:
4) Component Assembly:
5) Soldering:
After following the above described process, firstly the
PCBs for TSAT and AADAT were designed on the basis of
Figure 3 and Figure 12. Lastly all the required components
were mounted on the PCBs. The final PCBs of the control
Figure 12. Schematic Diagram of Azimuth-Altitude Dual Axis solar tracker
circuits of TSAT and AADAT are shown in Figure 14 and
Figure 15 respectively. These PCBs are fixed at the base of
2) R1 to R4 are pull down resistors and R6 is pull up both the tracking systems. The complete assembled views of
resistor. R5 is used for current limiting for LED. TSAT and AADAT are shown in Figure 16 and Figure 17.
3) Four tact switches SW 1 to SW 4 are used for the
stoppers.
4) Two DC motors are used, Motor1 for moving the
lower rotating base and Motor2 for the upper rotating
base.
The geometrical construction of the LDR sensors for
AADAT shown in Figure 13 is same as the LDR sensor of
TSAT. At first, the four analog voltage coming from four LDR
sensor’s are applied to the microcontroller. The inbuilt ADC
of microcontroller converts these analog voltages to four 10
bit digital value. These digital values are then analyzed and
compared and an appropriate command is given to the motor
driver to drive the two DC motors in such a manner that the Figure 14. Complete control circuit of the TSAT
solar panel remain perpendicular to the sun rays. The value of
output voltage can be adjusted by the potentiometer by rotating
its trimer by screw driver.

Figure 13. Sensor Design Figure 15. Complete control circuit of the AADAT

IV. P ROGRAMMING AND FABRICATION V. D ISCUSSION

The programming codes of the microcontroller for TSAT Generally two types of solar tracker systems are available
and AADAT are written in C language. AVR Studio 4.0 is the in the market – single axis and dual axis trackers. Single axis
editor and compiler which is used to write C code and then trackers will track the sun from east to west on a single pivot
compile the C code to generate hex file for the microcontroller. point whereas dual axis trackers track east to west and tilt
Robokits Avr USB Programmer is the software which is used for north to south tracking using two pivot points. Dual axis
for burning the hex file generated by the AVR Studio 4.0 into trackers are more complex in design, as it uses additional
microcontroller using usb programmer. motors and sensors to track the sun whereas single axis tracker
are simple and effective in design. Dual axis trackers also use
The frame consisting of the bases and the columns are an eye sensor which visually follows the sun, while the single
made of plywood. After fitting all the mechanical parts, the axis tracker tracks the sun using a predictable pattern based
control circuit is designed on the PCB. The design of PCBs on the time of year. Less maintenance are required in single
 VI. C ONCLUSION
The completion of this work has led to several conclusions
that can be made about this solar tracking system as well
as solar tracking systems in general. The Tilted Single Axis
tracking system designed and built in this project show a
tracking efficiency of 2.5 degree and it increases the efficiency
of solar panel upto 30%,whereas, the Azimuth Altitude Dual
Axis Solar Tracking system also show a tracking efficiency
of 2.5 degree but increases the efficiency of solar panel upto
40%. Furthermore, testing showed that the power used by the
tracking system built was much less than the power gained
by tracking the sun accurately. This means that if the tracking
system were to charge its own batteries, it would be entirely
Figure 16. Complete Side View of Tilted Single Axis Tracker self-sufficient except for the maintenance.
Perhaps the most important conclusion to be made from
this project is that:
1) The cost for TSAT is Rs 1500 (approx),whereas, the
cost for AADAT is Rs 2500 (approx).
2) The total cost for the both tracking systems is very
low ,that is, Rs 4000 (approx), this means that the
system can be built for a very low cost and most
importantly; this system would be within the financial
reach of many communities if built in large size.
3) No running cost is required, however, replacements
of components may be essential.
4) Since natural source is involved, it is perpetual.
5) No pollution of environment.
However, the control system has not been discussed that
could aim to maximize the output power while minimizing
the power consumption of the tracking system. This would be
Figure 17. Complete Side View of Azimuth-Altitude Dual Axis Tracker taken up as our future work, where the optimum sensitivity
range of the controlling system would be evaluated to deter-
mine when the solar tracker should operate to generate more
power or stay stand-still to save energy.
axis as compared to dual axis tracker. Single axis tracker have
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