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Currently, the use of renewable energy sources such as solar energy, collected by photovoltaic technology, has gained ground in the energy sector. Its use has been popularised due to the fact that it is considered a clean energy, that is a type of energy is produced without burning fossil fuels which are a cause of global warming, among other environmental damages. In order to optimize the energy harvesting through photovoltaic technology, it is necessary to maintain a perpendicular incidence of the sun rays with the photovoltaic module, leading to the use of solar tracking systems that demand the application of trajectory tracking control strategies that minimize the tracking errors while ensuring the lowest energy consumption of the robotic system. In this work, a comprehensive multibody simulation was carried out to obtain a concrete appreciation of the behavior of the tracking system prior to an experimental implementation. This type of simulations allows us to simulate complete systems formed by solid links and rigid joints that were previously designed, and with a calculated analytical model (Kinematic and Dynamic). Furthermore, the obtained simulator allows us to apply a variety of control strategies that are represented by means of 3D simulations which are very similar to the actual experimental results, so that it would be possible to estimate the ªtracking error results° without the necessity of a physical implementation. From the kinematic and dynamic models of a solar tracker of two degrees of freedom, released in an azimuthal-elevation configuration, a PID controller and a passivity-based controller were implemented in Matlab-Simscape®, obtaining simulations of a solar trajectory tracking minimizing the error between the reference and the solar tracker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar Tracking Systems (STS) increase the performance of Photovoltaic and Concentrated Photovoltaic Technology. These systems are usually designed in open kinematic chain. However, this configuration may present a low load capacity and high alignment errors, due to the high torsional stresses concentered in the joints and the high deformations in the links. An alternative configuration was developed, designing a parallel robot with three degrees of freedom in Revolute-Prismatic-Spherical (3-RPS) configuration, allowing to follow the solar path with a maximum tracking error of ± 0.5°. The system was developed with a mechatronic approach, increasing the overall system performance. The tracker was validated through multi-body simulations, ensuring that the system has a low tracking error and a minimal energy consumption. A comparison was made between two control strategies, a PID controller with a tracking error of 0.0031°, and GPI controller with an error of 0.0039°. Finally, an analysis of the energy balance was carried out, considering a commercial CPV module, it was determined that the system requires 0.539% of the energy generated for the tracking action. The results show the potential to develop STS in closed kinematic chain to improve the performance of solar tracking technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]