scholarly journals New Omnidirectional Sensor Based on Open-Source Software and Hardware for Tracking and Backtracking of Dual-Axis Solar Trackers in Photovoltaic Plants

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 726
Author(s):  
Francisco J. Gómez-Uceda ◽  
José Ramirez-Faz ◽  
Marta Varo-Martinez ◽  
Luis Manuel Fernández-Ahumada
Keyword(s):  
Open Source Software ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
Radiative Capture ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Free Software ◽  
Solar Tracking ◽  
Software And Hardware ◽  
Celestial Sphere ◽  
Photovoltaic Plants

In this work, an omnidirectional sensor that enables identification of the direction of the celestial sphere with maximum solar irradiance is presented. The sensor, based on instantaneous measurements, functions as a position server for dual-axis solar trackers in photovoltaic plants. The proposed device has been developed with free software and hardware, which makes it a pioneering solution because it is open and accessible as well as capable of being improved by the scientific community, thereby contributing to the rapid advancement of technology. In addition, the device includes an algorithm developed ex professo that makes it possible to predetermine the regions of the celestial sphere for which, according to the geometric characteristics of the PV plant, there would be shading between the panels. In this way, solar trackers do not have to locate the Sun’s position at all times according to astronomical models, while taking into account factors such as shadows or cloudiness that also affect levels of incident irradiance on solar collectors. Therefore, with this device, it is possible to provide photovoltaic plants with dual-axis solar tracking with a low-cost device that helps to optimise the trajectory of the trackers and, consequently, their radiative capture and energy production.

scholarly journals A System for Controlling and Monitoring IoT Applications

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zebenzui Lima ◽  
Hugo García-Vázquez ◽  
Raúl Rodríguez ◽  
Sunil Khemchandani ◽  
Fortunato Dualibe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Relative Humidity ◽  
Internet Of Things ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Remote Monitoring ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Raspberry Pi ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Iot Applications ◽  
Hardware System ◽  
Software And Hardware

In this work, the design and implementation of an open source software and hardware system for Internet of Things (IoT) applications is presented. This system permits the remote monitoring of supplied data from sensors and webcams and the control of different devices such as actuators, servomotors and LEDs. The parameters which have been monitored are brightness, temperature and relative humidity all of which constitute possible environmental factors. The control and monitoring of the installation is realised through a server which is managed by an administrator. The device which rules the installation is a Raspberry Pi, a small and powerful micro-computer in a single board with low consumption, low cost and reconfigurability.

scholarly journals Proposal for the Design of Monitoring and Operating Irrigation Networks Based on IoT, Cloud Computing and Free Hardware Technologies

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 2318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Manuel Fernández-Ahumada ◽  
Jose Ramírez-Faz ◽  
Marcos Torres-Romero ◽  
Rafael López-Luque
Keyword(s):  
Communication Networks ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Free Software ◽  
Wireless Communication Networks ◽  
Process Automation ◽  
Internet Connection ◽  
Irrigation Networks ◽  
Node Network ◽  
Software And Hardware ◽  
The Stability

In recent decades, considerable efforts have been devoted to process automation in agriculture. Regarding irrigation systems, this demand has found several difficulties, including the lack of communication networks and the large distances to electricity supply points. With the recent implementation of LPWAN wireless communication networks (SIGFOX, LoraWan, and NBIoT), and the expanding market of electronic controllers based on free software and hardware (i.e., Arduino, Raspberry, ESP, etc.) with low energy requirements, new perspectives have appeared for the automation of agricultural irrigation networks. This paper presents a low-cost solution for automatic cloud-based irrigation. In this paper, it is proposed the design of a node network based on microcontroller ESP32-Lora and Internet connection through SIGFOX network. The results obtained show the stability and robustness of the designed system.

scholarly journals Virtualizing AI at the Distributed Edge Towards Intelligent IoT Applications

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Claudia Campolo ◽  
Giacomo Genovese ◽  
Antonio Iera ◽  
Antonella Molinaro
Keyword(s):  
Resource Constraints ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Iot Applications ◽  
Software And Hardware ◽  
Iot Devices ◽  
Consumer Devices ◽  
Hardware Platforms ◽  
Smart Factories

Several Internet of Things (IoT) applications are booming which rely on advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and, in particular, machine learning (ML) algorithms to assist the users and make decisions on their behalf in a large variety of contexts, such as smart homes, smart cities, smart factories. Although the traditional approach is to deploy such compute-intensive algorithms into the centralized cloud, the recent proliferation of low-cost, AI-powered microcontrollers and consumer devices paves the way for having the intelligence pervasively spread along the cloud-to-things continuum. The take off of such a promising vision may be hurdled by the resource constraints of IoT devices and by the heterogeneity of (mostly proprietary) AI-embedded software and hardware platforms. In this paper, we propose a solution for the AI distributed deployment at the deep edge, which lays its foundation in the IoT virtualization concept. We design a virtualization layer hosted at the network edge that is in charge of the semantic description of AI-embedded IoT devices, and, hence, it can expose as well as augment their cognitive capabilities in order to feed intelligent IoT applications. The proposal has been mainly devised with the twofold aim of (i) relieving the pressure on constrained devices that are solicited by multiple parties interested in accessing their generated data and inference, and (ii) and targeting interoperability among AI-powered platforms. A Proof-of-Concept (PoC) is provided to showcase the viability and advantages of the proposed solution.

MOF-derived M-OOH with rich oxygen defects by in-situ electro-oxidation reconstitution for highly efficient oxygen evolution reaction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhikai Shi ◽  
Zebin Yu ◽  
Ronghua Jiang ◽  
Jun Huang ◽  
Yanping Hou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oxygen Evolution ◽  
Oxygen Evolution Reaction ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Highly Efficient ◽  
Oxygen Defects ◽  
Electro Oxidation

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is an important half-reaction in the field of energy production. However, how effectively, simply, and greenly to prepare low-cost OER electrocatalysts remains a problem. Herein,...

scholarly journals Photovoltaic Prediction Software: Evaluation with Real Data from Northern Spain

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 5025
Author(s):  
David González-Peña ◽  
Ignacio García-Ruiz ◽  
Montserrat Díez-Mediavilla ◽  
Mª. Isabel Dieste-Velasco ◽  
Cristina Alonso-Tristán
Keyword(s):  
Energy Production ◽  
Field Data ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Software Tools ◽  
Horizontal Axis ◽  
Real Field ◽  
Tracking Systems ◽  
Northern Spain ◽  
Commercial Software ◽  
Solar Tracking

Prediction of energy production is crucial for the design and installation of PV plants. In this study, five free and commercial software tools to predict photovoltaic energy production are evaluated: RETScreen, Solar Advisor Model (SAM), PVGIS, PVSyst, and PV*SOL. The evaluation involves a comparison of monthly and annually predicted data on energy supplied to the national grid with real field data collected from three real PV plants. All the systems, located in Castile and Leon (Spain), have three different tilting systems: fixed mounting, horizontal-axis tracking, and dual-axis tracking. The last 12 years of operating data, from 2008 to 2020, are used in the evaluation. Although the commercial software tools were easier to use and their installations could be described in detail, their results were not appreciably superior. In annual global terms, the results hid poor estimations throughout the year, where overestimations were compensated by underestimated results. This fact was reflected in the monthly results: the software yielded overestimates during the colder months, while the models showed better estimates during the warmer months. In most studies, the deviation was below 10% when the annual results were analyzed. The accuracy of the software was also reduced when the complexity of the dual-axis solar tracking systems replaced the fixed installation.

scholarly journals Optimal design of the solar tracking system of parabolic trough concentrating collectors

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 613-619
Author(s):  
Li Kong ◽  
Yunpeng Zhang ◽  
Zhijian Lin ◽  
Zhongzhu Qiu ◽  
Chunying Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Simulation ◽  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Tracking System ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Parabolic Trough ◽  
The North ◽  
Tracking Mode ◽  
Solar Tracking ◽  
East West

Abstract The present work aimed to select the optimum solar tracking mode for parabolic trough concentrating collectors using numerical simulation. The current work involved: (1) the calculation of daily solar radiation on the Earth’s surface, (2) the comparison of annual direct solar radiation received under different tracking modes and (3) the determination of optimum tilt angle for the north-south tilt tracking mode. It was found that the order of solar radiation received in Shanghai under the available tracking modes was: dual-axis tracking > north-south Earth’s axis tracking > north-south tilt tracking (β = 15°) > north-south tilt tracking (β = 45) > north-south horizontal tracking > east-west horizontal tracking. Single-axis solar tracking modes feature simple structures and low cost. This study also found that the solar radiation received under the north-south tilt tracking mode was higher than that of the north-south Earth’s axis tracking mode in 7 out of 12 months. Therefore, the north-south tilt tracking mode was studied separately to determine the corresponding optimum tilt angles in Haikou, Lhasa, Shanghai, Beijing and Hohhot, respectively, which were shown as follows: 18.81°, 27.29°, 28.67°, 36.21° and 37.97°.

scholarly journals Merging a Remote Microscope and Virtual Worlds: Teaching Kingdom Plantae on Basic Education

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (04) ◽  
pp. 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Porto Antonio ◽  
João Paulo Lima ◽  
João Bosco Alves ◽  
Juarez Bento Silva ◽  
José Pedro Simão
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Science Teaching ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Virtual Learning Environment ◽  
Educational Tool ◽  
Plant Parts

This paper presents an educational tool based on open source software and low cost hardware to supplement science teaching, merging concepts of remote experiment, virtual worlds and virtual learning environment. Using an avatar, students can move around in an enriched environment and access a remote microscope that enables visualization of plant parts and interaction with the available samples.

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