Project Overview: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory challenged the team to build an autonomous solar panel cleaning system. This system would clear each individual solar panel of dust and debris to maintain their efficiency at their peak operating condition. The client had a few challenges for the team to make this system work in all weather conditions and scenarios that would be encountered by the system on solar arrays across the United States of America. Lawrence Livermore asked the team to create a system that did not use water or other liquid cleaning agents in the cleaning process, which increases its autonomy and lowers its maintenance cost. The system should be able to continue to clean and operate in adverse weather conditions such as extreme heat or cold, snow, wind, and rain, which enables it to be used year round.
Project Final Design: The team's final design includes a rotating brush and a chassis that rolls along the top and bottom of the solar panel. The frame of the robot traverses horizontally along the solar panel(s) in increments, stopping along the way. During these stops, a carriage on top of the frame is driven up and down the frame through the use of a pulley system Attached to the carriage is a spinning brush that cleans the solar panel as the carriage traverses up and down the solar panel. At the end of the cycle the frame travels to a "home" location where it rests and recharges via a built in solar panel. Here it remains until given the order to resume another cleaning cycle.
