Solar tracking system employing multiple mobile robots

摘要

The present invention relates to a highly-available and fault-tolerant solar tracking system and the process required to manage such a system. A fleet of multiple, redundant mobile robots managed by a task coordinator is deployed to track solar panels in a solar farm in alignment with the sun. Each robot has a control unit for engaging with a coupler connected to one or multiple solar panels and adjusting their orientation, as well as communicating with the task coordinator to receive tasks. The task coordinator senses various events such as robot failure/deterioration, as well as various environmental conditions, and sends tasks reconciled with event types. The system is highly-available and fault-tolerant as it remains operational as long as there is one operational robot. The task coordinator assigns tasks to the mobile robots so as to optimize battery life or other factors, such as, e.g., overall maintenance costs across the fleet.

主权项

1. A solar tracking system comprising:
a plurality of solar panels; a mobile robot fleet having a plurality of mobile robots, each robot of the plurality having an on-board control unit configured to effect travel to any solar panel of the plurality of solar panels and to perform at least a first task to any solar panel of the plurality of solar panels; a control center configured to communicate with the control unit of each mobile robot of the plurality and to coordinate performance of one or more tasks to the plurality of solar panels with the plurality of robots by sending commands to one or more selected robots of the plurality to perform the one or more tasks, the one or more tasks including the first task, one or more sensors adapted for sensing a robot performance condition of individual robots of the plurality, wherein the control center is further configured to:
determine a type of the robot performance condition based on a sensed measurement from the one or more sensors and comparison to a set performance threshold, wherein the type includes a fully functional robot, a deteriorated robot, and a robot failure;redistribute one or more tasks previously sent to a robot of the plurality for which a robot failure type is determined to another robot, the other robot selected from robots of the plurality having a fully functional and a deteriorated robot type; andredistribute one or more tasks previously sent to a robot of the plurality for which a deteriorated robot type is determined and which the respective robot is unable to perform to another robot for which a fully functional robot type is determined.