• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.664-671
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• 2018

Generally, conventional solar tracking systems employ irradiance sensors to track a sun position, which enables the system to generate maximum solar energy. The usage of irradiance sensors increases system costs and deteriorates the performance of systems from sensor malfunctions. In this paper, a new solar tracking system without irradiance sensors has been proposed in which the controller capable of controlling and monitoring remotely is based on Artik platform. The proposed system tracks the sun position by comparing the amount of currents from several solar panels, resulting in removing irradiance sensors. In order to verify the performance of the proposed solar tracking method, the 12[V]-20[W] prototype system is built and implemented. Since the proposed system has remote monitoring functions through the employment of Artik as the IoT platform, more advantages in installation, maintenance and expanded functionality can be obtained compared to the conventional solar tracking system.