• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.47-59
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• 2016

As the usage of sun tracking system in solar energy utilization facility increases, requirement of more accurate computation of sun position has also been increased. Accordingly, various algorithms to compute the sun position have been proposed in the literature and some of them insist that their algorithms guarantee less than 0.01 degree computational error. However, mostly, the true meaning of accuracy argued in their publication is not clearly explained. In addition to that, they do not clearly state under what condition the accuracy they proposed can be guaranteed. Such ambiguity may induce misunderstanding on the accuracy of the computed sun position and ultimately may make misguided notion on the actual sun tracking system's sun tracking accuracy. This work presents some comments related to the implementation of sun position computational algorithm for the sun tracking system. We first introduce the algorithms proposed in the literature. And then, from sun tracking system user's point of view, we explain the true meaning of accuracy of computed sun position. We also discuss how to select the proper algorithm for the actual implementation. We finally discuss how the input factors used in computation of sun position, like time, position etc, affect the computed sun position accuracy.

• Solar Energy
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.87-94
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• 1998

This work presents a method to compute the sun position(azimuth and elevation), sunrise and sunset times. Accurate computation of sun position is very important to the precise tracking of the sun for the solar concentrator, which enables the maximum collection of solar energy. Methods to compute the sun position are available in the literature already. However most of them do not have accuracy verification, thus makes hard in selecting the most accurate sun position computation method. We first select the most accurate sun position computation method among the methods presented in the literature by comparing the computed sun position with Korean Almanac of Korea Astronomy Observatory. Then a procedure to compute the sunrise and sunset times is presented. Computed sun position shows $0.02^{\circ},\;0.6^{\circ}$ and one minute differences in azimuth, elevation and sunrise/sunset times respectively compared with Korean Almanac.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.79-80
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• 2009

• Solar Energy
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.81-91
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• 1999

The work presented here is a design and development of sun tracking system for the parabolic dish concentrator. Parabolic dish concentrator is mounted on azimuth and elevation tracking mechanism, and controlled to track the sun with computed and measured sun positions. Sun tracking mechanism is composed of 1/30000 speed reducer(3 stages) and 400W AC servomotor for each axis. The nominal tracking speed of each axis is ${\pm}0.6^{\circ}/sec$ and the system has a driving range of $340^{\circ}$ in azimuth and of $135^{\circ}$ in elevation. Sun tracking control system consists of sun sensor, wind speed and direction measurement system, AC servomotor position control system and personal computer as a master controller. Sun sensor detects the sun located within ${\pm}50^{\circ}$ measured from the sun sensor normal direction. Computer computes the sun position, sunrise and sunset times and controls the orientation of parabolic dish concentrator through the AC servomotor position control system. It also makes a decision of whether the system should follow the sun or not based on the information collected from sun sensor and wind speed and direction measurement system. The sun tracking system developed in this work is implemented for the experimental work and shows a good sun tracking performance.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.1159-1163
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• 2012

In this paper, we would like to introduce two dimensional non-contact position sensor by using an electromagnetic induction based coil system and an algorithm to estimate the position of pointer. The sensor which will introduce in this paper is composed of a pointer including LC resonant circuit and a sensor board to detect the electromagnetic signal from the pointer. Because of the simplicity shape of the line antenna, low cost and free form curved shape of the sensor device is possible. In this research, we proposed a new two dimensional non-contact type electromagnetic sensor system and realized the proposed sensor device. From the experiments, the proposed device can be employed for the two dimensional position sensor.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1986.10a
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• pp.393-396
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• 1986

A Sun-Position Sensor using four phototransistors and shadow band device has been designed, and a Sun-Tracking System which tracks varying positions of the sun in elevation and azimuth axes has been built and its performance has been analyzed on the basis of indoor experiments and computer simulations. Two permanent-magnetic Step Motors (1.8.deg./step) for the main actuators and a CRC-800A kit with the Z-80CPU for the main controller have been selected to construct the Sun-Tracking System. It has been shown that the Sun-Position Sensor has about 0.5.deg. resolution and 25msec is required for the response of a single step input to reach its steady state.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2006.10c
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• pp.321-323
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• 2006

The light gets darker from center to edge of the light source. Therefore, we can find the center of the sun using shading histogram. Moreover, we can track the exact position of the sun with the shading histogram. In this paper, we propose a new technique using image-processing of digital camera, in order to locate the position of the sun.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.943-953
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• 2009

In this paper, we propose a radio sensor to measure the position of the sun for the solar tracker of a photovoltaic system. In order to satisfy the requirement for the measurement accuracy within ${\pm}5^{\circ}$, the sensor receiver with high gain, high sensitivity and wide bandwidth is designed and implemented. The receiver has the bandwidth of 104 MHz, the system gain of 69 dB and the sensitivity of 0.46 K at 5.1 GHz. The processes of design and implementation of the radio sensor receiver are described in this paper. The effectiveness of the proposed radio sensor in the measurement of the position of the sun is demonstrated experimentally under the condition of cloud cover. The results show the radio sensor can measure the position of the sun within the accuracy of ${\pm}4^{\circ}$ successfully.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.1169-1174
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• 2009

In this paper, a prototype of implementable Sun tracking algorithm for mobile systems powered by alternative energy is proposed. The proposed system uses 2-axis tilt sensor and 3-axis magnetic sensor to measure orientation and posture of the system according to the horizon coordinates system, which are used to compensate tilt effects. Then through astronomical calculation using the present time and position informations obtained from GPS sensors, the calculated azimuth and altitude of the Sun in that location. The position of the Sun is converted to that of the mobile Sun tracking system coordinates and used to control A-axis and C-axis of the system.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.38-43
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• 2009

In this paper. a prototype of a mobile Sun tracking system is proposed. The proposed system uses 2-axis tilt sensor and 3-axis magnetic sensor to measure the orientation and the posture of the system according to the horizontal system of coordinates, which are used to compensate the slope effects. Then through astronomical calculation using the time and position information obtained by GPS sensor the azimuth and altitude of the Sun from that location is calculated. The position of the Sun is converted to that of the mobile Sun tracking system coordinates and used to control A-axis and C-axis of the system.