Scrobby - a solar panel cleaning robot

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Description

In this project I'll document the development process of the Scrobby Solar solar panel cleaning robot.

Since this moment the Scrobby is live on Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stefanhamminga/scrobby-solar-keeping-your-solar-panels-clean

The basic concept came to life a few years ago, while working (professionally) on safety system designs for roofs and buildings. The idea being it should be able to avoid these situations completely.
I've been doing both the mechanical and electronics design by myself and I must say, so far it has been an amazingly good learning experience. I started building with a simple Teensy 3 and some off the shelf parts, but right now most electronic modules are designed specifically to my needs.
The robot consists of a main controller (currently moving from the Teensy 3 to a custom Freescale KL26 based board), a Bluetooth LE module, six ultrasonic sensors, two internal motor driven spools and many more bits.

Details

The basic details

The basic goal of the Scrobby Solar project is to develop a robot that is able to clean solar panels autonomously. This with an affordable price target (350 euros) and minimal modifications to the system. After comparing some options I chose to work with just rain water for the cleaning actions (no need for a water supply, no frost issues in winter) and a tether based motion system.

A quick intro vid

Despite my video production talents and with some quick help of my sister I've managed to upload a quick introduction video. It shows some of the making process, plus some test runs on my small scale testing setup (which is a lot easier to work on than climb a roof and dance for rain every time I want to test something).

Project Logs

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The Scrobby on Kickstarter!
Stefan Hamminga • 09/11/2014 at 08:12 • 0 comments

It's been a touch quiet here, but not for me! I've been working on getting things ready for the next step in this project: Getting ready for production. I like the idea of Kickstarter from the start, the idea of combining testing your product's market reception with getting this crucial bit of early stage financing is very appealing. Usually financing in this stage is based on best guesses based on the appeal of the product and market position tools (patents, etc). Kickstarter and similar ideas allow you to gain real world feedback from a much earlier stage.
So, without further delay:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stefanhamminga/scrobby-solar-keeping-your-solar-panels-clean
I hope you'll have a look and maybe even become an early adopter!
Assembling the rest of the bottom unit
Stefan Hamminga • 08/20/2014 at 11:01 • 0 comments

So below some more bits on the mechanical assembly, the internal layout of the spools and drives.
Read more »
Bearing system fitment testing video
Stefan Hamminga • 08/20/2014 at 10:26 • 0 comments

A quick video showing how the slewing bearing system works.
Mechanics for prototype 2
Stefan Hamminga • 08/19/2014 at 20:55 • 0 comments

Before heading into the electronic designs I'd like to go over the mechanics of the second prototype and the changes made. I think it'll clarify some of the demands put on the electric designs I'll be discussing later on.
As you can see to the right, I've been having quite a lot of fun trying it out.
Read more »
From bits to box, the 3D prints for prototype 1
Stefan Hamminga • 08/19/2014 at 13:25 • 0 comments

I'm going to kick off this project documentation by showing you some, hopefully, interesting details about the mechanical parts, the 3D printing work and putting it together.
As I said: from bits to box!
My preferred place for print work is Shapeways, they generally do very nice work.
Read more »

View all 5 project logs

Discussions

mohammed.atta_elgammal wrote 03/25/2016 at 13:26

I had a quick thought on the tether design. From your video, when the brush is active the Scrobby looks like it wants to run away. https://goo.gl/9NMeUq

Are you sure? yes | no

torsten.mogensen wrote 10/13/2014 at 21:29

I am a mere retired Norwegian solar panel owner in the sunny south of France wanting to easily clean my moneyproducing panels. I was just two days late in finding this very interesting project. Hope I can buy one unit when you are in production! Keep me advised of your progress.

Are you sure? yes | no

Stefan Hamminga wrote 10/09/2014 at 19:24

Hi Morgan,
Thanks for your thoughts and good luck wish!

One of the earlier designs actually had this feature. The reason for not doing this is that, even though it looks less stable, it's pretty similar in stability and this way the rotations and movements of the body can be continuously monitored, providing feedback on the torque the brush is exerting (compared to a running average), wind load and the obstacles encountered. Also, this design mostly decouples the forces in the individual tethers from the normal 'vertical' position of the body. A larger distance between where the tethers connect to the body rotates the body, depending on the angle of the tether wires.

Are you sure? yes | no

morgan wrote 10/09/2014 at 18:39

Super cool project.
I had a quick thought on the tether design. From your video, when the brush is active the Scrobby looks like it wants to run away. I was thinking if the tethers were connected at the sides it might be more stable.

Good luck with the Kickstarted (if only I had solar panels that needed cleaning....)

Are you sure? yes | no

Scrobby - a solar panel cleaning robot

Description

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Project Logs

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The Scrobby on Kickstarter!

Assembling the rest of the bottom unit

Bearing system fitment testing video

Mechanics for prototype 2

From bits to box, the 3D prints for prototype 1

Discussions

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