Robotic heliostat calibration system and method
A robotic controller for autonomous calibration and inspection of two or more solar surfaces wherein the robotic controller includes a drive system to position itself near a solar surface such that onboard sensors may be utilized to gather information about the solar surface. An onboard communication unit relays information to a central processing network, this processor combines new information with stored historical data to calibrate a solar surface and/or to determine its instantaneous health.
1. A system for calibrating multiple solar surfaces comprising:
a first solar surface of the multiple solar surfaces coupled to a first support structure;
a second solar surface of the multiple solar surfaces coupled to a second support structure; and
a robot, including:
a drive system for positioning the robot at a first calibration station corresponding to the first solar surface and positioning the robot at a second calibration station corresponding to the second solar surface;
sensors for identifying status information about the first solar surface when the robot is positioned at the first calibration station, and status information about the second solar surface when the robot is positioned at the second calibration station; and
a calibration system to calibrate the first solar surface when the robot is positioned at the first calibration station, and to calibrate the second solar surface when the robot is positioned at the second calibration station.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the calibration system includes:
a solar surface orientation detection unit to determine an orientation of the first solar surface, and an orientation of the second solar surface.
3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the solar surface orientation detection unit identifies solar surface targets positioned on the back side of the first and second solar surfaces.
4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the solar surface targets include at least one of colored targets, patterned targets, a physical feature of the back of the first solar surface, and a signal emitting device.
5. The system of claim 2 , wherein said calibration system includes:
an orientation unit to determine first orientation information of the robot when positioned at the first calibration station and second orientation information of the robot when positioned at the second calibration station, wherein orientation information of the robot includes a value representing the tilt of the robot; and
a perpendicularity unit to determine an orientation of the first support structure using the first orientation information of the robot and an orientation of the second support structure using the second orientation information of the robot, wherein the status information includes said orientations of the first support structure and the second support structure.
6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the perpendicularity unit determines a difference between the direction of an axis of a support structure and a direction of gravitational force.
7. The system of claim 5 , wherein said calibration system includes:
a solar surface directionality device to determine a first alignment value representing how closely the first solar surface is aligned with the sun, and a second alignment value representing how closely the second solar surface is aligned with the sun; and
wherein the robot includes an alignment unit to modify a direction of a solar surface to align said solar surface with the sun based on the output of the directionality device and wherein said status information includes said first and second alignment values.
8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the robot includes:
a communication unit, disposed to receive the first alignment value and the second alignment value and to transmit said first and second alignment values to a calibration computing device.
9. The system of claim 7 , further comprising:
a calibration computing device, to generate first calibration instructions for the first solar surface based upon the first alignment value, to generate second calibration instructions for the second solar surface based upon the second alignment value, and transmitting said first and second calibration instructions to a robot for modifying a direction of at least one of the first solar surface and the second solar surface.
10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the robot includes the calibration computing device.
11. The system of claim 9 , further comprising:
a second robot; and
wherein the calibration computing device transmits at least one of the first and second calibration instructions to the first robot, and
wherein the calibration computing device transmits at least one of the first and second calibration instructions to the second robot.
12. The system of claim 9 , where the calibration computing device is located remotely from the robot.
13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the calibration system includes:
a position detection device to determine a position of the robot.
14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the position detection device determines position of the robot using at least one of a global positioning system device, a triangulation system, a distance sensing system and a camera system.
15. The system of claim 1 , wherein said calibration system includes:
an orientation unit to determine first orientation information of the robot when positioned at the first calibration station and second orientation information of the robot when positioned at the second calibration station, wherein orientation information of the robot includes a value representing the tilt of the robot; and
a perpendicularity unit to determine an orientation of the first support structure and an orientation of said second support structure using said orientation information of the robot, wherein the status information includes said orientations of the first support structure and the second support structure.
16. The system of claim 1 , wherein said calibration system includes:
a solar surface directionality device to determine a first alignment value representing how closely the first solar surface is aligned with the sun, and
a second alignment value representing how closely the second solar surface is aligned with the sun; and
wherein the robot includes an alignment unit to modify a direction of a solar surface to align said solar surface with the sun based on the output of the directionality device and wherein said status information includes said first and second alignment values.
17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the robot includes:
a communication unit, disposed to receive said first alignment value and said second alignment value and to transmit said first and second alignment values to a calibration computing device.
18. A robot for calibrating a plurality of solar surfaces coupled to support structures, the robot comprising:
a drive system for positioning the robot at a plurality of calibration stations, each calibration station corresponding to a solar surface in the plurality of solar surfaces for calibration;
sensors for identifying status information about a first solar surface when the robot is positioned at a first corresponding calibration station and status information about a second solar surface when the robot is positioned at a second corresponding calibration station;
an orientation detection unit to determine an orientation of the first solar surface and an orientation of the second solar surface; and
a calibration unit to calibrate the first solar surface when the robot is positioned at the first calibration station and the second solar surface when the robot is positioned at the second calibration station.
19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the orientation detection unit comprises:
a first portion to determine an orientation of the robot when positioned at a calibration station corresponding to a solar surface;
a second portion to determine an orientation of a support structure corresponding to the solar surface when positioned at a calibration station; and
wherein determining the orientation of the solar surface corresponding to the calibration station is based on the orientation of the robot and the orientation of the support structure.
20. A method for calibrating multiple solar surfaces including a first solar surface of the multiple solar surfaces coupled to a first support structure and a second solar surface of the multiple solar surfaces coupled to a second support structure, the method comprising the steps of:
engaging a drive system of a robot to position the robot at a first calibration station;
identifying first status information about said first solar surface when the robot is positioned at the first calibration station;
engaging the drive system of the robot to position the robot at a second calibration station; identifying second status information about said second solar surface when the robot is positioned at the second calibration station;
transmitting at least one of said first status information and said second status information to a remote computing device; and
positioning at least one of said first solar surface and said second solar surface in response to calibration information based on the status information.