Spatial irradiance estimation in a thermosolar power plant by a mobile robot sensor network
Javier García Martin, José M. Maestre, and Eduardo F. Camacho.
Abstract
An algorithm for mapping Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) in thermosolar power plants using a Mobile Robotic Sensor Network (RSN) is presented. The algorithm selects measurement spots and allocates the RSN accordingly to carry out the dynamic estimation of DNI. A generic thermosolar power plant with a fleet of vehicles is used as a simulated case study to assess the performance of the algorithm. The results show that the proposed method allows us to obtain a spatial estimation of the DNI that could improve the performance of the plant, and that outperforms estimations based on a single pyrheliometer.
Highlights
- The algorithm obtains a spatially DNI estimation with a multi-robot sensor network.
- The algorithm approaches both the generation of tasks and the estimation of DNI.
- The clouds and exploring unknown areas are needed to generate new tasks.
- The framework is modular and additional information sources can be considered.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2021.03.038
Repository copy: https://idus.us.es/handle/11441/108944
Click the videos below to play the results:
- Test of the proposed algorithm without cameras:
- Test of the algorithm without cameras with the same input, given the heuristic nature of the algorithm:
- Test of the algorithm with the same input but considering there are cameras that help locating the clouds:
- Test of the algorithm with the same input but considering that robots are performing random tasks instead of the tasks generated by the proposed algorithm: