Universidad Europea Madrid, Erasmus Exchange

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For this project, I looked towards biomimicry, recreating a feature found in the natural world through a physical model and architectural structure. After considering several natural phenomena, I chose to pursue heliotropism found in sunflowers. I identified solutions to questions I wanted to replicate through the initial model; using air pressure to achieve the apparent movement of sunflowers towards the sun.

 

The process involved research and rounds of trial and error. After positive feedback from my presentation at the CSIC Robotics lab, I pursued my idea of designing a solar tracker to act as a canopy-like shading device, equipped with LDRs. It would absorb solar energy during the day, allowing the supply of energy to a feature found within the site such as a water fountain, to power a misting system integrated into the structure, or even charge mobile phones. I designed a u-joint to allow rotation in both axes, considering the sun path diagrams and feasibility of connections which influenced its dimensions.

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After modelling it on Rhino in 3D, I printed several prototypes in 3D until the final version. In the end, I found the most effective way to integrate servo motors to my solar tracker was by simply connecting them to each other and then directly to the frame I modelled which held the PV cell. The line of code that would achieve this behaviour was written to take the difference between LDRs placed on 4 corners before rotating the servo motors until it reaches a position where the difference between all these variables was equal to zero (i.e facing the sun).