Experimental analysis on solar powered mobile robot as the prototype for environmentally friendly automated transportation

Abstract

Abstract An unmanned vehicle can be deployed in a dull area such as a repetitive task of a transport vehicle in a factory setting which can be considered as automated transportation. The current problem faced by the transportation sectors are the reduction of fossil fuel availability, therefore, solar-powered automated transport vehicle is a great alternative. This paper discussed the experimental analysis of solar-powered mobile robot as the prototype for environmentally friendly automated transportation. The solar cell output is used to charge the capacitor banks functioning as the substitute for a battery system. The robot moves from one station to another imitating the stations in a factory scenario. The solar-powered robot is equipped with a voltage sensor to ensure efficient charging time. The charging time was conducted in 5 days to show the charging fluctuation affected by external factors such as weather condition. The highest average charging in a day is 4.96 V during 100.687 Lux of irradiance received by the solar cell. The highest power required during the loaded task is 0.0121 W, and during unloaded is 0.0106 W. The experiment results show that the proposed method is effective for environmentally friendly automated transportation.