The performance and cost-effectiveness of photovoltaic cells depends greatly on the intensity of solar radiation to which they are exposed. Integrating a solar tracking system to the photovoltaic cell panel provides a way to improve the efficiencies of the solar energy system. Designing such an interdisciplinary system requires the mechatronic approach, through which the subsystems and their interfacings relating to the electrical, electronic, mechanical, structural, and control are integrated with multiple functionality and intelligent engineering realized in the microprocessor/controller operations and the controlled mechanisms. This chapter presents a case study of mechatronic system design and prototyping of a two-axis solar tracking system ST100 utilizing microcontroller OOPic. Two stepper motors adjusting the solar panel's rotation and tilt about the horizontal axis and the vertical axis give it the ability to track the movement of the sun and align the solar panel to face the sun at all times.

A mechatronic real-time solar tracker is developed with National Instruments Compact Rio programming module, photoresistors sensor, stepper motors, and a set of nickel metal hydride (NiMH) cells. The tracking array is able to pivot on two axes by way of the stepper motors to reflect the effect of daily and seasonal trajectories of the sun. This design will keep the solar cell perpendicular to the sunlight. This project furthers the application of mechatronics to the field of renewable energy.

A mechatronic real-time solar tracker is developed with National Instruments Compact Rio programming module, photoresistors sensor, stepper motors, and a set of nickel metal hydride (NiMH) cells. The tracking array is able to pivot on two axes by way of the stepper motors to reflect the effect of daily and seasonal trajectories of the sun. This design will keep the solar cell perpendicular to the sunlight. This project furthers the application of mechatronics to the field of renewable energy.

With the development of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), wireless communication technology, and embedded systems, wireless sensor network (WSN) has been a focus for research among various fields. Wireless sensor technology inspires many innovations for industrial applications and medical robots, and breaks many limitations and inconvenience for such sensing devices. A self-powered height sensing system with ZigBee technology is presented. It specifically targets to replace an original wired system with an integrated wireless sensor that is comprised of all necessary parts: sensing module, processing module, RF transceiver, and power supply. First, the authors present the system framework design including the layout of a wireless sensor node based on ZigBee. Second, with the vibration environment, a self-powered generator was developed through the comparison between piezoelectric and electromagnetic generation. Then several experiments are conducted to test and analyze the feasibility of the whole system. Finally, a future upgraded design is proposed to improve system performance.

The performance and cost-effectiveness of photovoltaic cells depends greatly on the intensity of solar radiation to which they are exposed. Integrating a solar tracking system to the photovoltaic cell panel provides a way to improve the efficiencies of the solar energy system. Designing such an interdisciplinary system requires the mechatronic approach, through which the subsystems and their interfacings relating to the electrical, electronic, mechanical, structural, and control are integrated with multiple functionality and intelligent engineering realized in the microprocessor/controller operations and the controlled mechanisms. This chapter presents a case study of mechatronic system design and prototyping of a two-axis solar tracking system ST100 utilizing microcontroller OOPic. Two stepper motors adjusting the solar panel's rotation and tilt about the horizontal axis and the vertical axis give it the ability to track the movement of the sun and align the solar panel to face the sun at all times.