A solar tracker can be defined as an electromechanical system capable of following the apparent path of the Sun, in order to orient an array of solar panels and/or collectors directly to the solar rays, maximizing the collected energy. Accordingly, the present work describes the process of building and automating a micro-controlled solar tracker. Two mobile structures were built, one equipped with high-precision step motors and four luminosity sensors separated in quadrants by a cross structure, and the other equipped with DC motors and the 275 Wp solar panel, allowing the design and evaluation of the behavior of each structure separately. The control and automation system is centralized in an Arduino MEGA2560 microcontroller, which runs the tracking and positioning algorithms. The built prototype allows us to carry out studies of solar tracking strategies based on sensor and control systems applied to DC motors.

This work presents a bibliographic study and classification of solar tracking systems. A solar tracker is a device that follows the sun position, in order to keep the solar panel or thermal concentrator perpendicular to the sun's beam, maximizing the energy transfer. The main objective of this work is to carry out a survey on the main types of solar trackers, classifying them according to their main characteristics, listing the benefits and difficulties in their development and implementation.