Abstract
The formulation of tracking mechanism used for a light-tracking system is presented to maximize the collected energy. The solution considers the motion of the illumination sources and the translational and rotational motion of the light-receiver/collector. The tracker in consideration consists of two orthogonal rotary actuators to provide a hemispherical pointing capability. The tracker is assumed to be mounted on a mobile platform, such as a rover or a robot, which moves on a given path. The tracker’s function is to change the orientation of the light-collector to face and receive the maximum incident radiation from multiple light sources. As the platform carrying the tracker is moving, the lights’ positions and intensity may vary. This requires the tracker to actively point its payload towards the orientation that receives maximum light intensity while being in motion. An example of an indoor robot tracking radiant energy from fluorescent lights in a room is presented to demonstrate the concept. In addition, the coordinate transformation method using compound homogeneous transformation matrix is applied in the formula derivation.
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Harithuddin, A.S.M., Trivailo, P.M., Jazar, R.N. (2014). Light-Tracking Kinematics of Mobile Platform. In: Jazar, R., Dai, L. (eds) Nonlinear Approaches in Engineering Applications 2. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6877-6_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6877-6_2
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