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Heliostat Development

Arren Bustamante & Dan Kaczmarek

The heliostat is the movable frame that will hold the mirror and position it towards the sun.  We chose to focus on the software and the hardware of the tracking mechanism.  Work in this design was performed in 3 phases – a small, medium, and large setup.

  • Small setup – contains of a servo motor that can be run off of an Arduino and was used to prove the concept of sun tracking.
  • Medium setup – contains a DC motor that requires external circuitry to drive and was used to prove that a high amperage motor could be driven by an Arduino’s signal.
  • Large setup – A theoretical concept model that would be the next step in heliostat research that integrates the lessons from the first two models.

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