7th International Conference on Modelling, Identification and Control (ICMIC 2015)

Sousse, Tunisia - December 18-20, 2015

The Research of Automatic Sunlight Collecting and

Illuminating System
Yang Yanli 1, Xiao Na2, He Huibin 3
1

College of Information Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology
Yuxiang Street No.26, Shijiazhuang 050018, China
2
Hebei Science and Technology Agency
Dongfeng Street No.159, Shijiazhuang 050022, China
3
Research and Development Department, Hebei Shenzhou Satellite Communications Co. LTD
Changsheng Street No.21, Shijiazhuang 050200, China
1 yangyanli2013@aliyun.com
2

\L]LUDLQ@ VLQD.com
3 hhbbear@

FRP

AbstractThis paper introduces the design and implementation

of automatic sunlight collecting and illuminating system.
Sunlight collecting and illuminating is the technology of using
sunlight for indoor lighting directly. The automatic sunlight
collecting and illuminating system consists of the sunlight
collecting and the transporting equipment, the solar power and
energy storage equipment, the Led auxiliary lighting equipment
and the automatic high precision sun tracking equipment. The
sunlight collecting and transporting equipment focus sunlight by
using Fresnel lens, and transport the visible light via optical fiber
for indoor lighting. The solar power and energy storage
equipment supply energy to system and store the excess energy
in batteries. When it is raining or cloudy the system cant work;
or sunlight is not bright enough, the system use Led lighting
which powered by the batteries. The automatic high precision
sun tracking equipment track sun precisely by two methods:
improved PSD and tracking sun by calculating the moving
trajectory of the sun.
Keywordssunlight collection; Fresnel lens; illumination;
optical fiber; sun tracking

I. INTRODUCTION
Lighting energy consumption is the most one in all of
humans energy consumption. In Developed countries,
lighting energy consumption is More than 9% of the total
energy consumption [1]. Global lighting energy consumption is
about one fifth of the total power resources[2].
Sunlight is the inexhaustible, healthy and green light source.
The automatic sunlight collecting and illuminating system
focus the sunlight with the optical elements, transport it into
the interior via optical fiber after filtering out some of the
harmful rays. It is the new technology of using solar after
human turn sunlight into heat and electricity. It transport
sunlight directly into the interior without sunlight- electricitysunlight changing, not only reducing energy losses, but also
be used as a safe light resource in flammable and explosive
area such as ammunition depots or hot and humid area. The
automatic sunlight collecting and illuminating system not only
can be used in area where is lack of sunshine such as

basement, underground parking, but also be used in

kindergartens, gyms and nursing home as a clean and healthy
light resource to improve the quality of life[1,3].
After La Foret Engineering Company produce the first
sunlight illuminating system HImanwari (sunflower) in
Japan, 1979 many countries develop the sunlight
illuminating system such as American Swiss etc. These
systems are generally expensive [1].
The automatic sunlight collecting and illuminating system
reduces the costs, improves the accuracy of tracking the sun
and the utilization efficiency of sunlight. With a solar power
and energy storage equipment supply energy to system, the
system does not require an external energy source. And the
system uses Led lighting when it is raining or cloudy.
II. THE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF AUTOMATIC
SUNLIGHT COLLECTING AND ILLUMINATING
SYSTEM
The automatic sunlight collecting and illuminating system
consists of the sunlight collecting and the transporting
equipment, the solar power and energy storage equipment, the
Led auxiliary lighting equipment and the automatic high
precision sun tracking equipmentas shown in Fig.1.

Fig. 1 the sunlight collecting and illuminating system

978-0-9567157-5-3 2014 IEEE

7th International Conference on Modelling, Identification and Control (ICMIC 2015)

Sousse, Tunisia - December 18-20, 2015

A. The Design of the Sunlight Collecting and Transporting

Equipment
The sunlight collecting and transporting equipment focus
the sunlight and transport it into the interior via optical fiber
after filtering out some of the harmful rays. The platform of
sunlight collecting can turn in both Horizontal and vertical
directions with biaxial mechanical structure.
Select certain diameter, light and low cost Fresnel lens to
focus sunlight. Every Fresnel lens is installed on a lens
container. And a plastic optical fiber is installed on the visible
light focus, as shown in Fig.2.

angle of sunlight incidence. This is the closed-loop control

has high tracking accuracy[6,7,8].
The automatic sunlight collecting and illuminating system
use improved PSD (Position Sensitive Device) tracking sun
when it is sunny. And calculating solar elevation angle and
solar azimuth to tracking sun when it is cloudy or sunlight is
not bright enough automatically.
This system calculates solar elevation angle and solar
azimuth according to time, longitude and latitude from GPS.
When solar azimuth is smaller than 0(sundown), the system
stops tracking sun automatically, go back to the initial position
(the sunrise position), and begin tracking sun automatically at
sunrise time the next day.
1) The design of photoelectric sensors tracking devices
The photoelectric sensors tracking devices is installed on
the sunlight-collecting platform, consist of preliminary
tracking device and precise tracking device, as shown in Fig.3.
The device is made by two different diameters metal dark tube
piled up.

Fig. 2 the Sunlight Collecting and Transporting Equipment

The whole sunlight collecting and transporting equipment

includes 7 Fresnel lens, each lens connecting one optical fiber.
7 optical fibers form 1 light source. The light source can be
laid out everywhere indoor and bent freely.
Because focusing sunlight will produce a lot of heat and the
melting point of plastic optical fiber is low relatively, so we
select 100mm diameter Fresnel lens and do heat radiation
processing for optical fiber installed point. Experiments show
that it can resolve the cooling problem thoroughly. And
without maintaining, it can adapt better to outdoor
environment than traditional water-cool device.
Lens makes light of different wavelengths form different
focus on the optical axis. Ultraviolet (whose wavelengths is
shorter) focus is closer to the lens than infrared (whose
wavelengths is longer). The optical fiber installed at visible
light focus which between ultraviolet focus and infrared focus,
therefor most ultraviolet is filled out.
B. The Design of Automatic High Precision Sun Tracking
Equipment
To make the sunlight-collecting platform be vertical with
sunlight, increase the utilization efficiency of sunlight, the
system need to track sun accurately. Now the method of
tracking sun is mainly include calculating the moving
trajectory of the sun and using photoelectric sensors [4]. The
first method is calculating solar elevation angle and solar
azimuth according to the rule of solar moving, to control
electric motor drive sunlight-collecting platform turn. This is
an open-loop control, which easily leads to error accumulation
and the error cant be automatically adjusted[5]. The second
method is judging solar position according to the difference
photoelectric sensors output which caused by the different

Fig. 3 the Photoelectric Sensors Tracking Devices

The smaller metal dark tube in the low part is the precise
tracking device, which PSD be installed in the center at the
bottom. When sunlight enters the dark tube vertically and
irradiates the center of the bottom, the electric current output
of four quadrants are equal. When the angle of sunlight
incidence changes, sunlight deviate from the center of the
PSDThere will be difference in the electric current output
of four quadrants. The device gets offset in horizontal and
vertical directions through differential amplifier circuit and
AD conversion circuit. When the angle of sunlight incidence
is out of the range, there is no light irradiates the PSD, the
system would not track sun.
Because the range of the angle of sunlight incidence which
precise tracking device can capture is very small, the system
develops preliminary tracking device to increase the captured
sunlight range.
The bigger metal dark tube in the up part is the preliminary
tracking device, which 4 photoelectric sensors are installed
symmetrically at its bottom. When the angle of sunlight
incidence is out of the range, so sunlight cant be captured
by the precise tracking device, the outputs of 4 photoelectric

978-0-9567157-5-3 2014 IEEE

7th International Conference on Modelling, Identification and Control (ICMIC 2015)

Sousse, Tunisia - December 18-20, 2015

sensors converted into voltage through op-amp circuit. The

device gets offset in both horizontal and vertical directions
through differential amplifier circuit, to control electric motor
drive sunlight-collecting platform turn to reduce the offset
until at the sun.
2) Tracking sun according to the rule of suns movement
This method is calculating solar elevation angle and solar
azimuth according to the rule of solar movement, to control
electric motor drive sunlight-collecting platform turn [9].
The solar elevation angle H is the angle between the
sunlight and the ground plane:
(1)
The solar azimuth A is the angle between the sunlight
projection and South:
(2)
In the above formula, is the local latitude which can be
get from GPS; is solar declination angle, is the angle
between the sunlight and the Earth's equatorial plane which
North is positive:
(3)
In the above formula, n is the number of days from January

III. CONCLUSION
This paper design and implement automatic sunlight
collecting and illuminating system. Experiments show that
the average illumination can reach 1200lux at 1m from the
exit of the optical fiber after sunlight transport via 15m optical
fiber when it is sunny outdoor.
The system reduces the cost greatly by using Fresnel lens
and plastic optical fiber. The sunlight-collecting platform use
biaxial mechanical structure which can increase the accuracy
of tracking sun, reduce system volume and costs. The
improved PSD tracking method adds preliminary tracking
device to increase the captured sunlight range. The automatic
high precision sun tracking equipment tracks sun precisely by
improved PSD or calculating the moving trajectory of the sun
automatically according to the weather condition.
Experiments show that the maximum error is less than 0.1e.
Without any external energy, the solar power and energy
storage equipment supply energy to system and store the
excess energy in batteries. The system uses Led lighting
which powered by the batteries when it is raining or cloudy.
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is the angle of sun time, the Earth rotates

per 24
hours(1 day),
per hour;
is
when it is at noon, is
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(4)

[3]
[4]
[5]

In the above formula, T is the true solar time:

(5)
In the above formula, t is the time of Beijing, L is the local
longitude which can all be get from GPS [10].
C. The Solar Power and Energy Storage Equipment and the
Led Auxiliary Lighting equipment
The Solar Power and Energy Storage Equipment supply
energy to system and store the excess energy in batteries.
When it is raining or cloudy the system cant work; or
sunlight is not bright enough, the system use Led lighting
which powered by the batteries. The system dont need an
external energy source so can be used easily in areas without
power supply.

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978-0-9567157-5-3 2014 IEEE