Utilizing Artificial Intelligence and Lotus Effect in an Emerging Intelligent Drone for Persevering Solar Panel Efficiency

Solar energy has been receiving increasing attention due to the wide range of functionality it now supports and the promise of reduced environmental pollution. However, there are a few ongoing challenges, one of which relates to regular maintenance, especially for those high roof-mounted solar panels whose efficiency might have been degraded because of dust and dirt particle deposits. This paper is aimed at developing an autonomous drone which is equipped with a camera, a GPS sensor, a transceiver, and a pump conical tank to hold water with lotus effects, for the purpose of maintenance cleaning of solar panels which have been mounted on the roof top of buildings. The proposed system considers the combination of MobileNet and VGG-16 CNN techniques together for object detection and recognition that will enable assessment of solar panels, alongside the lotus effect physical technique that will enable maintenance of the solar panels. This would also put out of danger those human lives who have previously risked carrying out such high installation inspections and maintenance. A pump tank is designed and fabricated using a 3D printer to hold water with the lotus effect and is fitted on the drone. The proposed intelligent drone has been prototyped and deployed on-site at Taif University. The experimental results confirm the ability to detect dust and dirt particle deposits on solar panels while flying autonomously before proceeding to maintain them. The cleaning process with the use of the lotus effect has led to an increase in the power efficiency of the solar panels by approximately 31%, while the accuracy of the MobileNet framework for detecting particle deposits on the solar panels and thereafter making maintenance decisions rose to approximately 99%.