Solarcity Corporation

Qbotix, Inc.

Wasiq Bokhari

Salomon Trujillo

Daniel I Fukuba

Jos C Goble

Thomas Joseph Currier

John Schooley Camp

Ryan Feeley

Jessica Riley

Benjamin D Sumers

Vayardo Lalo Ruiz

Kevin C Chu

Noe Esparza

Kevin T Mori

A robotic controller for autonomous calibration and inspection of two or more solar surfaces wherein the robotic controller includes a drive system to position itself near a solar surface such that onboard sensors may be utilized to gather information about the solar surface. An onboard communication unit relays information to a central processing network, this processor combines new information with stored historical data to calibrate a solar surface and/or to determine its instantaneous health.

Robotic heliostat calibration system and method

The present invention relates to a highly-available and fault-tolerant solar tracking system and the process required to manage such a system. A fleet of multiple, redundant mobile robots managed by a task coordinator is deployed to track solar panels in a solar farm in alignment with the sun. Each robot has a control unit for engaging with a coupler connected to one or multiple solar panels and adjusting their orientation, as well as communicating with the task coordinator to receive tasks. The task coordinator senses various events such as robot failure/deterioration, as well as various environmental conditions, and sends tasks reconciled with event types. The system is highly-available and fault-tolerant as it remains operational as long as there is one operational robot. The task coordinator assigns tasks to the mobile robots so as to optimize battery life or other factors, such as, e.g., overall maintenance costs across the fleet.

Solar tracking system employing multiple mobile robots

Monorail vehicle that travels on a non-featured rail with substantial profile variation and controls roll attitude, lateral location, and loading through judicious placement of the vehicle's center of gravity without using springs or suspensions. The vehicle has a bogie for engaging the non-featured rail so the center of gravity has a lateral offset rfrom the rail centerline to produce a roll moment Ndetermined by vehicle's mass and value of r. The center of gravity also has a vertical offset r. The bogie uses first and second assemblies for engaging the rail to produce a pair of surface normal reaction forces to thus control roll attitude and loading by the placement of the center of gravity, thereby enabling accurate alignment of the monorail vehicle.

Monorail vehicle apparatus with gravity-controlled roll attitude and loading

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Half Moon Bay, CA, United States of America

Wasiq Bokhari