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A sun angle sensor is great for pointing at the sun. Heliostats need to bisect a ray to the sun and one to the target. Installation requires somehow setting the
by jws 7y ago
A sun angle sensor is great for pointing at the sun. Heliostats need to bisect a ray to the sun and one to the target. Installation requires somehow setting the angle to the target. Then you immediately become aware of how much the ground heaves throughout the day, so you have to make a foundation that goes well down into the earth. Now you have a $200 heliostat on a $1000 foundation with a $100 calibration operation.
Using $50 of computer and camera to steer instead of photodiodes and analog controller (presumably in a splayed viewport configuration) lets you lose the $1000 foundation and simplify the calibration. It’s no longer a precision operation, just a pointing out the target.
- analognoise 7y agoNo, with the photodiodes you can still steer the mirrors. The mirror part doesn't change. Nothing about the installation changes, except you throw out the "AI" and "computer vision" hype.
- jws 7y agoHow do you know where the target is? That's the part where a computer helps. You don't need to see to know where the sun is given a frame of reference, that's just math and a clock. Your frame of reference is initially unknown and varies slightly, but significantly, with time. Training a computer vision system to look for "insanely bright rectangle subtending <1° of space elevated on a stick" is just the thing computer vision is becoming good at. It's even easier than asking my phone to "show me my pictures of goats" (111 hits, zero false positives (assuming sheep are goats)). Of course, a tall skinny field tech should think twice about wearing a short, bulky, white jacket.