2017 International Conference on Communication, Control, Computing and Electronics Engineering (ICCCCEE), Khartoum,

Sudan

Maximizing Solar Energy Input for Cubesat Using

Sun Tracking System and A Maximum Power Point
Tracking
Prof.Musatafa Nawari Hanadi Abdalla
Hammam Abdelwahab Electrical and Electronics Electrical and Electronics
Electrical and Electronics
Engineering Department Engineering Department
Engineering Department University of Khartoum University of Khartoum
University of Khartoum Khartoum, Sudan Khartoum, Sudan
Khartoum, Sudan
Mustafanawari@gmail.com Hanadimirghani@gmail.com
Hammam9497@gmail.com

Abstract—For any Cubesat the Power System Unit is designed pole to pole around the Earth. This sun-synchronous is
to deliver the required energy so as the nano-satellite can achieve suitable for satellites that their missions are involved in
its desired mission. Thus the input energy for the solar panels imaging, spying, weather broadcasting or any such functions.
and the output energy from the solar cells must be increased. The
sun tracking system aims to maximize the input solar energy to
the solar panels. This paper aims to study the concept of
designing sun tracking solar panels and a maximum power point
tracker for the UOKSAT-3 Cubesat which is a 2 units Cubesat
with a deployable solar panels. The paper details the effectiveness
and importance of the tracking process, the impacts of the
tracking mechanism on the Attitude Determination and Control
and their interfacings to rotate the Cubesat. This paper also
presents the MPPT’s performance and its results to study the
change of the input energy using the (MPPT).
Fig. 1. . Sun-synchronous orbit
Keywords—MPPT, Sun-tracking, Sun-synchronous, DC-DC
Converter, Microcontroller. MPPT and the sun- tracking system on a single micro-
I. INTRODUCTION controller have been implemented to reduce any complication
that may occur from multiple controllers connected to the
Since 1960s the increasing of the spacecraft designs has Cubesat systems.
been running exponentially and everyday a new design comes In this paper results are summarize in the MPPT system
up with various advancements. Cubesats are getting more design and the results obtained from the simulation of its
popular for research or educational purpose, but Due to the circuit. The sun-tracking system and its proposed
Cubesats’ standards [1] they cannot carry many solar panels implementation are also presented here.
nor batteries. These specifications result in limitations in the
on-board power of the Cubesat; and thus limitations in the
capabilities and missions it can perform with such limited
power. II. POWER CONFIGURATION
The design is proposed for a 2 unit Cubesat in a sun-
synchronous orbit (600 Km 96.8° of inclination). This orbit A. Power budget
gives the satellite the property of being constantly facing the There are three operations mode in the UOKSAT-3
sun while rotating around the Earth [2]. The satellite that is on Cubesat, in each mode certain subsystems and equipments are
the sun-synchronous orbit gains the property of passing on a operated and specific amount of power is needed:
location on Earth at the same local solar time each day. Most • Mode 1: The whole power required for the Cubesat is
likely sun-synchronous orbits are 600-800 km with inclination 0.5W.
of almost 98 - 98.6 degrees to the equator as it rotates from

978-1-5090-1809-3/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE

 • Mode 2 : The second mode is when the power required
is 1.5W.
• Mode 3 : The third mode is when the power consumed
reaches 2.5W which considered to be the maximum
power consumption for the UOKSAT-3 Cubesat.
1) Solar arrays
In order to gain high generated power from the solar
energy, solar arrays consisting of multiple solar modules [3]
are connected together To deliver 2.5W to the Cubesat. A
proposal of hybrid connected solar array design is set as
follow:
A face of a 2U Cubesat has an area of 200x100 mm. With
Commercial low cost mono-crystalline solar modules of
60x30 mm each consists of 4 cells, a simple design can be set
as follows:
8 solar cells placed in one face.
Each 4 modules are connected in series and the two groups
are connected in parallel. The four faces should be connected
in parallel as shown in figure 3.20 below:
III. DESIGN
A. DC-DC Boost converter:
The DC-DC converter is an electronic circuit that transfers
an input power either in a high voltage form or a low voltage
form according to the type of the DC-DC converter. There are
many types of DC-DC converters also known as switch mode
power supplies (i.e. boost, buck, buck-boost converters) but
the main two types of DC-DC converters that were considered
are:
• Boost Converters.
• Buck Converters.
There are two modes in the boost converter [5]:
Mode 1: when the inductor is connected to the common and
the current arises while the capacitor discharges through the
resistor as shown in figure 3.15 (b).
Mode 2: is when the inductor is connected to the capacitor and
works as a current source.
In a simple manner, transferring between mode 1 and mode 2
within a certain frequency increases (boosts) the output
voltage (as in boost converters) or decrease the output voltage
(as in buck converters).

Fig. 2. Solar modules connections per face.

The proposed solar module has the characteristics shown

below:
Fig. 3. . Boost converter circuit

TABLE I. SOLAR MODULE CHARACTERISTICS

VOC ISC Vmp Imp Wmp The output voltage of the DC-DC converter can therefore
2.4V 60mA 2V 50mA 0.1W depend on the duty cycle of the frequency.
In order to provide maximum power with high voltages from
MPPT, the boost converter is preferred to the buck converter
Cell Efficiency Size Power Tolerance as high voltage steps are needed here.
To determine the values of the inductor and the capacitor, the
16% 60x30mm2 +/-3%
following equations [5] are used:

2) Battery: D = 1- (1)
The STK [4] design demonstrates the orbit’s light intervals
and eclipse intervals. As shown in figures 4.1 there is an Rload = V 2out/ P (2)
eclipse period between 20 minutes to 30 minutes that occurs in
each orbit. This means that the required battery does not Iinductor= * (3)
necessary need to have a very high capacity; But a good
quality and the very enough capacity are required in case of
∆Iinductor = current ripple* Iinductor (4)
emergencies. A Li-Ion battery is chosen
∗ ∗
L=
∗∆
(5)
 ∆Vout = voltage ripple* Vout (6)

∗ ∗
C=
∗∆ ∗
(7)

Where:
D ≡ duty cycle, Rload≡the output load, Vin≡the input voltage,
Vout≡ the output voltage, ∆Iinductor ≡the current ripple and
∆Vout ≡ the output voltage ripple.

TABLE II. DUTY CYCLES PARAMETERS

Low duty High duty
Fig. 5. P&O algorithm chart
Vin ( volts) 5 2
D. Microcontroller(MCU):
Vout ( volts) 6 8.4
The Power Supply Unit microcontroller determines the
D 0.17 0.76
input power by controlling the MPPT. It .also communicates
with the Attitude Determination and Control Unit to inform it
Calculations were done for low and high duty cycles, the with a better positioning of the Cubesat toward the sun. Then
highest values of the inductors, capacitors, and the resistors the ADC Unit takes other considerations (for i.e. transmitting
are chosen. The capacitor with 43.09μF and an inductor with purpose) before changing the Cubesat direction toward the
823.57μH. The output resistor is set to be 28.22Ω and the sun.
PWM signal is 31.25kHz. The chosen microcontroller in this system is the Arduino
[7] which uses an ATMega controller for its ease of use and its
ability of communication with other controllers easily which
allows controlling the MPPT and sun tracking mechanism
together.

Fig. 6. . Arduino overview

Fig. 4. Boost converter simulated in Proteus [6].
E. Voltage sensor:
B. MPPT algorithm: The voltage instrument is proposed to be a normal voltage
Because of the simplicity of the perturbation and divider. It works by dividing voltage in a certain ratio so that
observation algorithm, it is preferred to be implemented in the the maximum voltage measured from the input can be read as
design of the MPPT the algorithm is shown in the flow chart the maximum voltage readable by the Arduino, and then
in the figure 5. through linear calculations the measured voltage is
C. Measurement instrument: determined.
Monitoring input power from the sun is mandatory and
therefore a wattmeter is needed. Because this system is
microcontroller based, the measurements should be sent to the
microcontroller in order to determine what should be done to
reach or maintain the maximum power.

Fig. 7. Voltage sensor in Proteus

F. Current sensor:
A Hall effect based current sensor ACS712 is used to
measure the solar arrays input current and transmit the
measurement to the microcontroller in a voltage form. The
ACS712 sensor has the following features [8]:
Capable of sensing AC and DC currents.
Work with only 5V supply which makes it easy to be
powered by the Arduino itself.
Sensitivity reaches 185mV/A.
Fig. 8. . Current sensor
G. Maximum Power Point Tracker:
The Arduino based MPPT is shown in figure 3.25. The
code is installed in the Arduino. The LCD is used as an
indicator to display the measurements of solar input voltage,
current, power, and the duty cycle of the PWM generated by
the microcontroller. Two LEDs are used to indicate whether
the power is increasing or decreasing and turn off when the
maximum power is reached .
• Receiving part from the Attitude Determination and
Control Unit.
The sending Part informs the ADC Unit that there is a
tolerance and sends values of measurements to the ADC Unit
to let it determine the best way to face the sun perpendicularly
using small motors that are installed in the Cubesat to rotate
the panels.
It should be noted that the ADC Unit may not rotate the
Cubesat instantly depending on other factors refer to the
mission or environmental issues. The PSU only informs the
ADC Unit with the current status of the Cubesat according to
its position toward the sun.

Fig. 11. Sun tracking sending part chart

Fig. 9. . Arduino based MPPT circuit

H. Sun tracking system:

The main goal of the sun tracking system is to make the
solar arrays face the sun perpendicularly. This system uses the
sun sensor measurements to rotate the solar panels to the
desired position. A general demonstration of the sun tracking
is showed in the figure below. [9]
Fig. 12. . ADC unit receiving part chart

Considerations are taken to the type of sent data and how to

Fig. 10. algorithm of the control and mechanisms.
The algorithm of the control and mechanisms are divided –as
shown in figures 10 below - into two parts:
• Sending part from the Power Supply Unit.
fetch them into the correct receiving variables in the ADC
unit.
I. Sun sensor:
The PSU is using a sun sensor to detect if the Cubesat is
fully or partially facing the sun and whether the Cubesat is
facing the sun partially in an acceptable range or not.
There are some constrains when it comes to choose a suitable
sensor for Cubesats such as: Accuracy, Power consumption,
Mass and Volume. There are many types of sun sensors [10]
to be chosen from according to their functioning methods like:
• Solar Cell Pyramids.
• Quadrant Photodiode.
• CMOS sensors (Complementary Metal-Oxide
Semiconductor).
The graph of figure 15 below shows how the output voltage
changes with the duty cycle changes until the maximum power
is reached. With further observations the ripples of the output
voltage are shown in figure 16. The voltage reached in the
graph is 8.50V and 8.33V with 2% ripple.

The quadrant and the solar pyramids sensors work almost

in the same way. Each part of the four photodiodes or small
solar cells outputs a voltage depending on the light aligned on
it. Then a comparison is made between the voltage readings. If
the sun light is directly aligned on the sensors, then ideally
their voltage measurements will be exactly the same. The
CMOS differ in the operation method; it uses active pixels that
sense the sun light through a pinhole instead of four sensing
particles almost exposed to the light. Fig. 14. . Output change with duty cycle
The sun sensors mentioned above can be classified to analog
sensors and digital sensors. The CMOS sensor is the only
digital sensor here. They have high accuracy that reaches
(0.01o) while the analog sensors have accuracy of (0.2o). But
in general, analog sensors consume less power and they are
much simpler than the digital sensors and that is because the
digital sensors need additional circuits to implement
functionality algorithms that helps measuring the direction of
the most of the light rely.
A simple sun sensor of LDRs (Light Detecting Resistors) is
also applicable for its low cost and ability to be well
functioning. But because of its low accuracy it can be Fig. 15. Output voltage ripple
applicable for educational projects and studies.
As shown in the figure below, the LDRs are connected to the
analog input pins of the Arduino. Servo motors are controlled The output PWM with determined duty cycle is shown in figure
by another Arduino which represents the controller of the 17 below. The 31.25 kHz PWM frquency with duty cycle 47% as
ADC unit here: shown in Figure 17.

B. Sun tracking results:

Four tests of the sun tracking measurements occurs to monitor
the controllers’ behaviours. A liquid crystal display (LCD) is
used to display the direction of movements. Also two LEDs are
used to indicate that the servo motors are rotating the Cubesat in
the x-axis and the y-axis. The figures below demonstrate the
expected behaviour of the ADC unit using LCD to represent the
determined direction for the Cubesat movement.

Fig. 13. . Sun-tracking circuit in Proteus

IV. TESTS AND RESULTS:

A. Output Results:
A DC-source is used to test the MPPT’s performance by
informing the microcontroller with the desired range of power
(2.5 Watts minimum to 3.2 Watts maximum). For a 5V input;
the power graph shows how the input power keeps increasing
by changing the boost converter duty cycle. The power
reached 3.0 Watts and changes slightly around it. Fig. 16. Duty cycle changes
 REFERENCES:
[1] S. L. Obispo, “CUBESAT Design Specifications Document,” ReVision,
vol. 8651, no. 650, 2001.
[2] “Satellites - Circular Orbits.” [Online]. Available:
http://satellites.spacesim.org/english/anatomy/orbit/circular.html.
[3] “Epoxy Resin 0.1w 2v 50ma Mini Solar Panel - Buy 2v 50ma Mini
Solar Panel,2v Mini Solar Panel,0.1w Solar Panel Product on
Fig. 17. Demonstration of ADC’s response to LDR’s measurements. Alibaba.com.” [Online]. Available:
http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Epoxy-resin-0-1W-
As shown in the figure below, the LEDs indicate the ADCU’s 2V-
controller is controlling the servo motor and drive the Cubesat to 50mA_60340090701.html?spm=a2700.7724857.29.57.5pliH
5
face the sun according to the sun sensor’s four measurements.
[4] System Tool Kit (STK) from AGI. https://www.agi.com/stk
[5] R. A. Cullen, “What is Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) and
How Does it Work?,” Blue Sky Energy, vol. 1, pp. 1–2, 2010
[6] “Proteus 7.1 - Free download.” [Online]. Available:
http://proteus.soft112.com/.
[7] “Arduino - ArduinoBoardUno.” [Online]. Available:
https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardUno.
[8] F. Integrated, H. E. Linear, and C. Sensor, “ACS712.”
[9] C. Lee, P. Chou, C. Chiang, and C. Lin, “Sun tracking systems: A
review,” Sensors, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 3875–90, 2009.
[10] I. Shafer, C. Powell, J. Stanton, and D. Grieneisen, “CubeSat Solar
Sensor Final Report,” NASA Cloud CubeSat, a picosatellite Des.
imaging profiles clouds, pp. 1–22, 2008

Fig. 18. MPPT and sun-tracking system in PSU

Since the Cubesat is designed to orbit in a sun synchronous

orbit, the need to rotate the Cubesat toward the sun might not be
frequently, because the orbit position around the earth changes
only 10 per day. The need to rotate the Cubesat occurs when the
solar arrays are 300 off the perpendicular position toward the sun.
Hence, tracking may occur only once every month.

CONCLUSION:
An advantage of the DC-DC boost converter is that due to
the MOSFET’s conductivity when the gate is off, the failure in
the boost converter will still allow the battery to be charged by
the solar arrays’ input minus a drop in the boost converter.
The light detecting resistors are not accurate and they are
sensitive to any light irradiation which can be dangerous and
cause the Cubesat to rotate toward any other object other than
the sun and hence the desired maximum power may become
further to reach. So an accurate sensor like CMOS sensor is
more preferable to be used.
It is preferred that there would not be many movements or
rotations of the Cubesat in its orbit so as to accomplish the
mission properly. Hence, the tracking would not cause
disturbances to the Cubesat since there is not many tracking
movements and rotations.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The research was supported by Space Research Center under
supervision of Eng.Rayan Imam and Prof.Shareif F.Babiker.