Pyrheliometer Control Design for the Solar Energy Research Facility at Valparaiso University

In this paper a tracking control technique of the pyrheliometer used in Solar Energy Research Facility of Valparaiso University is presented. Due to nonlinearities in the kinetic model for both azimuth and elevation degrees, the Lyapunov theorem was applied to examine global stability of the control system. Simulation and experimental results are also presented. The experimental results show that the pyrheliometer has a maximum tracking error of 0.12 mrad.