SolarCleano Uses Skylark for Precision Cleaning in Remote Solar Panel Projects

“Precision is crucial for SolarCleano in many aspects. For instance, if our robots are not moving precisely, they may fall off the panel. It is critical that our robots drive very near to the edge in order to clean the full panel, which is only feasible with precise positioning.”

Christophe Timmermans, CEO, SolarCleano

With current levels of energy consumption and focus on renewables, the need for large solar projects is growing. These projects are mostly installed in remote desert areas, where cleaning is crucial since dirt and dust on the panels directly impacts solar energy production and can decrease the output by up to 35%. However, manual cleaning is highly inefficient with potential safety issues. The industry needs a fully autonomous solar panel cleaning solution.

SolarCleano is a Luxembourg-based robotics company providing innovative autonomous and semi-autonomous solutions for solar panel cleaning. They produce modular, fast, efficient, remote-controlled or autonomous robots to help users regain full productivity in solar cells.

It is imperative for SolarCleano to have accurate localization of their autonomous solar panel cleaning robot to enable safe navigation with edge detection. They also produce a transporter robot to carry the cleaning robot from one solar panel to another. SolarCleano needs precise positioning for both transporter and cleaner robots.

SolarCleano selected Swift’s Skylark Precise Positioning Service to enable precise absolute location for its robots. Not only did Skylark enable the required accuracy, even under unfavorable weather conditions (when satellite signals can be lost or distorted), the robot could be located precisely and fully perform edge detection. Similarly, their transportation robot also safely carries the cleaning robot from one panel to another with the help of Skylark.