Autonomous PV Cleaning and Inspection System for Hot Desert Weather Conditions (TUBITAK-QNRF)
Eduardo Feo Flushing (LPI), HBKU/QEERI and consortium partners
Located in a typical desert climate zone, Qatar has strong solar irradiance, long daily sunshine duration, low cloud cover, and large available space, making it highly suitable for large-scale photovoltaic deployment. This project addresses key challenges for PV operation in hot desert environments, including heavy dust accumulation, panel degradation risk, unsafe and inefficient manual cleaning, and limited suitability of existing robotic cleaning systems. The project proposes a fully autonomous PV cleaning and inspection solution based on portable cleaning robots and multifunction mobile ground vehicles, with integrated AI-enabled inspection, autonomy, and optimized wet/dry cleaning for desert conditions.

Related Publications

 

Thermal Homography in Photovoltaic Panels: Evaluating Deep Learning and Feature-Based Methods

Hajer Dahmani, Yaqoob Ansari, Mohammed Yusuf Ansari, Eduardo Feo-Flushing
IEEE Texas Power and Energy Conference (TPEC), 2025
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Performance Evaluation of Feature Detectors and Descriptors with Close-Range Solar Panel Images

Eman Ansar, Sara Sewil, Fathimath Zuha Maksood, Eduardo Feo-Flushing
IEEE International Conference on Visual Communications and Image Processing (VCIP), 2024
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