Smart Solar Panels project, the design outline

Cesare Molfese Diego Scaccabarozzi Bortolino Saggin

INAF- Italian National Institute of Politecnico of Milan Politecnico of Milan
Astrophisics Lecco, Italy Lecco, Italy
Naples, Italy [email protected] [email protected]
[email protected]
M.Grigera Naón
2022 IEEE 9th International Workshop on Metrology for AeroSpace (MetroAeroSpace) | 978-1-6654-1076-2/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/MetroAeroSpace54187.2022.9856089

Ciprian Popa Politecnico of Milan

INAF- Italian National Institute of Lecco, Italy
Astrophisics [email protected]
Naples, Italy
[email protected]

Abstract—The Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Panels are one of the the “Spirit” rover experienced nearly 20% of degradation in
key technologies for the generation of electric energy in space solar panel performance over the first 120 sols (i.e. Martian
environment. This paper focuses on the improvement of days) as a result of dust deposition [5].
standard PV Solar Panels that can be achieved by maximizing
their efficiency. The Smart Solar Panels (SSPs) improve two The technology on which the Sun-tracker is based is well
aspects of the baseline technology: the capability to keep the consolidated and commonly used in terrestrial applications,
solar panels surface orthogonal to the direction of the sunlight but not yet implemented in the space environment. The
and, also, cleaned from the deposition of dust and other technology of self-cleaning based on mechanical vibration,
contaminants that can absorb a quota of the incoming solar instead, has not yet been implemented so far both in terrestrial
irradiance. The present paper reports the preliminary design of and space applications.
the configuration of SSPs aimed to be implemented specifically,
but not exclusively, for space applications. The SSPs shall be For space application, the mechanical vibrations and the
provided with robotic functionalities to move the panels electrostatic field are the two main methodologies to remove
according to the relative movement of the Sun and to remove the contaminants from the surface of a PV panel, because
contaminants deposited on the surface. The SSPs are different techniques implemented on Earth are not viable in
particularly suitable to support Solar System exploration, in space environment. There are two benefits in using
fact, they can implement fixed or mobile installations of power mechanical vibration vs. electrostatic dust shield: 1) COTS
plants in an efficient way. Furthermore, this new concept is PV Panels have not to be modified by implementing on their
advantageous also due to the cost-saving derived from the surface the electrodes necessary to generate the electrostatic
reduction of the overall mass to be launched in space and it can field; 2) mechanical vibration have no drawbacks such as high
be transferred, as technology, from space to terrestrial voltage generation and related EMI/EMC problems, as the
applications. In fact, terrestrial sites with dry and dusty climate generation of the electrostatic field has.
conditions, often located in desert or mountain areas, can benefit
from this technology. The concept of the SSPs was submitted to The improvement of the efficiency of SSPs vs. standard
the "call for ideas" for the ESA European Large Logistics Solar PV Panels is advantageous also in terms of cost-saving
Lander (EL3) in 2020. being derived from the reduction of the overall mass to be
launched from the Earth to space.
Keywords—Solar Panels, Solar Power Plants, Sun-tracking,
Self-cleaning, Space Exploration, Technology transfer The technology of the SSPs can be fruitfully transferred
from space to terrestrial applications, e.g. the terrestrial sites
with dry and dusty climate conditions or the astronomical
I. INTRODUCTION observation sites, where cleaning operations are usually
difficult.
Smart Solar Panels (SSPs) are aimed at improving the
efficiency of standard Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Panels by The functionalities of Sun-tracking and self-cleaning are
providing them with automated functions of Sun-tracking and complementary in their aim to improve efficiency and also
Self-cleaning. Keeping the sensitive surface of the solar panels synergic in order to achieve the best effect of cleaning. In fact,
cleaned and orthogonally oriented toward the Sun maximizes the positioning in vertical of the PV panels, using the robotic
the amount of electric energy produced for square meters of functionalities of the Sun-tracker, causes the gravity helps the
installed surface, with benefit in terms of reduction of the detachment of the contaminants.
overall mass to be launched in space for each Wh of produced
energy. II. SYSTEM DESIGN
The mechanical and electronic configuration of the SSPs
The results reported in [1] underline the pointing accuracy shall be optimized to reduce mass and power consumption.
of ± 5° is enough to guarantee >99% of the energy delivered For this reason, only one Electronic Control Unit (ECU),
by the solar panels. This means the pointing function does not aimed at monitoring and controlling both functionalities of
need to be implemented with very high accuracy. Sun-trackers Sun-tracking and self-cleaning, shall be envisaged.
operating on Earth usually increase energy production at least
by 30% compared with fixed solar panels [2][3][4]. The control system shall be implemented in a closed-loop,
with a pointing sensor to acquire the current pointing of the
Concerning the self-cleaning function, the accumulation panels with respect to the position of the Sun.
of dust particles blocks the solar radiation and consequently
decreases the output power. Moreover, the presence of The configuration of the Smart Solar Panels shall be based
contaminants decreases the efficiency by around 30-40%, e.g. on standard Solar PV Panels mounted on a mechanical

978-1-6654-1076-2/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE 23

Authorized licensed use limited to: Dedan Kimathi University of Technology. Downloaded on March 01,2023 at 06:38:23 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
structure, with fixed and moving parts, provided with mechanical actuators aimed to vibrate the PV Panels and the
mechanisms and actuators aimed at implementing the contamination sensor exhibit a sort of intrinsic redundancy, in
functions of Sun tracking and self-cleaning, as reported in fact, the failure of one of the actuator or photodiode,
Fig.1. respectively, will not impact critically on the overall
Dust performance (preliminary FMECA is reported in [1]).
Pointing Sensor Contamination
Sensor Finally, to mitigate the effects of electronics failure, cold
redundancy could be taken into consideration in the final
design.
III. MECHANICAL DESIGN
Self Cleaning
Actuator
The self-cleaning functionality consists in vibrating the
solar PV Panels producing surface accelerations that generate
inertial forces on the dust particles deposited on top. In order
to lift the dust particles from the panels, the surface
CONTROL accelerations should be high enough to produce a force on the
ELECTRONICS & particles greater than the adhesion forces. These are produced
MOTORS DRIVER
by several adhesion mechanisms between the particles and the
panel surface such as the London-Van der Waal, the
electrostatic and the gravitational forces acting on the
particles. A fourth contribution to the adhesion is given by the
the capillary forces, that are not relevant in space environment.
Then, these particle-surface attraction forces are greatly
influenced by particle size, mass, and charge, as well as the
ambient humidity [7].
Fig. 1. SSP Architecture scheme.
In order to produce the vibrations on the panels,
The SSPs architecture shall be based on: piezoceramic actuators are located on the back of the solar
arrays. The actuating frequency, as well as the amplitude, are
1) Moving mechanical structure; fundamental to cause high accelerations along the whole
2) Two motors to move Altitude and Azimuth axes; surface by exciting different vibration mode shapes of the
panel.
3) Pointing sensor;
The PV solar cells considered in the proposed design are
4) Mechanical actuators to vibrate the PV Panels; triple-junction solar cells, that are made with three layers of
semiconducting materials (Ge/GaAs/GaInP) which absorb a
5) Contamination sensor; broader range of wavelengths improving the sunlight to
6) Control electronics. electric energy conversion efficiency. These solar cells are
mostly used in space applications where the power to weight
In order to guarantee sufficient reliability, a passive ratio is desirable [8]. The mechanical layout for the supporting
recovery system shall be implemented. In case of failure of the structures comprises different subsystems, i) supporting
pointing function, the panels shall be allowed to return to the structures of the panel, ii) motors and actuators for the solar
position that guarantees the same performance as a standard tracking and self-cleaning and iii) the supporting pillar for the
(fixed) solar panel. This feature can be implemented by structure. A preliminary mass budget was drawn considering
designing a proper (passive) subsystem that can move the a study case panel of 600x330 mm size. The result is reported
orientation of the panels back to the recovery position, in Table I.
independently from the functioning of the nominal actuators
(motors and related mechanism), as described in section III. TABLE I. SSP MASS BUDGET BREAKDOWN

The pointing sensor shall be based on four photodiodes, ITEM Mass (kg)
two sensors for each axis control, provided with a baffle, are
needed. The baffle guarantees the same amount of sunlight is Panel 0.5
hitting each sensor only when the panel surface is orthogonal Panel supporting 0.2
to the light direction [6]. structure
The self-cleaning functionality shall use mechanical Motors, actuators, 0.6
actuators mounted between the Solar PV Panels and the and bearings
support structure. These actuators vibrating the PV Panels can
be activated with different amplitude and frequency of the Supporting pillar 1.3
power signal, implementing the combination of functioning
parameters that performs the best cleaning effect, taking into
account the requirement of functional integrity as well. The mass budget was defined considering that mechanical
resistance and proper dynamic behavior of the supporting
The contamination sensor shall be based on several structures should be assured. Being the mechanical design of
photodiodes, each provided with a filter working in a different the SSP under development margin of 20% should be
optical band. The reduction of the measured solar irradiance considered for the mass budget breakdown reported in Table
allows understanding when the self-cleaning operations need I.
to be activated. From the reliability point of view, the

24

Authorized licensed use limited to: Dedan Kimathi University of Technology. Downloaded on March 01,2023 at 06:38:23 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
A. FE dynamic simulations
A finite element model of the panel was developed to
verify the feasibility of the self-cleaning function for dust
mitigation. The objective was to predict the accelerations
obtained on top of the PV solar panel surface to verify the
feasibility of such a technique. Simulation of the solar panel
was performed considering the item as a multi-layer plate, the
first layer is a 1.6 mm thick PCB plate, according to the
dimensions of a triple-junction solar cell, the cell was model
as a 0.16 mm plate with the material properties of Germanium
since it is more than two orders of magnitude thicker than the
other semiconducting materials, the last layer was a 1 mm Fig. 3. Von Misses stresses during the load application.
thick glass plate on top. In Table II the values of the material
properties used for the analysis are shown. In order to evaluate the stability of the results the
acceleration values of several nodes were plotted with respect
TABLE II. MATERIAL PROPERTIES OF THE LAYERS OF THE PANEL MODEL to time in Fig. 4, and it was found that first there is a transient
PCB Germanium Glass state and after some cycles the vibration becomes stable.
Density
1.85x10-6 5.323x10-6 2.5x10-6
(kg/mm3)
Young
modulus 22000 103000 70000
(MPa)
Poisson
0.12 0.26 0.22
ratio

Then, the plate was fixed on its edges (simulating the

constraint given by the supporting structure) and the actuation
force was modelled as a sinusoidal force applied on the center Fig. 4. Acceleration values with respect to time on middle, top right and
of the plate on an area of 50 mm x 50 mm. The frequencies of middle right nodes
actuation were between 2000 Hz to 5000 Hz, since for a solar
panel with dimensions 200 mm x 330 mm the frequencies Following simulations, maintaining the frequency at 2000
higher than 2000 Hz were found to produce higher efficiency Hz and varying the amplitude of the load, resulted in the same
for the dust removal [9]. The dynamic analysis was done with acceleration gradient on the plate with values directly
Abaqus® CAE, where the maximum acceleration values of the proportional to the force amplitude. Then, different
whole plate were extracted during the force application with simulations were performed increasing the frequency
an initial damping factor of 0.05 and time increments of 0.05 obtaining different acceleration gradients. In Fig. 5 the
ms to have reliable results for high-frequency load application. maximum acceleration values during the application of an
Fig. 2 shows the maximum acceleration values during the actuating load with 5000 Hz and 10 N amplitude.
application of an actuating load with 2000 Hz frequency and
10 N amplitude.

Fig. 5. Maximum acceleration with an actuation of 5000 Hz and 10 N

Since the peaks of acceleration values change with

frequency, another analysis was performed applying a sweep
Fig. 2. Maximum acceleration with actuation of 2000 Hz and 10 N sine load with frequencies between 2000-5000 Hz to produce
high acceleration values in a distributed area of the plate. The
Fig. 3 shows the computed stress state of the plate during maximum acceleration values during this simulation are
the load application. shown in Fig. 6.

25

Authorized licensed use limited to: Dedan Kimathi University of Technology. Downloaded on March 01,2023 at 06:38:23 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Converter (ADC) and the Multiplexer (MUX) and activate the
axes motors by means of the Digital-to-Analog Converters
(DACs) and Power Drivers present on the ADB.
In order to implement the control of the self-cleaning
function, the Microcontroller shall acquire the status of the
contamination from the contamination sensor, via the
ADC+MUX, and activate the self-cleaning actuators, via
DAC and Power Driver of the ADB. These activations shall
be according to suitable amplitude and frequency values of the
vibration, as they are reported in a look-up table or computed
by means of an adaptive algorithm. Afterward, the
Fig. 6. Maximum acceleration values during a sweep sine load from 2000 contamination status shall be re-checked to decide whether a
Hz to 5000 Hz. repetition of a self-cleaning cycle is needed or not.
B. Results discussion
ADC POINTING
Analog Signals

The performed simulations evidence that the expected MICROCONTROLLER

SENSOR

maximum acceleration levels are within the order of hundreds MUX

and thousands of m/s2 in the simulated frequency range. This Power/Ctrl/Data
Analog Signals
CONTAMIN.
SENSOR
result is in agreement with previous testing in a similar WATCH REAL TIME
COMM. I/F
frequency range [9]. Moreover, as shown in Fig. 3, the DOG TIMER CLOCK
Data TM/TC
computed Von Mises stresses obtained were lower than 2 MPa Micro Controller Board (MCB)

along with the whole plate, and two orders of magnitude lower
than the stress for crack propagation on the solar cells (300
MPa). Thus, the proposed cleaning strategy seems to be DAC
POWER Power
X-AXIS
MOTOR
DRIVER
promising both in terms of efficiency for the dust removal and
CONNECTION BUS
for the mechanical resistance of the panel. VOLTAGE/
CURRENT DAC
POWER
Power/Ctrl/Data DRIVER Y-AXIS
Power
MONITORING MOTOR
As evidenced by the variation of the maximum
POWER
acceleration within time depending on the exciting frequency DAC
DRIVER
Power
SELF-CLEANING

or the excitation strategy, e.g. single harmonic vs sweep, Actuators Drivers Board (ADB)
ACTUATORS

different results can be obtained. The identification of an

Power
optimal excitation strategy and/or actuators positioning will be
part of future activities within the research project.
Power
BACKUP
On going activities are concerning the development of an POWER BATTERY
CONVERTERS
adhesion model to perform further numerical simulations Power/Ctrl/Data

aimed at comparing the acceleration forces due to vibrations VOLTAGE/

with the adhesion forces and evaluating the effectiveness of CURRENT
MONITORING
Power PV PANELS
the detaction process. Power Conditioning and Distribution Board (PC&DB)

Future activities will envisage the implementation of a

physical breadboard to prove esperimentally the concept. Fig. 7. Electronic Control Unit (ECU) Block Diagram

IV. ELECTRONIC DESIGN Self-diagnosis routines shall be implemented via firmware

The Electronic Control Unit (ECU) of the SSPs shall be at the start-up (Power-On Self-Test) and during the nominal
based on the following parts: functioning. In case of detected failure in the pointing system
(e.g. the error is not affected by motor activation), the recovery
1) Microcontroller Board (MCB); system shall be activated autonomously.
2) Actuators Drivers Board (ADB);
3) Power Conditioning and Distribution Board The Watch Dog Timer shall be also present in order to
(PC&DB); avoid any firmware malfunction which can affect the
4) Backup Battery; functionality of the overall system.
5) Connection BUS. B. Actuators Driver Board (ADB)
ECU overall architecture is reported in Fig.7. The ADB shall host the DACs and Electronic Drivers for
the activation of the electromechanical actuators (axes motors
Three electronic boards, the MCB, the ADB, and the
and self-cleaning actuators).
PC&DB, shall be located in a metallic box and connected
together via the Connection BUS. A monitoring circuit of voltage and current of the actuators
shall be present for self-diagnosis and fault detection.
A. Microcontroller Board (MCB)
The MCB shall be provided with Microcontroller, Real C. Power Conditioning and Distribution Board (PC&DB)
Time Clock and Watch Dog Timer to implement the control The PC&DB shall perform the conditioning and
logic of the SSPs. distribution of the electrical power coming from the PV Panels
and the Backup Battery toward the other boards via the
In order to implement the control of the Sun-tracking, the
Connection Bus.
Microcontroller shall acquire the current positioning error
from the pointing sensor, by means of the Analog-to-Digital

26

Authorized licensed use limited to: Dedan Kimathi University of Technology. Downloaded on March 01,2023 at 06:38:23 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Power Supply lines toward the electro-mechanical [6] O. A. Montasser, “Development of a Smart Mechatronic Tracking System to
actuators shall be implemented via direct connection to the Enhance Solar Cell Panels Performance”, IJMER - ISSN: 2249–6645 - Vol. 4,
Iss.11, Nov. 2014 – 1
ADB to avoid EMI problems among the lines of the
[7] Rima J. Isaifan, Daniel Johnson, Luis Ackermann, Benjamin Figgis, Mohammed
Connection bus. Ayoub, “Evaluation of the adhesion forces between dust particles and
photovoltaic module surfaces”, 2019, Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells,
Monitoring circuit of voltage and current shall be present
Volume 191, Pages 413-421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2018.11.031
for the self-diagnosis and fault detection.
[8] M. Yamaguchi, T. Takamoto, K. Araki, N. Ekins-Daukes, “Multi-junction III–V
D. Backup Battery solar cells: current status and future potential”, 2005, Solar Energy, Volume 79,
Issue 1. DOI:10.1016/j.solener.2004.09.018
The Backup Battery shall supply power to the SSP when [9] Pages 78-85,Williams R B, Tanimoto R, Simonyan A, et al. “Vibration
the solar irradiance is not sufficient to guarantee enough characterization of self-cleaning solar panels with piezoceramic actuation.”
electrical energy for the functioning of the system. In these Collection of Technical Papers - 48th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC
conditions, the Back-up Battery shall supply power only to the Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, 2007; pp. 512-520.
Microcontroller, its peripheral, and the communication I/F, in https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2007-1746

order to keep alive the monitoring and the communication [10] A.Z. Hafez, J.H. Shazly, M.B. Eteiba, “Comparative Evaluation of Optimal
Energy Efficiency Designs for Solar Tracking Systems”, Third Intl. Conf. on
functions of the SSPs. Advances in Applied Science and Environmental Engineering - ASEE 2015,
Exploiting the feature of power safe of the Microcontroller Copyright © Institute of Research Engineers and Doctors, USA .ISBN: 978-1-
63248-055-2 doi: 10.15224/ 978-1-63248-055-2-79
(the “sleep mode”), the current consumption of the MCB can
[11] Saravanan V. S., Sanjay Darvekar, “Solar Photovoltaic Panels Cleaning Methods
be reduced down to few tens of mA, allowing the use of a A Review”, International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics 118(24):1-
Back-up Battery of a few Wh of capacity and containing the 17
overall mass as well. [12] Gaofa He, Chuande Zhou, Zelun Li, “Review of Self-Cleaning Method for Solar
Cell Array”, International Workshop on Automobile, Power and Energy
When the condition of sufficient solar irradiance is Engineering
detected by the Microcontroller, via the photodiodes of the [13] Boris Kobrin , “Self-cleaning Technologies for Solar Panels”, May 2018, n-tech
positioning or contamination sensors, the power supply will Research Publication
be switched again from the Back-up Battery to the PV Panels. [14] Manju B., Abdul Bari, Pavan C M, “Automatic Solar Panel Cleaning System”,
International Journal of Advances in Scientific Research and Engineering
V. CONCLUSIONS (ijasre), DOI: http://doi.org/10.31695/IJASRE.2018.32778
This paper reports the description of the design [15] A. Syafiq, A.K. Pandey, N.N. Adzman, Nasrudin Abd Rahim, “Advances in
configuration of SSPs, for what concern the System Design, approaches and methods for self-cleaning of solar photovoltaic panels”,
Elsevier – Solar Emergy 162 (2018) 597-619
the Mechanical Design, and the Electronic Design. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2017.12.023
Preliminary FE analyses on a simplified model of the panel [16] C.I. Calle, C.R. Buhler, J.G. Mantovani, S. Clements, A. Chen, M.K. Mazumder,
evidenced the feasibility of generating acceleration levels in A.S. Biris, A.W. Nowicki, “Electrodynamic Dust Shield for Solar Panels on
the order of hundreds and thousands of m/s2 at the panel Mars”, Lunar and Planetary Science XXXV (2004)
interface to implement the dust cleaning function. Ongoing [17] Jing Jiang, Yifan Lu, Xiaoteng Yan, Lei Wang, “An optimization dust-removing
and Future Activities of this project are the improvement of electrode design method aiming at improving dust mitigation efficiency in lunar
the numerical simulation of the self-cleaning, by means of the exploration”, Acta Astronautica 166 (2020) 59–68,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2019.10.004
structural and dust adhesion integrated mathematical models
(activity in progress). Moreover, the detailed mechanical [18] “Methods and Systems for Self-Cleaning of Photovoltaic Panels”, Patent US
2015/0047688 A1
design of the supporting structures will be performed, aiming
[19] Xiaolong Lu, Qi Zhang, Junhui Hu, “A Linear Piezoelectric Actuator based Solar
to the development of a well engineered demonstrator, Panel Cleaning System”, Energy (2013),
compliant with the requirements and the constraints derived http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2013.07.058
from space application. [20] N. Khadka, A. Bista, B. Adhikari, D. Bista, A. Shrestha, “Smart Solar
Photovoltaic Panel Cleaning System”, Peer Review Journal of Solar &
Photoenergy Systems PRSP.000514. 1(3).2019

REFERENCES [21] Piotr Vasiljev, Sergejus Borodinas, Regimanta Bareikis, Arunas Struckas,
“Ultrasonic system for solar panel cleaning“,Sensors and Actuators A: Physical
[1] C.Molfese, D.Scaccabarozzi, B.Saggin, C.Popa, “Smart Solar Panels for Space Volume 200, 1 October 2013, Pages 74-78
Applications”, Proc. of the International Conference on Electrical, Computer and https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sna.2013.01.009
Energy Technologies (ICECET), 9-10 December 2021, Cape Town-South Africa [22] Mohammed Al-Housani, Yusuf Bicer and Muammer Koç, “Assessment of
978-1-6654-4231-2/21 (in press) Various Dry Photovoltaic Cleaning Techniques and Frequencies on the Power
[2] R. E. Echendu, H. N. Amadi, “Performance Evaluation of a Standalone Solar PV Output of CdTe-Type Modules in Dusty Environments”, Sustainability 2019, 11,
System for Electricity Generation in an Estate”, EJECE, European Journal of 2850; doi:10.3390/su11102850
Electrical and Computer Engineering Vol. 2, No. 4, May 2018 [23] Hossein Mousazadeh, Alireza Keyhani, Arzhang Javadi, Hossein Mobli a,Karen
[3] R. Eberechi Echendu, H. Nyebuchi Amadi, “Design and Implementation of an Abrinia, Ahmad Sharifi, “A review of principle and sun-tracking methods for
Off-Grid Solar Tracker Control System using Proteus Version 8.1”, IOSR maximizing solar systems output”, Elsevier Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Journal of Engineering (IOSRJEN) www.iosrjen.org ISSN (e): 2250-3021, ISSN Reviews 13 (2009) 1800–1818 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2009.01.022
(p): 2278-8719 Vol. 08, Issue 4 (April. 2018) [24] Nurul F. Zainuddin, M. N. Mohammed, S. Al-Zubaidi, Sami I. Khogali, “Design
[4] H. Nyebuchi Amadi, S. Gutiérrez, “Design and Performance Evaluation of a and Development of Smart Self-Cleaning Solar Panel System”, 2019 IEEE
Dual-Axis Solar Tracking System for Rural Applications”, EJECE, European International Conference on Automatic Control and Intelligent Systems
Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering Vol. 3, No. 1, January 2019 (I2CACIS 2019), 29 June 2019, Selangor, Malaysia
[5] Michael R. Johansen, at al., “History and Flight Development of the
Electrodynamic Dust Shield”, NASA, American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics

27

Authorized licensed use limited to: Dedan Kimathi University of Technology. Downloaded on March 01,2023 at 06:38:23 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.