Syrian students Khaled al-Jaber and Somar al-Mahamid designed a robot for cleaning photovoltaic cells which is the first of its kind in Syria.

The students are studying at the Faculty of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Tishreen University.

The importance of the project is that it meets the demands in the scientific and practical fields in conjunction with the world’s trend towards renewable energies, especially photovoltaic power.

According to the students, their design capped long study in the field of cleaning the photovoltaic cells, as the project relies on remote control circuits through the Android system and a range of sensors to make them work automatically and accurately.

Speaking to SANA, student Khaled said that the aim of the invention is to preserve the yield of photovoltaic cells with minimal time and effort and with high precision.

“The robot is characterized by its new design, which is designed according to the requirements of its future applications as the robot can be used in other areas such as cleaning towers and high glass structures that are dangerous to clean by workers,” Khaled added.

For his part, student Somar pointed out that “when a storm occurs, a layer of dust forms on the surface of the photovoltaic panels which significantly reduces the yield. Also, when the temperature increases significantly, the yield is negatively impacted. The robot is designed according to two dry systems to remove the first layer of dust and dirt and the second one depends on using water that cools the panels and cleans them at the same time.”

About how the robot works, the inventors said that the robot works remotely via the internet or wireless networks via an application that can be operated through a cellular phone. It is programmed once even if new cells are added to the photovoltaic station.