Pictured is the CAD for the prototype that was shown off at the University of Maryland 2023 design day. This cleaner was designed to target residential solar installations. It is expandable to up to ten by ten meter solar panel instalations and has a parts cost of $350.
The cleaner subassembly slides across an extruded alluminum providing left to right motion as pictured. It has two brushes and a squeegee that agitate and then removes contaminants.
The slider subassembly slides up and down the rails to the left and right of the cleaner. This allows motion of the brushes and squeegee anywhere inside of the aluminum gantry.
This cleaner worked flawlessly and ran for a total of 9 hours straight. It won the linda Schmidt Innovation Award.