Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by nicois 1519 days ago
Doesn't this model fail to account for seasonal variations in the locus of the sun? The optimal angle will vary across the year, whatever the latitude.

Maybe I'm missing something, but i would use a simpler algorithm which doesn't need ML. On day 0, plug in the latitude and allow the system to traverse the range of angles, finding the optimal one at the time - ie: yielding maximum power. Let it run 3-5 times during the day, then fit those points to the theoretical path of the sun across the sky. Now your system is calibrated, without needing any other input. As the seasons change, the system will always know which angle to face for optimal power.