For some industrial applications, an accurate estimation of a light source position is needed. That is the case for a heliostat, a device that projects sunlight onto a focus hundreds of meters away from its aiming point. In this paper, we present a novel sensor design for generating an alignment error signal. Included is a detailed study of its response, which shows that certain geometrical design parameters are necessary to achieve desired accuracy. This sensor has been implemented using microelectromechanical system techniques to achieve a robust structure at low cost and it has been successfully applied to sun-tracking systems. Experimental results obtained in field tests are included
['J.M. Quero', 'Carmen Aracil', 'L.G. Franquelo', 'Jordi Ricart', 'Pablo Ortega', 'Manuel Fernández Domínguez', 'Luis Castañer', 'Rafael Osuna']
Tracking Control System Using an Incident Radiation Angle Microsensor