Autonomous UAV Swarm Maintenance for Dust and Hotspot Control in Photovoltaic Farms
Lyu Guanghua1, Dingxiao Jiao2, Abdulrahman AlKassem3, Dakan Ying1, Rizwan Arshad1, Jiahua Ni1, Zhe Liu1, Syed Hadi Hussain Shah1,*
1 Powerchina Huadong Engineering Corporation Limited, Hangzhou, China
2 Power China International Group Limited, Beijing, China
3 Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Islamic University of Madinah, Madinah, Saudi Arabia
* Corresponding Author: Syed Hadi Hussain Shah. Email: 
, 
Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing https://doi.org/10.32604/fdmp.2026.077648
Received 14 December 2025; Accepted 20 March 2026; Published online 17 April 2026
Abstract
Desert photovoltaic, PV, installations experience significant efficiency losses due to dust accumulation, which also promotes localized overheating, known as hotspots, caused by uneven solar irradiance and partial cell shading. These hotspots can accelerate material degradation and increase the risk of permanent panel damage. This study presents an autonomous maintenance strategy based on a cooperative swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs, enabling contactless dust removal and active hotspot cooling. The approach combines high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics to characterize aerodynamic downwash for effective dust detachment with fluid–structure interaction analysis to verify the structural integrity of PV panels under induced loads. A fractional-order PID controller minimizes UAV energy consumption, while a model predictive control framework coordinates real-time task allocation within the swarm. Numerical and experimental results indicate dust removal efficiencies exceeding 92%, with maximum panel stresses of 18.5 MPa and deflections remaining within safe mechanical limits. The system achieves a net positive energy balance, recovering more than 10 kWh per mission. Evidence is provided that the proposed integrated CFD–FSI modeling framework, energy-aware swarm coordination strategy, and Pareto-optimized control architecture collectively provide a robust and scalable solution for enhancing the reliability and resilience of desert solar farms.
Keywords
Unmanned aerial vehicles; aerodynamic downwash; aerodynamic cleaning; energy-aware swarm coordination
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