## 2 Methodology
### Proposed Tracking Strategy
The integrated system includes a solar tracking system, a monitoring device, and a photovoltaic system. Figure 4 shows the electrical power and data connections, including five GY-471 power sensors, one for each axis, another for measuring the generated power by the PV module, one more for the electronic hardware, and a last one for the monitoring device consumption. The technical characteristics of each system are briefly described below. \[\sin\gamma\ =\ \frac{\cos\delta\sin H}{\cos\delta} \tag{8}\]0 Block diagram of the integrated system, where the red and blue lines represent the electrical power connections and data buses, respectively. 1. Solar tracking system: The STS is a two-axis robot in azimuth-elevation configuration with an open architecture to freely configure the required tracking, energy saving, and control strategies. The azimuth axis has a parallel axis transmission with a 76:20 ratio gear, and the elevation axis has a worm gear mechanism with a 28:1 ratio gear, which allows the self-locking action to maintain the position without requiring energizing the actuator. Both axes have a DC gear motor with a planetary gearbox with a 188:1 ratio gear, a stall current of 9.4 A at a stall torque of 24.51 Nm, and a no-load speed of 30 RPM. Table 1 shows the rated output speed and torque of each axis. The angular position measurement is performed with an encoder integrated into the DC motor with a resolution of 5281 pulses per rotation at the output shaft. The system has an embedded Nucleo-F446 RE board with 32-bit microcontroller and a VNH2 SP30 driver for programming strategies (STMicroelectronics, Geneva, Switzerland). In addition, the tracker is equipped with a Solar Mems ISS-T60 solar pointing sensor, with a 120\({}^{\circ}\) field of view, two measurement angles, a precision of 0.06\({}^{\circ}\), and measurement of direct irradiance and ambient temperature. 2. Monitoring device: An embedded system for energy monitoring in solar applications designed to be scalable, modular, and built with an open architecture was used for the tests. The device has a low energy consumption of just 0.326 Wh. It features a 32-bit microcontroller with 12-bit ADCs and an integrated Real-Time Clock (RTC) for real-time data logging through four channels. With compact dimensions of 104.5 \(\times\) 74 \(\times\) 36 mm, the device includes a 3.5-inch touchscreen for setting up parameters, configuring data logging operations, and visualizing measured values in display, graph, or table modes. It also supports wireless data streaming via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and wire communication through USB or UART connections to external devices. 3. Photovoltaic system: The integrated system includes a PV technology module as an energy generation component with the following characteristics: an arrangement of 36 polycrystalline cells, a total dimension of 550 mm \(\times\) 360 mm, a mass of 2.5 kg, maximum power in STC of 25 W, and an average conversion efficiency of 12.63%. In addition, it has a charge controller model PY-HP2410 (Prostar Solar, Jiangsu, China) with a maximum input solar power capacity of 170-340 W and a Solar Cale CL-31T/S-190M lead-acid battery (Enertec Mexico, Monterrey, Mexico) with a voltage of 12 V and capacity of 122 Ah. Additionally, the system can connect the output power to a charge inverter or a DC load to use the generated power. ### Experimental Setup

The experimental procedure is realized on two identical integrated systems to compare the proposed decision-making algorithm (DMA) with a conventional algorithm (CA) under the same environmental conditions, where the CA employs a step-by-step tracking strategy, aiming to reach the position of each step of the segmented path and reducing the error with a Solar Mems pointing sensor and a control strategy.