Patent ID: 8726458

Claim:
A cleaning vehicle comprising: a chassis; a plurality of drive wheels attached to the chassis; and a fluid removal element attached to the chassis, wherein the fluid removal element is configured to remove at least one of: a cleaning fluid, dew, and dirt from a surface of a solar collector of a plurality of solar collectors; a processor having an addressable memory, wherein the processor is configured to: command at least one of the plurality of drive wheels to move in at least one of: a forward direction and a backward direction; command at least one solar collector of the plurality of solar collectors into a new position; track a position of the cleaning vehicle by at least one of: a compass, a global positioning system, an object detector circuit, an optical sensor, a mechanical whisker, a sonar transceiver, and a gap counting sensor; detect a failed solar collector, wherein a failed solar collector is at least one of: a solar collector with a broken surface, a solar collector with movement limited in at least one axis, and a solar collector that does not respond to a command to move into a new position; store a location of a detected failed solar collector; and determine a cleaning path for the cleaning vehicle through the plurality of solar collectors, wherein the determined cleaning path avoids stored locations of detected failed solar collectors.