Momo – The Solar Panel Installer Robot

Solar farm installation professionals beware; judgement day is at hand - a rise of the machines may result in a robot being the terminator of your job.

Solar farm installation professionals beware; judgement day is at hand – a rise of the machines may result in a robot being the terminator of your job.

Germany’s PV-Kraftwerker will unveil ‘Momo’ at the upcoming Intersolar exhibition in Munich,  a robot designed to install solar panels at ground mount solar farms.

“With Momo, hardly any modules suffer breakages, programming eliminates assembly errors and fitters no longer suffer from assembly related injuries,” says PV-Kraftwerker’s Managing Director Eberhard Schulz.

The robot moves to the designated site carrying the solar panels required and installs the modules using a sensor-equipped gripper system. The company says Momo can carry out automated assembly of modules on support racks in any terrain. Mounted on the gripper is a 3-D camera, which captures the assembly process and adjusts the robot for any deviation, such as small variations in drill holes, with millimetre accuracy.

Working off a software program detailing the solar farm’s design, the module installation process can be repeated 100,000-times and the robot can cover up to 70 kilometres per assembly. Momo can reportedly work in any weather conditions 24/7, position modules exceeding six square metres in area and can carry a 140 kg payload.

Mr. Shulz says Momo could make an 80 percent improvement in efficiency in installation. Ongoing maintenance and cleaning work could also be carried out by the robot.

Unfortunately, an image of the robot doesn’t appear to be available at this point in time from PV-Kraftwerker. The above photo provided to us by EM reader and Melbourne solar installer John Connor is what he claims Momo will look like. Questions to Mr. Connor regarding his source were not answered – it appears he hasn’t been born yet.

The Intersolar Europe exhibition in Munich – and the unveiling of Momo by PV-Kraftwerker – will occur between June 13 and 15.

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