The Smartest Way to Orient a Solar Panel

How do we orient a solar panel to maximize energy harvesting in complex environments? I came across this recent research paper that answers this question. No LLMs, no foundation model, no machine learning, just good old simple math of convolution and the Fourier transform. It's SO COOL that I can't help but make an overview video. Hope you enjoy it as well. 00:00 Sun tracking 00:39 Total irradiance 03:10 Irradiance as spherical convolution 04:59 Finding the optimal orientation using gradient ascent 06:36 Eliminating local maxima of irradiance using a large tilt angle 08:59 Results Reference…