Review of calculation methods for solving sunlight sheltered problem

The process of sunshine calculation is extremely complex, involving geography, astronomy, computer, construction, planning, geometrical optics and other disciplines. With the rapid development of information technology, a variety of terrain analysis algorithms or artificial intelligence algorithms have been introduced to the process of solving the problem of sunshine calculation. Moreover, sunlight sheltered or visible calculation is always the core and basis of above problem. This paper discusses the four major calculation methods related to solving sunlight shelter, since 70s of last century, including traditional estimation method, geometric optics, construction CAD method, visible analysis and the inverse analysis combined with artificial intelligence, and the principle and implementation of specific methods is described in detail.