3,714 research outputs found
Energy Harvesting and Management for Wireless Autonomous Sensors
Wireless autonomous sensors that harvest ambient energy are attractive solutions, due to their convenience and economic benefits. A number of wireless autonomous sensor platforms which consume less than 100?W under duty-cycled operation are available. Energy harvesting technology (including photovoltaics, vibration harvesters, and thermoelectrics) can be used to power autonomous sensors. A developed system is presented that uses a photovoltaic module to efficiently charge a supercapacitor, which in turn provides energy to a microcontroller-based autonomous sensing platform. The embedded software on the node is structured around a framework in which equal precedent is given to each aspect of the sensor node through the inclusion of distinct software stacks for energy management and sensor processing. This promotes structured and modular design, allowing for efficient code reuse and encourages the standardisation of interchangeable protocols
Optimal Save-Then-Transmit Protocol for Energy Harvesting Wireless Transmitters
In this paper, the design of a wireless communication device relying
exclusively on energy harvesting is considered. Due to the inability of
rechargeable energy sources to charge and discharge at the same time, a
constraint we term the energy half-duplex constraint, two rechargeable energy
storage devices (ESDs) are assumed so that at any given time, there is always
one ESD being recharged. The energy harvesting rate is assumed to be a random
variable that is constant over the time interval of interest. A
save-then-transmit (ST) protocol is introduced, in which a fraction of time
{\rho} (dubbed the save-ratio) is devoted exclusively to energy harvesting,
with the remaining fraction 1 - {\rho} used for data transmission. The ratio of
the energy obtainable from an ESD to the energy harvested is termed the energy
storage efficiency, {\eta}. We address the practical case of the secondary ESD
being a battery with {\eta} < 1, and the main ESD being a super-capacitor with
{\eta} = 1. The optimal save-ratio that minimizes outage probability is
derived, from which some useful design guidelines are drawn. In addition, we
compare the outage performance of random power supply to that of constant power
supply over the Rayleigh fading channel. The diversity order with random power
is shown to be the same as that of constant power, but the performance gap can
be large. Furthermore, we extend the proposed ST protocol to wireless networks
with multiple transmitters. It is shown that the system-level outage
performance is critically dependent on the relationship between the number of
transmitters and the optimal save-ratio for single-channel outage minimization.
Numerical results are provided to validate our proposed study.Comment: This is the longer version of a paper to appear in IEEE Transactions
on Wireless Communication
Flexible Integration of Alternative Energy Sources for Autonomous Sensing
Recent developments in energy harvesting and autonomous sensing mean that it is now possible to power sensors solely from energy harvested from the environment. Clearly this is dependent on sufficient environmental energy being present. The range of feasible environments for operation can be extended by combining multiple energy sources on a sensor node. The effective monitoring of their energy resources is also important to deliver sustained and effective operation. This paper outlines the issues concerned with combining and managing multiple energy sources on sensor nodes. This problem is approached from both a hardware and embedded software viewpoint. A complete system is described in which energy is harvested from both light and vibration, stored in a common energy store, and interrogated and managed by the node
Energy Harvesting Wireless Communications: A Review of Recent Advances
This article summarizes recent contributions in the broad area of energy
harvesting wireless communications. In particular, we provide the current state
of the art for wireless networks composed of energy harvesting nodes, starting
from the information-theoretic performance limits to transmission scheduling
policies and resource allocation, medium access and networking issues. The
emerging related area of energy transfer for self-sustaining energy harvesting
wireless networks is considered in detail covering both energy cooperation
aspects and simultaneous energy and information transfer. Various potential
models with energy harvesting nodes at different network scales are reviewed as
well as models for energy consumption at the nodes.Comment: To appear in the IEEE Journal of Selected Areas in Communications
(Special Issue: Wireless Communications Powered by Energy Harvesting and
Wireless Energy Transfer
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