Miniature and Low-Power Wireless Sensor Node Platform: State of the Art and Current Trends

Wireless sensor node is an autonomous and compact device that has capability to monitor a variety of real-world phenomena. It is designed composed of sensing device, embedded processor, communication module, and power equipment. Wireless sensor node is part of wireless sensor network where hundred or thousand sensor node can be deployed. Over the past decade Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have emerged as one of the computing platforms of note within the electronics community. In prediction, there will be more than 127 million wireless sensor nodes deployed worldwide by 2014. We have surveyed 100 currently available wireless sensor network node platforms have been developed and produced not only by the research institutions, the universities but also some companies in last ten years. In this paper, we present a review of 27 different wireless sensor node platforms. We review these devices under a number of different parameters, and we highlight the key advantages of each node platform according to dimension and power consumption. We also discuss the characteristics and trend of development and deployment a wireless sensor node technology

Design Concept of Dynamic-Adaptive Reconfigurable Wireless Sensor Node (DARWiSeN)

This paper describe the proposed design concept of wireless sensor node named Dynamic-Adaptive Reconfigurable Wireless Sensor Node (DARWiSeN), with special emphasis on the design principles and functionality. The design concept is targeted to a wireless sensor node prototype that has ability to adapt various applications and situation with a minimal redesign effort through concept of reconfigurable hardware and modularity approach. Both the hardware and software components are detailed, together with experimental evaluation. The experimental evaluation revealed that this approach is not only capable to show rapid prototype of wireless sensor application design, but it can also be used as a generic wireless node platform design in dynamic-adaptive reconfigurable feature, flexible, and greatly extending its applicability

Smart Wireless Climate Sensor Node for Indoor Comfort Quality Monitoring Application

The indoor environment climate should be controlled by continuously maintaining the temperature and relative humidity to achieve thermal comfort. A monitoring system of both parameters is the first step to improving indoor comfort quality. This paper presents a smart wireless climate sensor node for indoor temperature and humidity monitoring with a powering strategy and design approach for autonomous operation. The data logging results are sent to the cloud using Internet of Things protocol for thermal comfort monitoring and analysis. The monitoring and analysis results are useful to monitor and control the indoor thermal comfort condition for room occupants. A sensor node was designed that includes a low-power mode and compact size features. It consists of a built-in AVR-based microcontroller, a temperature and humidity sensor, and a wireless module with a supercapacitor as the power storage. A low-power algorithm and Internet of Things system were implemented to reduce the total energy consumption as low as possible during operation while improving the thermal comfort quality. This developed sensor node has a small error for temperature, and relative humidity sensed values resulting from calibration. At the same time, it also consumes low power for one cycle of data acquisition. The device was integrated with an Internet of Things monitoring system to monitor indoor thermal comfort in the field experiment. The experiment results showed that the indoor temperature and relative humidity were measured and recorded in the range of 25–30 °C and 30–40%, respectively. This prototype is a preliminary design to achieve an autonomous sensor node with a low-power energy consumption goal. Thus, with this feature, the developed sensor node has potential to couple with a micro energy harvester module toward a fully autonomous active node in further development

Smart Wireless CO2 Sensor Node for IoT Based Strategic Monitoring Tool of The Risk of The Indoor SARS-CoV-2 Airborne Transmission

A close correlation between CO2 concentration and aerosol enables the wide utilization of CO2 concentration as a good representation of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 infection airborne transmission. On the other side, many indoor air-quality monitoring devices have been developed for indoor monitoring applications. However, most of them are multiparameter air-quality sensor systems and tend to consume relatively high power, are relatively large devices, and are fairly expensive; therefore, they not meet the requirement for indoor monitoring applications. This paper presents a smart wireless sensor node that can measure and monitor CO2 concentration levels. The node was designed to meet the requirements of indoor air-quality monitoring applications by considering several factors, such as compact size, low cost, and low power, as well as providing real-time, continuous, reliable, and remote measurement. Furthermore, the commercial off-the-shelf and low-power consumption components are chosen to fit with the low-cost development and reduce energy consumption. Moreover, a low-power algorithm and cloud-based data logger also were applied to minimize the total power consumption. This power strategy was applied as a preliminary development toward an autonomous sensor node. The node has a compact size and consumes low energy for one cycle of CO2 measurement, accompanied by high accuracy with very low measurement error. The experiment result revealed the node could measure and monitor in real-time continuous, reliable, and remote CO2 concentration levels in indoor and outdoor environments. A user interface visualizes CO2 concentration graphically and numerically using the Adafruit platform for easy accessibility over the Internet of Things. The developed node is very promising and suitable for indoor CO2 monitoring applications with the acquired data that could be utilized as an indicator to minimize the risk of indoor Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 airborne transmission

Smart Wireless Particulate Matter Sensor Node for IoT-Based Strategic Monitoring Tool of Indoor COVID-19 Infection Risk via Airborne Transmission

Indoor and outdoor air pollution are associated with particulate matter concentration of minute size that deeply penetrates the human body and leads to significant problems. These particles led to serious health problems and an increased spread of infection through airborne transmission, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering the role of particulate matter during the spread of COVID-19, this paper presents a smart wireless sensor node for measuring and monitoring particulate matter concentrations indoors. Data for these concentrations were obtained and used as a risk indicator for airborne COVID-19 transmission. The sensor node was designed to consider air quality monitoring device requirements for indoor applications, such as real-time, continuous, reliable, remote, compact-sized, low-cost, low-power, and accessible. Total energy consumption of the node during measurement and monitoring of particulate matter concentration was minimized using a low-power algorithm and a cloud storage system embedded during software development. Therefore, the sensor node consumed low energy for one cycle of the particulate matter measurement process. This low-power strategy was implemented as a preliminary design for the autonomous sensor node that enables it to integrate with an energy harvester element to harvest energy from ambient (light, heat, airflow) and store energy in the supercapacitor, which extends the sensor node life. Furthermore, the measurement data can be accessed using the Internet of Things and visualized graphically and numerically on a graphical user interface. The test and measurement results showed that the developed sensor node had very small measurement error, which was promising and appropriate for indoor particulate matter concentration measurement and monitoring, while data results were utilized as strategic tools to minimize the risk of airborne COVID-19 transmission

Battery Charger Prototype Design for Tire Pressure Sensor Battery Recharging

One of the important devices in a vehicle is the tire pressure sensor. This device couples with other instruments inside the vehicle assisting the drivers in knowing the correct information about their vehicle’s tire pressure. This information helps improve vehicle handling, increases gas mileage, and extends tire lifespan. Once mounted inside the tire, the tire pressure sensor is a stand-alone device. It is powered by a battery that has a limited operating life. Due to it being mounted inside the tire, the driver does not frequently check tire pressure sensor battery. If the battery runs out, battery replacement is not an effective option. This work presents a battery charging prototype that recharges the tire pressure sensor battery. The developed device uses electromagnetic principles to wirelessly transmit power to a device that needs power. We designed a prototype and conducted some laboratory scale experiments. Experimental and validation were based on a tire pressure sensor developed by Kenda Rubber Ind. Co., Ltd, Taiwan (R.O.C). This tire pressure sensor consumes power from a 4.8 V 700 mAh Li-ion rechargeable battery. The experimental results show that the prototype can transmit 4.9 V induction voltage. The maximum current is up to 850 mA with the optimum transmission distance at around of 1.5 cm. This prototype recharges the tire pressure sensor battery wirelessly to extend its battery-power life

Smart Wireless Particulate Matter Sensor Node for IoT-Based Strategic Monitoring Tool of Indoor COVID-19 Infection Risk via Airborne Transmission

Indoor and outdoor air pollution are associated with particulate matter concentration of minute size that deeply penetrates the human body and leads to significant problems. These particles led to serious health problems and an increased spread of infection through airborne transmission, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering the role of particulate matter during the spread of COVID-19, this paper presents a smart wireless sensor node for measuring and monitoring particulate matter concentrations indoors. Data for these concentrations were obtained and used as a risk indicator for airborne COVID-19 transmission. The sensor node was designed to consider air quality monitoring device requirements for indoor applications, such as real-time, continuous, reliable, remote, compact-sized, low-cost, low-power, and accessible. Total energy consumption of the node during measurement and monitoring of particulate matter concentration was minimized using a low-power algorithm and a cloud storage system embedded during software development. Therefore, the sensor node consumed low energy for one cycle of the particulate matter measurement process. This low-power strategy was implemented as a preliminary design for the autonomous sensor node that enables it to integrate with an energy harvester element to harvest energy from ambient (light, heat, airflow) and store energy in the supercapacitor, which extends the sensor node life. Furthermore, the measurement data can be accessed using the Internet of Things and visualized graphically and numerically on a graphical user interface. The test and measurement results showed that the developed sensor node had very small measurement error, which was promising and appropriate for indoor particulate matter concentration measurement and monitoring, while data results were utilized as strategic tools to minimize the risk of airborne COVID-19 transmission

Wireless Power Hanger Pad for Portable Wireless Audio Device Power Charger Application

Since the portability feature has been introduced in headphone development, this device now uses a battery as the main built-in power. However, the battery has limited power capacity and a short lifetime. Battery substitution and a conventional battery charger method is an ineffective, inflexible inconvenience for enhancing the user experience. This paper presents an innovative portable audio device battery built-in charger method based on wireless power technology. The developed charging device is composed of a headphone hanger pad for the wireless headphone and a charging pad for the portable wireless audio device battery charging. Circular flat spiral air-core coil was designed and evaluated using a numerical method to obtain optimal vertical magnetic field distribution based on the proposed evaluation criteria. A coil has inner coil diameter of 25 mm, outer coil diameter of 47.8 mm, wire diameter of 0.643 mm, the pitch of 0.03 mm and a number of turns of 17 was chosen to be implemented on the transmitter coil. A magnetic induction technique was adopted in the proposed wireless power transmission module which was implemented using commercial off-the-shelf components. For experimental and validation purposes, a developed receiver module applied to the commercial wireless headphone and portable audio speaker have a built-in battery capacity at 3.7 V 300 mAh. The experimental results show that the wireless power hanger pad prototype can transfer a 5 V induction voltage at a maximum current of 1000 mA, and the power transfer efficiency is around 70%. It works at 110 kHz of operation frequency with a maximum transmission distance of about 10 mm and takes 1 h to charge fully one 3.7 V 300 mAh polymer lithium battery

Wireless Photoplethysmography Sensor for Continuous Blood Pressure Biosignal Shape Acquisition

Blood pressure assessment plays a vital role in day-to-day clinical diagnosis procedures as well as personal monitoring. Thus, blood pressure monitoring devices must afford convenience and be easy to use with no side effects on the user. This paper presents a compact, economical, power-efficient, and convenient wireless plethysmography sensor for real-time blood pressure biosignal monitoring. The proposed sensor facilitates blood pressure signal shape sensing, signal conditioning, and data conversion as well as its wireless transmission to a monitoring terminal. Received data can, subsequently, be compiled and stored on a computer via a Wi-Fi module. During monitoring, users can observe blood pressure signals being processed and displayed on the graphical user interface (GUI)—developed using a virtual instrumentation (VI) application. The proposed device comprises a finger clip optical pulse sensor, analogue signal preprocessing, microcontroller, and Wi-Fi module. It consumes approximately 500 mW power when operating in the active mode and synthesized using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components. Experimental results reveal that the proposed device is reliable and facilitates efficient blood pressure monitoring. The proposed wireless photoplethysmographic (PPG) sensor is a preliminary (or first) version of the intended device manifestation. It provides raw blood pressure data for further classification. Additionally, the collected data concerning the blood pressure wave shape can be easily analysed for use in other biosignal observations, interpretations, and investigations. The design approach also allows the device to be built into a wearable system for further research purposes

Smart Wireless Climate Sensor Node for Indoor Comfort Quality Monitoring Application

The indoor environment climate should be controlled by continuously maintaining the temperature and relative humidity to achieve thermal comfort. A monitoring system of both parameters is the first step to improving indoor comfort quality. This paper presents a smart wireless climate sensor node for indoor temperature and humidity monitoring with a powering strategy and design approach for autonomous operation. The data logging results are sent to the cloud using Internet of Things protocol for thermal comfort monitoring and analysis. The monitoring and analysis results are useful to monitor and control the indoor thermal comfort condition for room occupants. A sensor node was designed that includes a low-power mode and compact size features. It consists of a built-in AVR-based microcontroller, a temperature and humidity sensor, and a wireless module with a supercapacitor as the power storage. A low-power algorithm and Internet of Things system were implemented to reduce the total energy consumption as low as possible during operation while improving the thermal comfort quality. This developed sensor node has a small error for temperature, and relative humidity sensed values resulting from calibration. At the same time, it also consumes low power for one cycle of data acquisition. The device was integrated with an Internet of Things monitoring system to monitor indoor thermal comfort in the field experiment. The experiment results showed that the indoor temperature and relative humidity were measured and recorded in the range of 25–30 °C and 30–40%, respectively. This prototype is a preliminary design to achieve an autonomous sensor node with a low-power energy consumption goal. Thus, with this feature, the developed sensor node has potential to couple with a micro energy harvester module toward a fully autonomous active node in further development