An Integrated Hybrid Energy Harvester for Autonomous Wireless Sensor Network Nodes

Mukter Zaman,Md Shabiul Islam,Nowshad Amin,H Y Wong

doi:10.1155/2014/760534

Abstract

Profiling environmental parameter using a large number of spatially distributed wireless sensor network (WSN) NODEs is an extensive illustration of advanced modern technologies, but high power requirement for WSN NODEs limits the widespread deployment of these technologies. Currently, WSN NODEs are extensively powered up using batteries, but the battery has limitation of lifetime, power density, and environmental concerns. To overcome this issue, energy harvester (EH) is developed and presented in this paper. Solar-based EH has been identified as the most viable source of energy to be harvested for autonomous WSN NODEs. Besides, a novel chemical-based EH is reported as the potential secondary source for harvesting energy because of its uninterrupted availability. By integrating both solar-based EH and chemical-based EH, a hybrid energy harvester (HEH) is developed to power up WSN NODEs. Experimental results from the real-time deployment shows that, besides supporting the daily operation of WSN NODE and Router, the developed HEH is capable of producing a surplus of 971 mA·hr equivalent energy to be stored inside the storage for NODE and 528.24 mA·hr equivalent energy for Router, which is significantly enough for perpetual operation of autonomous WSN NODEs used in environmental parameter profiling.

Highlights

wireless sensor network (WSN) can be defined as a spatially distributed sensors network that is used to monitor certain environmental parameters, such as chemical composition, temperature, pressure, movement, displacement or contamination, and induced vibration, and to collectively relay the sensed data to the data center using wireless network [1]
In this work we present the development of hybrid energy harvester to eliminate dependency on periodic battery replacement from WSN NODEs and reduce human intervention from deployed WSN NODEs
Once the WSN NODEs are connected with the hybrid energy harvester (EH), the system runs successfully because the harvested power is continuous in nature and minimum harvested power from the hybrid EH is well above the requirement of the WSN NODEs

Summary

Introduction

WSN can be defined as a spatially distributed sensors network that is used to monitor certain environmental parameters, such as chemical composition, temperature, pressure, movement, displacement or contamination, and induced vibration, and to collectively relay the sensed data to the data center using wireless network [1]. Battery-powered WSN NODEs are not suitable for a long-term deployment due to the limited capacity [3] and periodic replacement requirement. Proposed [4, 5] These solutions lengthen the lifetime of WSN NODEs by reducing power consumption, such as dutycycle of operation, though the improvement is only a constant factor and does not solve the limited-lifetime problem. Renewable energy sources, such as solar radiation, vibration, human power, and air flow, can be used to solve this problem, as a recharger means to provide power for a long period of time without requiring the replacement of batteries. Power harvesting capabilities of the developed system and energy flow through the sub-NODEs of the developed system are investigated and presented in this research work

WSN NODEs and the Architecture of WSN NODE

Design and Development of Autonomous WSN

Deployment of the Autonomous EH-Based WSN NODEs and Performance Evaluation

Conclusion