Abstract
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) play an increasingly important role in monitoring applications in many areas. With the emergence of the Internet-of-Things (IoT), many more low-power sensors will need to be deployed in various environments to collect and monitor data about environmental factors in real time. Providing power supply to these sensor nodes becomes a critical challenge for realizations of IoT applications as sensor nodes are normally battery-powered and have a limited lifetime. This paper proposes a wireless sensor network that is powered by solar energy harvesting. The sensor network monitors the environmental data with low-power sensor electronics and forms a network using multiple XBee wireless modules. A detailed performance analysis of the network system under solar energy harvesting has been presented. The sensor network system and the proposed energy-harvesting techniques are configured to achieve a continuous energy source for the sensor network. The proposed energy-harvesting system has been successfully designed to enable an energy solution in order to keep sensor nodes active and reliable for a whole day. The paper also outlines some of our experiences in real-time implementation of a sensor network system with energy harvesting.
Highlights
Introduction and Related WorksWireless sensor network (WSN) is increasingly being used to improve applications such as military surveillance, medicine, transportation, environmental conservation, agriculture, home health care, and industrial process control, among others
These outstanding features make supercapacitors a suitable primary source for sensor nodes in a sensor network system
The size of the harvesting prototype board is 3 cm × 3 cm and it can be placed inside the sensor box together with the sensor node and supercapacitors
Summary
Wireless sensor network (WSN) is increasingly being used to improve applications such as military surveillance, medicine, transportation, environmental conservation, agriculture, home health care, and industrial process control, among others. Supercapacitors have almost unlimited charging cycles, high power density, high charge–discharge efficiency (97%–98%), and they do not release any thermal heat during the discharging process, while rechargeable batteries have lower charging cycles and high energy density [16,18] These outstanding features make supercapacitors a suitable primary source for sensor nodes in a sensor network system. The large output-power solar panels can charge rechargeable batteries more compared to the solar panel with only a few hundred milliwatts of output power These solar panels normally require a larger area—more than 100 cm2 —and could be used together with the bigger-sized sensor nodes. The proposed energy-harvesting mechanism can successfully supply the required power to sensor nodes in real time, extending the lifetime of the WSN.
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