Abstract
Energy harvesting (EH) technologies could lead to self-sustaining wireless sensor networks (WSNs) which are set to be a key technology in Industry 4.0. There are numerous methods for small-scale EH but these methods differ greatly in their environmental applicability, energy conversion characteristics, and physical form which makes choosing a suitable EH method for a particular WSN application challenging due to the specific application-dependency. Furthermore, the choice of EH technology is intrinsically linked to non-trivial decisions on energy storage technologies and combinatorial architectures for a given WSN application. In this paper we survey the current state of EH technology for small-scale WSNs in terms of EH methods, energy storage technologies, and EH system architectures for combining methods and storage including multi-source and multi-storage architectures, as well as highlighting a number of other optimisation considerations. This work is intended to provide an introduction to EH technologies in terms of their general working principle, application potential, and other implementation considerations with the aim of accelerating the development of sustainable WSN applications in industry.
Highlights
Along with other ambitions, Industry 4.0 promises that cyberphysical systems composed of cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies will be used for environmental monitoring and enhancing decision-making capabilities
In this paper we have described a range of contemporary Energy harvesting (EH) approaches for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and their application in detail including vibrational methods, thermal methods, solar methods, flow-based methods, magnetic methods, and radiofrequency methods
We described the most commonly used energy storage technologies for WSNs in rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors and highlighted their differing characteristics, respective advantages and disadvantages, and application potential, before discussing different contemporary EH system topologies for combining EH with energy storage appropriately to power a load including autonomous, autonomous-hybrid, and battery supplemented harvesting models
Summary
Industry 4.0 promises that cyberphysical systems composed of cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies will be used for environmental monitoring and enhancing decision-making capabilities. To realise this vision requires the deployment of self-powered wireless sensor networks (WSNs) [1]. Solid-state batteries which are commonly used as an energy source in low power electronic devices require frequent and periodic maintenance in the form of recharging or replacement which limits network self-sustainability. Making use of EH systems as alternative energy sources is seen as one of the most promising solutions for developing the next-generation of self-sustainable WSNs and reducing or eliminating battery lifetime limitations [1], [7], [8]. Our discussion of energy storage techniques is limited to battery and capacitor-related technologies and not other uncommon application storage mediums such as fuel cells [16]
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