Perpetual environmentally powered sensor networks
IPSN '05 Proceedings of the 4th international symposium on Information processing in sensor networks
Sun, wind and water flow as energy supply for small stationary data acquisition platforms
Computers and Electronics in Agriculture
A survey of multi-source energy harvesting systems
Proceedings of the Conference on Design, Automation and Test in Europe
Smart power unit with ultra low power radio trigger capabilities for wireless sensor networks
DATE '12 Proceedings of the Conference on Design, Automation and Test in Europe
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Wireless sensors are normally powered by nonrechargeable batteries, but these must be replaced when depleted. Recent developments in energy harvesting technology allow sensors to be powered by environmental energy where it is present, but the wide range of situations where sensors are deployed means that it is desirable for the energy components of a sensor node (i.e. batteries, supercapacitors, and power generation devices) to be selected and configured at the time of node deployment. Previous energy harvesting-powered systems have been designed for specific energy hardware and been difficult to adapt for different resources. Energy-awareness is useful for state-of-the-art network algorithms, but present systems do not provide a standardized or straightforward way for nodes to monitor and manage their energy hardware. The developments reported in this paper deliver a reconfigurable energy subsystem for wireless autonomous sensors. The new system permits energy modules to be selected and fitted to the sensor node in-situ, in a plug-and-play manner, without the need for reprogramming or the modification of hardware. The node can monitor and intelligently manage its energy resources and assess its overall energy status by analyzing its level of stored energy and rate of power generation. These activities are facilitated by a proposed common hardware interface (which allows multiple energy modules to be connected) and an electronic datasheet structure for the energy modules. The system has been verified through the development and testing of a prototype wireless sensor node which operates from a mix of energy sources.