Researchers Develop Wireless, Battery-less Sensor
If we need power for a device, most of us will place it near a power outlet in a building. When we want power on the move, we charge a storage battery and run the device until the battery is depleted, then charge it back up again. But what do you do when you want to run hundreds of devices, for decades, with no power outlet, in the frigid cold of upper New York state? You build your device with its own unlimited power generator. This is exactly what two graduate students have done at Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY.
"Clarkson University researchers have developed technology that uses the vibrations caused by passing traffic to power wireless bridge monitoring sensors."
Power harvesting is not a new technology, however it has been extremely inefficient. Grabbing small amounts of solar, heat or vibrations and converting that into useable, noise free electricity has never before been combined into a small PCB mountable form factor. The solution developed by the researchers uses small vibrations to drive a magnetic generator, producing electricity. The sensor board uses only micro-watts of power and when paired up with the generator, can run an indefinite time and broadcast data to a more conveniently located base station over 75 meters away.
"'We have completely eliminated the battery from the equation,' says Assistant Professor Edward S. Sazonov, .... 'Hermetically sealed wireless sensors powered by bridge vibration can remain on the bridge without need of maintenance for decades, providing continuous monitoring of such parameters as ice conditions, traffic flows and health status.' "
The two professors and two graduate students at Clarkson have been working on their energy harvesting technology for over two years and have applied for a patent with the US Patent Office. Recently the technology has been license to startup Ambio Systems to provide low-maintenance, small footprint wireless sensors for remote data collection. Ambio Systems plans to release a development kit by the end of 2007.
Original Article: http://www.clarkson.edu/news/view.php?id=1884
Ambio Systems: http://www.ambiosystems.com/
Research page: http://www.intelligent-systems.info/energy_harvesting/bridge_experiments/bridge_energy_harvesting.htm
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