"Energy Harvesting & Self-Powered Devices"
A
Biweekly WTRS Newsletter
Nov 11, 2008 - Vol 1, Issue 4
"The Leading Viewpoint on Emerging Wireless
Technologies, Markets, and Applications"
|
Dear Reader,
|
|
Energy
Harvesting and ZigBee?
In case it has escaped anyone's attention: it's time to
talk about Energy Harvesting and sensor networks,
specifically about ZigBee. It is a logical association;
after all, ZigBee was designed to be a low-power,
low-cost, wireless sensor network, and energy harvesting
represents a logical intersection. It's only a matter of
time until energy harvesting technology catches up with
existing wireless sensor network requirements, including
eventually those of ZigBee.
Today ZigBee appears to have found a home in the
utilities space. The ZigBee Alliance's Smart Energy
Public Application Profile, a solution offering utility
companies and technology suppliers a secure, provides an
interoperable wireless global standard for developing
products that improve energy management and efficiency
for both consumers and corporations. But where can
ZigBee go from there? It is a logical next step to
refine the ZigBee Standard to accommodate energy
harvesting.
Where do ZigBee and Energy Harvesting
intersect? The most logical and most developed
energy harvesting solution at this juncture is
piezoelectric (or mechanical) energy, from sources that
produce vibration, or mechanical stress or strain. What
is needed is a conversion device, an energy harvesting
module to store and manage power, and ZigBee to control
and manage the sensor network.
What would be gained? Sensor and
Network longevity, of course, but first and foremost
savings, both in battery costs and in manpower for
maintenance and repairs. For example, the United
Kingdom GPS company CMS SupaTrak*, makes it possible for
companies owning fleets of refrigerated vehicles to
constantly monitor the temperature of the contents of
each unit, as they are required by law. ColdTrak does so
via a radio network, specifically ZigBee-enabled
wireless sensor technology and the use of GRPS.
Each sensor in the system is, of course, powered by
batteries, which have a two-year life expectancy. This
system, for example, is a logical candidate for energy
harvesting technology. By their very nature, trucks are
a logical source for piezoelectric power conversion,
vibration being a natural byproduct.
http://www.theopenpress.com/index.php?a=press&id=39774
*"Cold Chain Fleet Management Made Easy with ColdTrak."
The Open Press, October 28, 2008.
Who is involved today? Greenpeak
Technologies has developed a means to run IEEE 802.15.4
network nodes on harvested energy. Given the company's
affiliation with the ZigBee Alliance, it is likely that
the group will be working to advance energy harvesting
efforts within the Alliance, along with other key
semiconductor vendors. The key innovation from GreenPeak
Technologies is to remove the MAC functionality from the
controller and place it in the radio. Then GreenPeak
Technologies uses the enhanced transceiver to control a
more low cost and less power hungry microcontroller,
rather than the other way around. Thus the amount of
time that the microcontroller is running is minimized to
the point that it is possible to utilize smaller
batteries and even energy harvesting technologies for
operating power.
Karin Hall Ph.D., Senior Analyst
|
|
Productization |
-
"IPS Offers Dev Platform for Energy Harvesting."
October 31, 2009. Sensors. The company's application
development platform for testing and evaluating its
industry-leading thin-film micro-energy storage
technology (THINERGY ™ ADP) empowers designers to
rapidly prototype embedded microsystems using energy
harvesting.
-
"Bionic Knee Brace Harvests Energy From Walking."
November 3, 2008. Clean Technica. Time Magazine
has honored the device as one of the Top 50
Inventions of 2008. The brace generates enough power
for half an hour of cell phone time. It was
developed by Simon Fraser University, British
Columbia.
-
"GreenPeak: Agriculture Goes Wide Area Wireless with
Greenpeak's Ultra Low Power Wireless
Infrastructure." November 3, 2008. MarketWatch.
With a proprietary network protocol developed on top
of the IEEE 802.15.4 specifications in the worldwide
certified 2.4 GHz band, the energy consumption for
each router is reduced to a fraction (<1%) of what
it normally would be, allowing for an infrastructure
that can run on energy harvesting.
|
|
Power Sources |
-
"Wireless Power Delivery: an Energy Conservation
Trend?" November 2008. TechOn. Technology of
Powercast Corp, a US venture started in 2003 out of
research from the University of Pittsburgh, is
delivering mWatts of power over distances up to a
few meters. The key accomplishment of the
technology, according to the company, is
transmitting power to many devices in a variety of
possible signal path scenarios while consistently
utilizing 70% of the available energy.
-
"Nanogenerators: Be Your Own Power Plant."
November 9, 2008. Scientific American. Zhong Lin
Wang and his nano-engineering team at the Georgia
Institute of Technology in Atlanta, has a new
addition to the nanogenerator family: zinc oxide
wires that produce an alternating current when
stretched and released like a rubber band. The new
device can be embedded in soft materials such as
clothing or even muscles.
-
"Lockheed Martin Signs Strategic Cooperation
Agreement with Infinite Power Solutions."
October 28, 2008. Press Release. The agreement aims
to apply unique Micro Energy Cell products from IPS
to solutions that Lockheed Martin is developing for
military and civil applications. In particular, the
aim is to develop networked, mobile electronic
devices that can take advantage of energy harvesting
methods to reduce the weight of batteries and the
complexities of power management.
|
|
Industry Events |
-
"Kudos to Tech Award Laureates." November 1,
2008. Solid State Technology. On Nov. 12, at
the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, CA, a
group of individuals will receive some well
deserved recognition for their work in
developing technical solutions that benefit
humanity, among them the
The Portable Light Project. Based in Boston,
the company creates new ways to provide clean
energy. Portable Light textiles with embedded
flexible solar materials and solid state
lighting enable people in the developing world
to create, own, and benefit from
energy-harvesting blankets, bags and clothing in
an open source integration model.
-
"Seeking Novel Energy Harvesting
Technologies." NineSigma.
Program Objective: NineSigma, representing a
Fortune 500 manufacturing company, invites
proposals for the identification and
development of cutting edge energy
harvesting technologies.
NineSigma Request #50816-1-aocs;
|
|
