Energy-harvesting active networked tags (EnHANTs): Prototyping and experimentation

This article focuses on a new type of wireless devices in the domain between RFIDs and sensor networks-Energy-Harvesting Active Networked Tags (EnHANTs). Future EnHANTs will be small, flexible, and self-powered devices that can be attached to objects that are traditionally not networked (e.g., books, furniture, toys, produce, and clothing). Therefore, they will provide the infrastructure for various tracking applications and can serve as one of the enablers for the Internet of Things. We present the design considerations for the EnHANT prototypes, developed over the past 4 years. The prototypes harvest indoor light energy using custom organic solar cells, communicate and form multihop networks using ultra-low-power UltraWideband Impulse Radio (UWB-IR) transceivers, and dynamically adapt their communications and networking patterns to the energy harvesting and battery states. We describe a small-scale testbed that uniquely allows evaluating different algorithms with trace-based light energy inputs. Then, we experimentally evaluate the performance of different energy-harvesting adaptive policies with organic solar cells and UWB-IR transceivers. Finally, we discuss the lessons learned during the prototype and testbed design process.

Duke Scholars

Author Maria Gorlatova Electrical and Computer Engineering