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A Method for Dimensioning Micro-Scale Solar Energy HarvestingSystems Based on Energy Level Simulations
Mid Sweden University, Faculty of Science, Technology and Media, Department of Information Technology and Media. (STC)ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8382-0359
Solar Watt AG, Germany.
Mid Sweden University, Faculty of Science, Technology and Media, Department of Information Technology and Media. (STC)ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9572-3639
2010 (English)In: Proceedings - IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Embedded and Ubiquitous Computing, EUC 2010, IEEE conference proceedings, 2010, p. 372-379Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Solar energy harvesting gains more and more attention in the field of wireless sensor networks. In situations, where these sensor systems are deployed outdoors, powering sensor nodes by solar energy becomes a suitable alternative to the traditional way of battery power supplies. Since solar energy, opposed to batteries, can be considered as an inexhaustible energy source, scavenging this source allows longer system lifetimes and brings wireless sensor networks closer to be an autonomous system with perpetual lifetime. Despite the possibility of designing and constructing these harvesting system, dimensioning becomes a crucial task to fit implemented components to application and load system demands. In this paper we present a way of dimensioning solar harvesting systems based on simulation. Method and implementation of component and system models are described on the basis of an example architecture that has been used in prior work. Furthermore we evaluate the model in comparison to deployment of the same architecture and show the suitability of using the simulation as a support to optimize choices for system parameters

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
IEEE conference proceedings, 2010. p. 372-379
National Category
Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-12252DOI: 10.1109/EUC.2010.62Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-79951799488ISBN: 9780769543222 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:miun-12252DiVA, id: diva2:371328
Conference
IEEE/IFIP 8th International Conference on Embedded and Ubiquitous Computing, EUC 2010; Hong Kong; 11 December 2010 through 13 December 2010
Available from: 2010-12-13 Created: 2010-11-19 Last updated: 2020-01-29Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Enabling autonomous envionmental measurement systems with low-power wireless sensor networks
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Enabling autonomous envionmental measurement systems with low-power wireless sensor networks
2011 (English)Licentiate thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Wireless Sensor Networks appear as a technology, which provides the basisfor a broad field of applications, drawing interest in various areas. On theone hand, they appear to allow the next step in computer networks, buildinglarge collections of simple objects, exchanging information with respect totheir environment or their own state. On the other hand, their ability tosense and communicate without a fixed physical infrastructure makes theman attractive technology to be used for measurement systems.Although the interest inWireless Sensor Network research is increasing,and new concepts and applications are being demonstrated, several fundamentalissues remain unsolved. While many of these issues do not requireto be solved for proof-of-concept designs, they are important issues to beaddressed when referring to the long-term operation of these systems. Oneof these issues is the system’s lifetime, which relates to the lifetime of thenodes, upon which the system is composed.This thesis focuses on node lifetime extension based on energy management.While some constraints and results might hold true from a moregeneral perspective, the main application target involves environmental measurementsystems based onWireless Sensor Networks. Lifetime extensionpossibilities, which are the result of application characteristics, by (i) reducingenergy consumption and (ii) utilizing energy harvesting are to be presented.For energy consumption, we show howprecise task scheduling due to nodesynchronization, combined with methods such as duty cycling and powerdomains, can optimize the overall energy use. With reference to the energysupply, the focus lies on solar-based solutions with special attentionplaced on their feasibility at locations with limited solar radiation. Furtherdimensioning of these systems is addressed.It will be shown, that for the presented application scenarios, near-perpetualnode lifetime can be obtained. This is achieved by focusing on efficient resourceusage and by means of a carefully designed energy supply.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sundsvall: Mittuniversitetet, 2011. p. 94
Series
Mid Sweden University licentiate thesis, ISSN 1652-8948 ; 54
National Category
Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-12982 (URN)STC (Local ID)978-91-86694-14-2 (ISBN)STC (Archive number)STC (OAI)
Supervisors
Available from: 2011-01-14 Created: 2011-01-14 Last updated: 2016-10-19Bibliographically approved
2. On the lifetime and usability of environmental monitoring wireless sensor networks
Open this publication in new window or tab >>On the lifetime and usability of environmental monitoring wireless sensor networks
2013 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Wireless sensor networks have been demonstrated, at an early stage in their development, to be a useful measurement technology for environmental monitoring applications. Based on their independence from existing infrastructures, wireless sensor networks can be deployed in virtually any location and provide sensor samples in a spatial and temporal resolution, which otherwise would only be achievable at high cost or involve significant work by humans.The feasibility of the usage of wireless sensor networks in real-world applications, however, is only maintained if certain technological challenges are overcome. Amongst these challenges, are the limited lifetime of the distributed sensor nodes, and user interfaces, which allow for the technology to be utilized in an efficient manner. Contributions to the solution of these challenges have been the objective of this thesis.

After an analysis of the contributions wireless sensor networks can provide

to the application domain of environmental monitoring, and the introduction

to the restrictions, which are posed by a limited operational lifetime and low

system usability, these issues are addressed at the system level of sensor nodedevices.

The lifetime of sensor nodes, which is closely linked to the lifetime of the

complete wireless sensor network, is addressed with regards to the energy

efficiency of nodes, as well as the utilization of solar energy harvesting in

order to increase the available energy resources. With respect to energy

efficiency, an analysis has been performed of the contributions to the energy

consumption of environmental monitoring sensor nodes, which leads to the

desire to minimize the nodes' duty cycles and quiescent currents. A sensor

node design is presented, which features energy efficiency as a key attribute by utilizingmodern semiconductor architectures. Moreover, an argument for the usage of synchronization-based, contention-free communication is made

in order to reduce active communication periods and, thus, the duty cycle

of a sensor node. A synchronization method with its focus on low protocol

overhead is introduced as a basis for such communication forms. After an initial feasibility study in relation to using battery-less solar energy

harvesting architectures in locations with limited solar irradiation, multiple

architectural implementations are analyzed in a comparative manner.

Among these comparisons is an analysis of short-termenergy storage devices in the form of double-layer capacitors and thin-film batteries, which provide prolonged component lifetimes than those for conventional secondary batteries, but which can only buffer for short periods of time due to their limited energy capacity. In order to be able to dimension such energy harvesting systems with respect to the individual application constraints at hand, state of charge simulations are proposed. Amethod for such simulations is presented and demonstrated for the implementation of an energy harvester model on a component basis. While the modeling in this manner is time consuming, the model can predict the state of charge of the energy buffer in the architecture with a high level of accuracy. Finally, a method for the systematic evaluation of solar energy harvesting architectures is presented. The presented method can be summarized as a solar energy harvesting testbed, which utilizes configurable energy harvesting circuits in order to create a deploy-once-test-many type of system. The output results of this testbed can significantly improve

the efficiency of architecture comparisons and system modeling.

Contributions to the improvement of the usability of wireless sensor nodes

are made on two separate levels, namely, developer usability and end user

usability. A method for the programming of sensor nodes based on hierarchical finite state machines is presented, which improves the usability of software development by creating familiarity for technically experienced

users. Moreover, the utilization of finite state machine principles allows

for the software to be developed in a systematic andmodular manner. As

implemented applications typically require to be verified, which, in the environmental monitoring domain, usually results in outdoor deployments,

usability considerations for sensor nodes are presented, which can simplify

this process. Special attention has been paid in order for these improvements to be achieved with low overheads. While software development is a familiar concept for most system developers, this is not the case for the end users of these systems, who are typically domain experts. In order to allow for wireless sensor nodes to be operated

by domain experts, a method for the configuration of sensor nodes has been proposed.The method uses a combination of graphical specification of the node behavior and a configurable sensor node. Theevaluation of this method, which has been based on a proof-of-concept implementation, demonstrated that the performance can remain high, while end users, without technical experience, are enabled to configure sensor nodes without prior training.

In summary, the contributions, presented in this thesis, address system

lifetime and usability with regards to the sensor node level. The results have

led to the implementation of an energy efficient sensor node, which allows for the operation frombattery-less solar energy harvesting sources. Furthermore, support tools for the implementation of these nodes, both on the hardware and software level, have been proposed.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sundsvall: Mid Sweden University, 2013. p. 147
Series
Mid Sweden University doctoral thesis, ISSN 1652-893X ; 161
National Category
Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-20046 (URN)STC (Local ID)9789187557040 (ISBN)STC (Archive number)STC (OAI)
Supervisors
Available from: 2013-10-23 Created: 2013-10-23 Last updated: 2016-10-19Bibliographically approved

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Bader, SebastianOelmann, Bengt

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