Energy harvesting for a condition monitoring mote

Author

De Villiers, Daniel J. ; Kaplan, Shaun ; Wilkinson, Richardt H.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Cape Peninsula Univ. of Technol., Cape Town

fYear

2008

fDate

10-13 Nov. 2008

Firstpage

2161

Lastpage

2166

Abstract

One application for wireless sensor networks (WSN) is the condition monitoring of high voltage power transformers to actively monitor, predict and identify causes of failures. This paper details a prototype design and testing of a hybrid power management system for a wireless sensor mote. The sensor mote, mounted on the outside of a high voltage transformer, utilizes a piezoelectric cantilever to generate electricity from the transformer tank vibration. Together with solar energy harvesting, the system allows for a battery-less self-sustained wireless sensor mote capable of autonomously monitoring its surroundings.

Keywords

cantilevers; condition monitoring; energy harvesting; piezoelectric devices; power transformers; wireless sensor networks; WSN; condition monitoring mote; energy harvesting; high voltage power transformers; hybrid power management system; piezoelectric cantilever; solar energy harvesting; wireless sensor mote; wireless sensor networks; Condition monitoring; Energy management; Power generation; Power system management; Power transformers; Prototypes; Sensor systems; System testing; Voltage transformers; Wireless sensor networks;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Industrial Electronics, 2008. IECON 2008. 34th Annual Conference of IEEE

Conference_Location

Orlando, FL

ISSN

1553-572X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1767-4

Electronic_ISBN

1553-572X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IECON.2008.4758291

Filename

4758291