Wireless sensor nodes for environmental monitoring in Internet of Things

Wireless networking sensor nodes for environment monitoring in Internet of Things (IOT) are reported in this work. The IOT network includes individual self-sustaining nodes wirelessly transmitting sensor signals to hubs that can be shared in the Internet Cloud. Each node consists of an optimized energy harvesting module, a System-on-Chip (SoC) integrated low-power Bluetooth Smart transceiver, and multi-functional sensor array to monitor environmental parameters. The energy harvesting module is able to adapt and collect energy from solar power, ambient radio waves, and direct wireless power transmission (WPT). The sensor arrays include pH sensor, temperature sensor, photo-detector, electromagnetic wave detector and acoustic noise detector. The SoC processes data and transmits compressed information about environmental conditions to the hub. This platform demonstrated the concepts of combining power harvesting techniques and low-power sensors for the IoT applications.