A Capstone Project on the Development of an Environmental Monitoring Wireless Sensor Network Powered by Harvested RF Energy
- Conference
- Location
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New Orleans, Louisiana
- Publication Date
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June 26, 2016
- Start Date
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June 26, 2016
- End Date
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June 29, 2016
- ISBN
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978-0-692-68565-5
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Electrical and Computer
- Page Count
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24
- DOI
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10.18260/p.26261
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/26261
- Download Count
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1495
Paper Authors
Sasan Haghani University of the District of Columbia
Sasan Haghani, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of the District of Columbia. His research interests include the application of wireless sensor networks in biomedical and environmental domains and performance analysis of communication systems over fading channels.
Wagdy H. Mahmoud University of the District of Columbia
Wagdy H. Mahmoud is an Associate Professor of electrical engineering at the Electrical Engineering Department at UDC. Mahmoud is actively involved in research in the areas of reconfigurable logic, hardware/software co-design of a system on a chip using reconfigurable logic, application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), digital logic design, image compressions, digital signal processing, computer architecture, embedded systems, system on a chip, and renewable energy.
Esther T. Ososanya University of the District of Columbia
Dr. Esther T. Ososanya is a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of the District of Columbia, and the current BSEE program director. During her career, Dr. Ososanya has worked for private industry as a circuit development engineer and as a software engineer, in addition to her academic activities. She received her education in the United Kingdom, where she achieved her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Bradford in 1985, and was a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham. She was a Visiting Professor at Michigan Technological University for five years, and an Associate professor at Tennessee Technological University for 7 years prior to arriving at the University of the District of Columbia in the Fall of 2001. Dr. Ososanya's research interests include new applications for VLSI ASIC design, Microcomputer Architecture, Microcontrollers, Nanotechnology, and Renewable Energy Systems. In recent years, she has worked with colleagues to apply these technologies to Biomass research, Solar Cells efficiency capture research, and Renewable Energy Curriculum developments. Dr. Ososanya teaches a myriad of Electrical Engineering courses and labs, including Electric Circuits, Digital Systems courses, VLSI, VHDL, Solar Energy (PV) and Solar Thermal systems, Mechatronics, and Electrical Engineering Senior Project design courses.
Miguel E. Uzcategui The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc
Miguel Uzcategui is a technology analyst at The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc specializing in cloud engineering. He received his BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of the District of Columbia in May 2014 and his Master’s in Telecommunications at the University of Maryland in December 2015. His professional interests include computer networks and designing innovative IaaS to provide cloud solutions to emerging problems.
Ashenafi Lambebo University of the District of Columbia
Ashenafi Lambebo is a capacity management engineer at Intelsat, a leading satellite service provider. He received his BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of the District of Columbia in Fall 2014. His research interest includes wireless sensor network, energy harvesting and Internet of Things (IoT).
Abstract
In recent years, there has been an upsurge of research interest in radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting/scavenging techniques, which is the capability of converting the received RF signals into electricity. Electromagnetic energy harvesting holds a promising future for energizing low power electronic devices in wireless communication circuits.
In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a capstone project on an environmental monitoring wireless sensor network, where the nodes are solely powered by harvested RF energy, allowing the use of such monitoring systems in areas where replacement of batteries are costly or not feasible.
The designed system includes several sensor nodes and a base station. The sensor nodes comprise of a P2110 power harvester, an MSP430 micro-controller, pressure and temperature sensors and a transmitter. The power harvester was used to power the micro-controller through RF energy. The micro-controller was attached to pressure and temperature sensors for environmental monitoring and also to a transmitter. The sensor nodes are solely powered by harvested RF energy. The data is transmitted to a base station, which forwards it to a monitoring station, where data is stored in a MySQL database. The system was successfully developed and tested, providing reliable and accurate data.
The paper will provide details of design specifications, technical constraints, project implementation, lessons learned and the valuable experience it provided to the students. The project will be incorporated as a design case in a new wireless sensors networks course that will be offered in the future.
Haghani, S., & Mahmoud, W. H., & Ososanya, E. T., & Uzcategui, M. E., & Lambebo, A. (2016, June), A Capstone Project on the Development of an Environmental Monitoring Wireless Sensor Network Powered by Harvested RF Energy Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/p.26261
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