Browsing by Subject "Wireless sensor network"
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Item Design of vibrational and solar energy harvesting systems for powering wireless sensor networks in bridge structural health monitoring applications(2014-12) Adams, Jacob Allan; Crawford, Richard H.Structural health monitoring systems provide a promising route to real-time data for analyzing the current state of large structures. In the wake of two high-profile bridge collapses due to an aging highway infrastructure, the interest in implementing such systems into fracture-critical and structurally deficient bridges is greater now than at any point in history. Traditionally, these technologies have not been cost-effective as bridges lack existing wiring architecture and the addition of this is cost prohibitive. Modern wireless sensor networks (WSN) now present a viable alternative to traditional networking; however, these systems must incorporate localized power sources capable of decade-long operation with minimal maintenance. To this end, this thesis explores the development of two energy harvesting systems capable of long-term bridge deployment with minimal maintenance. First, an electromagnetic, linear, vibrational energy harvester is explored that utilizes the excitations from passing traffic to induce motion in a translating permanent magnet mass. This motion is then converted to electrical energy using Faraday’s law of induction. This thesis presents a review of vibrational energy harvesting literature before detailing the process of designing, simulating, prototyping, and testing a selected design. Included is an analysis of the effects of frequency, excitation amplitude, load, and damping on the power production potential of the harvester. Second, a solar energy harvester using photovoltaic (PV) panels is explored for powering the critical gateway component of the WSN responsible for data aggregation. As solar energy harvesting is a more mature technology, this thesis focuses on the methodologies for properly sizing a solar harvesting system and experimentally validating the selected design. Fabrication of the prototype system was completed and field testing was performed in Austin, TX. The results validate the selected system’s ability to power the necessary 14 W DC load with a 0° panel azimuth angle (facing direct south) and 45° tilt.Item MESH : a maximum power point tracker for a wireless sensor network(2010-12) Kobdish, Stephen Matthew; Aziz, Adnan; Aziz, AdnanEnergy harvesting is becoming increasingly important in low-power applications where energy from the environment is used to power the system alone, or to supplement a battery. For example, pulse oximeter sensors inside helmets of road racing cyclists are powered by the sun. These sensors have become smaller and more practical without the limitation of a finite energy supply. Harvested energy from an energy transducer (solar, piezoelectric, etc.) must be maximized to ensure these devices can survive periods where environmental energy is scarce. The conversion process from the transducer to usable power for the device is not perfectly efficient. Specifically, the output voltage of a solar cell is a function of the light intensity, and by extension the load it powers. A small perturbation of the light source quickly diminishes the available power. The wasted power reduces the energy available for the application, and can be improved using an approach called maximum power point tracking (MPPT). This technique maximizes harvesting efficiency by dynamically impedance matching the transducer to its load. This report introduces the Maximum Efficient Solar Harvester (MESH), an MPPT algorithm tuned for a specific Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) application. MESH specifically controls the operation of the DC-DC converter in a solar power management unit (PMU). The control is done by monitoring the available light and feeding that information to choose the optimal operating point DC-DC converter. This operating point has a direct dependency on the overall efficiency of the system. For MESH to be practical, the cost and power overhead of adding this functionality must be assessed. Empirical results indicate that MESH improves the maximum efficiency of the popular Texas Instruments (TI) RF2500-SEH WSN platform by an average of 20%, which far exceeds the power overhead it incurs. The cost is also found to be minimal, as WSN platforms already include a large portion of the hardware required to implement MESH. The report was done in collaboration with Shahil Rais. It covers the hardware components and the bench automation environment; Rais's companion report focuses on software implementation and MESH architecture definition.Item MESH : a power management system for a wireless sensor network(2010-12) Rais, Shahil Bin; Aziz, Adnan,Energy harvesting is becoming increasingly important in low-power applications where energy from the environment is used to power the system alone, or to supplement a battery. For example, pulse oximeter sensors inside helmets of road racing cyclists are powered by the sun. These sensors have become smaller and more practical without the limitation of a finite energy supply. Harvested energy from an energy transducer (solar, piezoelectric, etc.) must be maximized to ensure these devices can survive periods where environmental energy is scarce. The conversion process from the transducer to usable power for the device is not perfectly efficient. Specifically, the output voltage of a solar cell is a function of the light intensity, and by extension the load it powers. A small perturbation of the light source quickly diminishes the available power. The wasted power reduces the energy available for the application, and can be improved using an approach called maximum power point tracking (MPPT). This technique maximizes harvesting efficiency by dynamically impedance matching the transducer to its load. This report introduces the Maximum Efficient Solar Harvester (MESH), an MPPT algorithm tuned for a specific Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) application. MESH specifically controls the operation of the DC-DC converter in a solar power management unit (PMU). The control is done by monitoring the available light and feeding that information to choose the optimal operating point DC-DC converter. This operating point has a direct dependency on the overall efficiency of the system. For MESH to be practical, the cost and power overhead of adding this functionality must be assessed. Empirical results indicate that MESH improves the maximum efficiency of the popular Texas Instruments (TI) RF2500-SEH WSN platform by an average of 20%, which far exceeds the power overhead it incurs. The cost is also found to be minimal, as WSN platforms already include a large portion of the hardware required to implement MESH. The report was done in collaboration with Stephen Kobdish. It covers the software implementation and MESH architecture definition; Kobdish's companion report focuses on hardware components and the bench automation environment.Item Power reduction of wireless sensors networks Power reduction of wireless sensors networks(2011-12) Morales, Isaac James; Shakkottai, Sanjay; Bard, WilliamThis Master’s report presents the research leading to the development of a low power Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and a discussion of an implementation of the WSN. This report assesses the power reduction techniques further by reviewing their influences upon functionality, throughput, latency, and data reliability. The software techniques were implemented on evaluation boards and actual performance gains were observed. Furthermore, the report provides insight into the selection of the processor, wireless protocol, and WSN architecture by comparing other options in regards to the power reduction, functionality, and data reliability. The architecture of the WSN consists of four sensor nodes, and a backbone router connected to a PC. The sensor nodes contain an application processor and a radio processor. The application processor is a Texas Instruments MSP430F5438 which is located on an MSP-EXP430F5438 evaluation board. The radio processor is a NIVIS Versa Node 210 that is located on a VS210 development board. The wireless protocol investigated is the ISA100.11a.Item Wind energy harvesting for bridge health monitoring(2011-05) McEvoy, Travis Kyle; Wood, Kristin L.The work discussed in this thesis provides a review of pertinent literature, a design methodology, analytical model, concept generation and development, and conclusions about energy harvesting to provide long-term power for bridge health monitoring. The methodology gives structure for acquiring information and parameters to create effective energy harvesters. The methodology is used to create a wind energy harvester to provide long-term power to a wireless communication network. An analytical model is developed so the system can be scaled for different aspects of the network. A proof of concept is constructed to test the methodology's effectiveness, and validate the feasibility and analytical model.