ViPSN 2.0: A Reconfigurable Battery-free IoT Platform for Vibration Energy Harvesting

TL;DR

ViPSN 2.0 is a versatile, reconfigurable battery-free IoT platform that efficiently harvests vibration energy from various sources, supporting multiple sensing and communication tasks with adaptive power management in energy-constrained environments.

Contribution

This work introduces a modular, reconfigurable IoT platform supporting multiple vibration energy harvesters and adaptive power management, enabling diverse applications in battery-free IoT systems.

Findings

Successfully supports various vibration energy harvesters.

Demonstrates reliable operation in real-world applications.

Effectively manages fluctuating energy for diverse sensing tasks.

Abstract

Vibration energy harvesting is a promising solution for powering battery-free IoT systems; however, the instability of ambient vibrations presents significant challenges, such as limited harvested energy, intermittent power supply, and poor adaptability to various applications. To address these challenges, this paper proposes ViPSN2.0, a modular and reconfigurable IoT platform that supports multiple vibration energy harvesters (piezoelectric, electromagnetic, and triboelectric) and accommodates sensing tasks with varying application requirements through standardized hot-swappable interfaces. ViPSN~2.0 incorporates an energy-indication power management framework tailored to various application demands, including light-duty discrete sampling, heavy-duty high-power sensing, and complex-duty streaming tasks, thereby effectively managing fluctuating energy availability. The platform's versatility and robustness are validated through three representative applications: ViPSN-Beacon, enabling ultra-low-power wireless beacon transmission from a single transient fingertip press; ViPSN-LoRa, supporting high-power, long-range wireless communication powered by wave vibrations in actual marine environments; and ViPSN-Cam, enabling intermittent image capture and wireless transfer. Experimental results demonstrate that ViPSN~2.0 can reliably meet a wide range of requirements in practical battery-free IoT deployments under energy-constrained conditions.