Project: HelioMote

Name: HelioMote

TItle: Solar Energy Harvesting based Wireless Sensing Platform

Description:

Sensor networks differ from traditional wireless networks in several respects. Unlike handheld wireless devices which can be recharged at reasonable frequent intervals, sensor nodes must operate autonomously for much longer durations. Energy supply thus remains an open challenge in sensor networks because unfettered deployment rules out traditional wall socket supplies and batteries with acceptable form factor and cost constraints do not yield the lifetimes desired by most applications.

One method to improve the battery lifetime of such systems is to supplement the battery supply with environmental energy. Several technologies exist to extract energy from the environment such as solar, thermal, kinetic energy, and vibration energy. However, we lack system level methods to efficiently exploit these resources for optimal performance. Sensor networks are expected to be deployed for several mission critical tasks and operate unattended for extended durations. The autonomous nature of operation makes it imperative that the system learn its own energy environment and adapt its power consumption accordingly. In distributed systems, not only does the energy source vary in time, but also the energy available at different locations, and thus at different nodes of the sensor network differs. In this situation, the performance can be improved by scheduling tasks according to the spatio-temporal characteristics of energy availability. The problem then, is to find scheduling mechanisms that can adapt the performance to the available energy profile.

Status: Inactive Project

Main Research Area: Power-aware Computing and Communications

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