ePave: A Self-Powered Wireless Sensor for Smart and Autonomous Pavement

• Main Authors: Jian Xiao, Xiang Zou, Wenyao Xu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2017-09-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: piezoelectric effect; pavement energy harvesting; adaptive working; wireless sensor
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/17/10/2207

“Smart Pavement” is an emerging infrastructure for various on-road applications in transportation and road engineering. However, existing road monitoring solutions demand a certain periodic maintenance effort due to battery life limits in the sensor systems. To this end, we present an end-to-end self-powered wireless sensor—ePave—to facilitate smart and autonomous pavements. The ePave system includes a self-power module, an ultra-low-power sensor system, a wireless transmission module and a built-in power management module. First, we performed an empirical study to characterize the piezoelectric module in order to optimize energy-harvesting efficiency. Second, we developed an integrated sensor system with the optimized energy harvester. An adaptive power knob is designated to adjust the power consumption according to energy budgeting. Finally, we intensively evaluated the ePave system in real-world applications to examine the system’s performance and explore the trade-off.