Energy harvesting wireless sensor nodes in an AAL environment

Abstract

As society ages, having the option for persons to stay in their own home as long as possible becomes more important. This can be made possible through a variety of Active and Assisted Living (AAL) technologies that can assist with living a more independent life and ensure the safety of the person using it. Using cable-bound systems for this is neither practical nor economical as it requires making permanent changes to a home during installation. Wireless systems provide more flexibility, but still typically rely either on an external power supply or on batteries which have to be changed frequently. The company EnOcean provides a wireless standard and hardware for creating energy harvesting wireless sensor networks that rely on ambient light and other sources of energy that can be harvested from the environment, making it possible to create wireless nodes that are easy to install in a wide variety of locations without the need for additional wiring and maintenance. In this paper, the aim is to develop modules that provide an array of sensing options such as water flow detection, presence detection and non-invasive current detection while trying to keep the power consumption as low as possible, laying the groundwork for further projects that are based on wireless energy harvesting sensor nodes.