Efficient charging for batteryless solutions in energy harvesting

Abstract

Energy Harvesting Systems seek to remove the batteries from electronic devices and replace them with devices that generate directly from the environment around them. This paper presents an intelligent algorithm to manage the charging and discharging of a supercapacitor for use in sensor nodes which has considerable efficiency advantages. The ultralow power microcontrollers used make intelligent decisions whether to sleep or wake according to previously received and stored energy. Using an adaptive strategy of this kind the amount of work can be precisely matched to the resources available to achieve maximum utilization allowing the satisfactory completion of a stated set of tasks.