Electric-field energy harvesting from lighting elements for battery-less internet of things

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) is envisioned to bring the Internet connection to every object/service/process to seamlessly and efficiently observe, manage, and control pervasive systems. This necessitates the employment of wireless standalone devices in excessive numbers. However, periodic maintenance of thousands, maybe millions of batteries will add massive workload and replenishment costs to the operation. In order to alleviate this problem, we introduce a totally new energy harvesting paradigm based on utilizing ambient electric-field in the vicinity of lighting elements. A low voltage prototype is designed, constituted, and evaluated on a generic 4 x 18W-T8 ceiling-type fluorescent troffer. Empirical results disclose the availability of 1.5 J of energy that can be gathered in 30 min when a copper plate, i.e., the harvester, covered by a reflective dielectric is employed. The design issues to achieve the best performance attainable are addressed in both theoretical and experimental manners. The physical model of the proposed technique and an applicable circuit diagram for its execution are provided. We also point out possible application areas, and protocol stack requirements specific to our proposal to conveniently enable self-configuring IoT services, which are free from battery constraints.