Ghada Bouattour

Bio: Ghada Bouattour is an academic researcher from Chemnitz University of Technology. The author has contributed to research in topics: Electromagnetic coil & Energy harvesting. The author has an hindex of 6, co-authored 22 publications receiving 107 citations. Previous affiliations of Ghada Bouattour include University of Sfax.

Energy-Aware System Design for Autonomous Wireless Sensor Nodes: A Comprehensive Review.

Abstract: Nowadays, wireless sensor networks are becoming increasingly important in several sectors including industry, transportation, environment and medicine. This trend is reinforced by the spread of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in almost all sectors. Autonomous energy supply is thereby an essential aspect as it decides the flexible positioning and easy maintenance, which are decisive for the acceptance of this technology, its wide use and sustainability. Significant improvements made in the last years have shown interesting possibilities for realizing energy-aware wireless sensor nodes (WSNs) by designing manifold and highly efficient energy converters and reducing energy consumption of hardware, software and communication protocols. Using only a few of these techniques or focusing on only one aspect is not sufficient to realize practicable and market relevant solutions. This paper therefore provides a comprehensive review on system design for battery-free and energy-aware WSN, making use of ambient energy or wireless energy transmission. It addresses energy supply strategies and gives a deep insight in energy management methods as well as possibilities for energy saving on node and network level. The aim therefore is to provide deep insight into system design and increase awareness of suitable techniques for realizing battery-free and energy-aware wireless sensor nodes.

Next Generation Wireless Energy Aware Sensors for Internet of Things: A Review

Abstract: In the internet of things context, the use of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) becomes extensive and the aspect of energy supply becomes more and more essential. Flexible positioning and easy maintenance become a key aspect for the acceptance of this technology. In this paper, we focus on novel trends for supplying WSN from ambient energy and by wireless energy transmission. The improvements made in the last years have shown that it is possible to significantly improve energy efficiency by suitable converters and to reduce energy consumption of sensor nodes, so that the use of these emerging technologies becomes increasingly realistic and practicable. We report about possibilities for improving energy income by combination of converters within hybrid solutions. Different techniques for enhancing efficiency of energy converters and reducing energy consumption on node and network level are described.

Multiplexed Supply of a MISO Wireless Power Transfer System for Battery-Free Wireless Sensors

Abstract: Multi-input single output wireless power transmission (MISO-WPT) systems have decisive advantages concerning flexible receiver position in comparison to single coil systems. However, the supply of the primary side brings a large uncertainty in case of variable positions of the secondary side. In this paper, a compact multiplexed primary side electronic circuit is proposed, which includes only one signal generator, a passive peak detector, a communication module, and a compensation capacitor. The novel approach has been studied and evaluated for a MISO-WPT system having a 16 coils on primary side and one coil on secondary side having the double diameter. Results show that a standard microcontroller, in this case an STM32, is sufficient for the control of the whole system, so that the costs and the energy consumption are significantly reduced. An activation strategy has been proposed, which allows to determine the optimal transmitting coil for each position of the receiving coil and to switch it on. The time-to-start-charging at different positions of the receiving coil and different number of neighbors has been determined. It remains in all cases under 2.5 s.

Energy management based on fractional open circuit and P-SSHI techniques for piezoelectric energy harvesting

Abstract: Abstract Self-powered energy management circuits make energy harvesting converters more efficient and more reliable. This paper presents an improvement of a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) technique applied on a Parallel Synchronized Switch Harvesting on Inductor (P-SSHI) technique for piezoelectric vibration converters. The aims are to detect the unstable vibrational state, optimize the output voltage and maximize the output power of the piezoelectric transducer. First, the P-SSHI technique is implemented without an MPPT technique. Then, an MPPT technique based on Fractional Open Circuit (FOC) voltage method is implemented. An improvement of the FOC method is proposed to enhance the capability of the Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting (PEH) system. The comparison between different simulation results shows that by using the same input parameters, the maximum efficiency for the PEH system based on the P-SSHI technique implemented without MPPT is 8.82 % whereas the maximum efficiency of the system based on the (FOC) voltage MPPT method is 13.77 %. A significant improvement of the PEH system is obtained by using the modified (FOC) method, where the efficiency reached 24.59 %.

Prospects of Wireless Energy-Aware Sensors for Smart Factories in the Industry 4.0 Era

Abstract: Advanced sensors are becoming essential for modern factories, as they contribute by gathering comprehensive data about machines, processes, and human-machine interaction. They play an important role in improving manufacturing performance, in-factory logistics, predictive maintenance, supply chains, and digitalization in general. Wireless sensors and wireless sensor networks (WSNs) provide, in this context, significant advantages as they are flexible and easily deployable. They have reduced installation and maintenance costs and contributed by reducing cables and preinstalled infrastructure, leading to improved reliability. WSNs can be retrofitted in machines to provide direct information from inside the processes. Recent developments have revealed exciting possibilities to enhance energy harvesting (EH) and wireless energy transmission, enabling a reliable use of wireless sensors in smart factories. This review provides an overview of the potential of energy aware WSNs for industrial applications and shows relevant techniques for realizing a sustainable energy supply based on energy harvesting and energy transfer. The focus is on high-performance converter solutions and improvement of frequency, bandwidth, hybridization of the converters, and the newest trends towards flexible converters. We report on possibilities to reduce the energy consumption in wireless communication on the node level and on the network level, enabling boosting network efficiency and operability. Based on the existing technologies, energy aware WSNs can nowadays be realized for many applications in smart factories. It can be expected that they will play a great role in the future as an enabler for digitalization in this decisive economic sector.

Energy Harvesting Techniques for Internet of Things (IoT)

Abstract: The rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) has accelerated strong interests in the development of low-power wireless sensors. Today, wireless sensors are integrated within IoT systems to gather information in a reliable and practical manner to monitor processes and control activities in areas such as transportation, energy, civil infrastructure, smart buildings, environment monitoring, healthcare, defense, manufacturing, and production. The long-term and self-sustainable operation of these IoT devices must be considered early on when they are designed and implemented. Traditionally, wireless sensors have often been powered by batteries, which, despite allowing low overall system costs, can negatively impact the lifespan and the performance of the entire network they are used in. Energy Harvesting (EH) technology is a promising environment-friendly solution that extends the lifetime of these sensors, and, in some cases completely replaces the use of battery power. In addition, energy harvesting offers economic and practical advantages through the optimal use of energy, and the provisioning of lower network maintenance costs. We review recent advances in energy harvesting techniques for IoT. We demonstrate two energy harvesting techniques using case studies. Finally, we discuss some future research challenges that must be addressed to enable the large-scale deployment of energy harvesting solutions for IoT environments.

Energy-Aware System Design for Autonomous Wireless Sensor Nodes: A Comprehensive Review.

Abstract: Nowadays, wireless sensor networks are becoming increasingly important in several sectors including industry, transportation, environment and medicine. This trend is reinforced by the spread of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in almost all sectors. Autonomous energy supply is thereby an essential aspect as it decides the flexible positioning and easy maintenance, which are decisive for the acceptance of this technology, its wide use and sustainability. Significant improvements made in the last years have shown interesting possibilities for realizing energy-aware wireless sensor nodes (WSNs) by designing manifold and highly efficient energy converters and reducing energy consumption of hardware, software and communication protocols. Using only a few of these techniques or focusing on only one aspect is not sufficient to realize practicable and market relevant solutions. This paper therefore provides a comprehensive review on system design for battery-free and energy-aware WSN, making use of ambient energy or wireless energy transmission. It addresses energy supply strategies and gives a deep insight in energy management methods as well as possibilities for energy saving on node and network level. The aim therefore is to provide deep insight into system design and increase awareness of suitable techniques for realizing battery-free and energy-aware wireless sensor nodes.

A Self-Powered Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Circuit With an Optimal Flipping Time SSHI and Maximum Power Point Tracking

Abstract: This brief presents an ultra low power IC design for piezoelectric (PE) energy harvesting, which integrates a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) circuit and a synchronized switch harvesting on inductor (SSHI) circuit. The proposed circuit also has three different operation modes to extend the range of the harvestable power level generated by a PE transducer. The circuit is designed in CMOS and fabricated in BiCMOS 0.25 $\mu \text{m}$ technology with the die size of 2 mm2. The measurement results indicate the circuit can harvest energy with the input power ranging from 10 to 34 $\mu \text{W}$ during MPPT. It achieves peak efficiency of 77% under a PE cantilever voltage of 3.5 V and the battery voltage of 4.2 V.