Advisor(s)

Heath LeBlanc, PhD
Ohio Northern University
Electrical and Computer Engineering
h-leblanc@onu.edu

Ahmed Ammar, PhD
Ohio Northern University
Electrical and Computer Engineering
a-ammar@onu.edu

Location

ONU McIntosh Center; Dean's Heritage Room

Start Date

22-4-2022 1:00 PM

End Date

April 2022

Abstract

This paper presents an Arduino-based platform for emulating energy harvesting in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) as a form of hardware-in-the-loop simulation. The platform makes use of a battery monitoring circuit and code implemented on the Arduino as an alternative to using significantly more expensive fully equipped energy harvesting nodes. Using embedded code to emulate the energy harvesting process allows for various energy harvesting models and processes to be tested using the same platform. The main contributions of this paper are the experimental data and analyses demonstrating the energy use characterization of the Arduino-based platform in a three-node relay network using a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) communication schedule with two time slots. The results show that the sensor node consumes about 5.9J of energy on average over each 20 second phase of the TDMA schedule (two time slots). In comparison, the transmission energy is found to be less than 2mJ, which means the transmission energy is negligible compared to the overall energy consumption of the node. The experimental results suggest that a good time slot duration for these sensor nodes should be in the range of 380-500ms to give enough time for the platform to wake-up, transmit/receive a message, and perform necessary calculations before going back to sleep. These results provide the foundation for future work involving energy harvesting emulation.

Keywords: Wireless Sensor Nodes (WSNs); Battery Monitoring Circuit; Energy Harvesting; Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing

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Apr 22nd, 1:00 PM Apr 22nd, 2:00 PM

A Low-Cost, Arduino-Based Platform for Emulating Energy Harvesting in Wireless Sensor Networks

ONU McIntosh Center; Dean's Heritage Room

This paper presents an Arduino-based platform for emulating energy harvesting in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) as a form of hardware-in-the-loop simulation. The platform makes use of a battery monitoring circuit and code implemented on the Arduino as an alternative to using significantly more expensive fully equipped energy harvesting nodes. Using embedded code to emulate the energy harvesting process allows for various energy harvesting models and processes to be tested using the same platform. The main contributions of this paper are the experimental data and analyses demonstrating the energy use characterization of the Arduino-based platform in a three-node relay network using a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) communication schedule with two time slots. The results show that the sensor node consumes about 5.9J of energy on average over each 20 second phase of the TDMA schedule (two time slots). In comparison, the transmission energy is found to be less than 2mJ, which means the transmission energy is negligible compared to the overall energy consumption of the node. The experimental results suggest that a good time slot duration for these sensor nodes should be in the range of 380-500ms to give enough time for the platform to wake-up, transmit/receive a message, and perform necessary calculations before going back to sleep. These results provide the foundation for future work involving energy harvesting emulation.

Keywords: Wireless Sensor Nodes (WSNs); Battery Monitoring Circuit; Energy Harvesting; Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing