ZeroIoT: Enabling the Battery-free Internet of Things
- Reference number
- CHI19-0003
- Project leader
- Voigt, Thiemo
- Start and end dates
- 210101-261231
- Amount granted
- 31 977 212 SEK
- Administrative organization
- Uppsala University
- Research area
- Information, Communication and Systems Technology
Summary
The IoT is revolutionizing domains such as healthcare, aerospace, critical infrastructure monitoring, and process control. Currently, however, most IoT devices are battery-powered and replacing batteries is labor-intensive and hence costly. The most power-consuming task of typical IoT devices is communication; in particular, the generation of the radio waves. Backscatter solves this issue by outsourcing the generation of radio waves to external devices, reducing the power consumption for radio transmissions by orders of magnitude. Backscatter alone, even if combined with ambient energy harvesting, is not sufficient. While these technologies have made significant progress, merely swapping batteries with a harvesting unit rarely works. As energy harvesting provides energy opportunistically, devices may run out of energy, shut down and lose their state. Intermittent computing solves this issue through a combination of techniques that allow applications to make progress despite energy scarcity. ZeroIoT enables the battery-free IoT by advancing and combining backscatter and energy-driven intermittent computing. ZeroIoT targets two application domains. In healthcare, implanted devices will improve the diagnosis of Sarcopenia and Osteopenia and the monitoring of prosthetic implants. In civil engineering, we will provide novel means to perform remote displacement monitoring for embankment dams. To ensure industrial impact ZeroIoT has a carefully selected reference group.
Popular science description
The Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionizing domains of societal and industrial importance such as healthcare, aerospace, critical infrastructure monitoring, and process control. Currently, however, most IoT devices are battery-powered and replacing batteries is labor-intensive and hence costly. Furthermore, batteries contain a number of heavy metals and toxic chemicals. The most power-consuming task of typical IoT devices is communication; in particular, the generation of the radio waves. As RFID, backscatter avoids the energy expensive tasks of generating radio waves. Instead, specifically generated radios waves are backscattered by modulating an existing signal, for example, by reflecting the signal to send a ``1", or absorbing the existing signal and thereby sending a ``0". This reduces the power consumption for radio transmissions by orders of magnitude. Backscatter alone, even if combined with ambient energy harvesting, is not sufficient. While these technologies have made significant progress, merely replacing batteries with a harvesting unit rarely works. As energy harvesting provides energy opportunistically rather than constantly, devices may run out of energy, shut down and lose their state. Intermittent computing solves this issue through a combination of techniques that allow applications to make progress despite energy scarcity. ZeroIoT enables the battery-free IoT by advancing and combining backscatter and energy-driven intermittent computing. ZeroIoT targets two application domains. In healthcare, implanted devices will improve the diagnosis of Sarcopenia, the reduction in muscle mass and function, and Osteopenia, the erosion of bone minerals. Furthermore, we will improve the monitoring of prosthetic implants to discover when they have become dislodged. These innovations will reduce the cost for handling these diseases. In civil engineering, we will provide novel means to perform remote displacement monitoring for embankment dams. To ensure industrial impact, ZeroIoT has a carefully selected reference group that includes major Swedish companies such as Ericsson, Sandvik and Vattenfall.