Towards Battery-Free Body Sensor Networks

Sougata Sen, Sunghoon Ivan Lee, Robert Jackson, Rui Wang, Nabil Alshurafa, Josiah Hester, Jeremy Gummeson

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Wearable devices traditionally rely on batteries as the primary source of energy for operation. Batteries are often rigid, bulky, heavy, and require constant recharging, consequently hampering the development of novel device applications. This paper describes a new vision for Body Sensor Networks (BSNs); an interconnection of tiny, flexible, battery-free, cooperative, and programmable wearables via the concept of Intra-Body Power Transfer and Communication (IBPTC), which uses the human body as a medium to exchange energy and data. These wearable devices can receive energy from central, on-body power sources, and coordinate to support whole-system operation and programmer-defined sensing tasks. Of course, this vision entails significant challenges; notably in developing robust hardware and software for energy and information exchange across the body channel, enabling power failure resiliency and timely coordinated task execution. In this paper, we describe a roadmap of systems and tools towards the ultimate vision of battery-free BSNs that has the potential to transform current architectures and designs of BSNs, enabling innovative applications that would otherwise be impossible with on-device batteries.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationENSsys 2020 - Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Energy Harvesting and Energy-Neutral Sensing Systems
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages79-81
Number of pages3
ISBN (Electronic)9781450381291
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 16 2020
Event8th International Workshop on Energy Harvesting and Energy-Neutral Sensing Systems, ENSsys 2020, co-located with ACM SenSys 2020 - Virtual, Online, Japan
Duration: Nov 16 2020 → …

Publication series

NameENSsys 2020 - Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Energy Harvesting and Energy-Neutral Sensing Systems

Conference

Conference8th International Workshop on Energy Harvesting and Energy-Neutral Sensing Systems, ENSsys 2020, co-located with ACM SenSys 2020
Country/TerritoryJapan
CityVirtual, Online
Period11/16/20 → …

Funding

This work was partly supported by the University of Massachusetts Amherst Armstrong Fund for Science, NSF under award numbers CNS1915847, CNS-1850496, CNS-2032408, NIH/NIDDK under award number K25DK113242 (NIDDK), and NIH/NIBIB under award number EB030305-01. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Science Applications
  • Energy Engineering and Power Technology
  • Fuel Technology

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