Multi-modal energy harvester for livestock IoT devices

Abstract

Energy harvesting has caught interest in a wide range of applications. Decreasing power consumption and increasing number of IoT systems show a promising future for energy harvesting as a power source. One of these applications is in precision livestock farming, where for example kinetic energy can be harvested from animal locomotion. Harvested energy output from animal locomotion has low frequency and is stochastic, which is challenging to control. In this thesis work, a miniature IoT system for utilizing energy harvesting is built. The goal is to measure the temperature of cattle and send it forward wirelessly. The system is powered up with a kinetic energy harvester harvesting energy from cattle locomotion and a solar energy harvester harvesting energy from the Sun. Suitable electronics for the system are chosen, and an electromagnetic kinetic energy harvester is designed experimentally in a laboratory environment specifically for this application. The system is built, and several experiments are made with it with cattle. Separate experiments are done with kinetic and solar energy. Both systems were able to achieve the goal of measuring and transmitting the data forward. Solar energy provides more power, and consequently more frequent data updates, but the kinetic energy harvester also shows promising results for supplementing purely energy harvesting powered systems.