Post by account_disabled on Feb 28, 2024 1:54:46 GMT -5
UW researchers harness the power of nature with these tiny solar- powered sensors floating on the wind like dandelion seeds.
Carried on the wind, the common dandelion has evolved an ingenious structure to ensure its seeds spread far and wide. Now, a team of researchers at the University of Washington has applied this same ingenuity to wireless sensors that could be used to monitor climate change .
Solar-powered sensors could make it easier, faster and monitor changes in environmental conditions
These miniature solar-powered sensors, which weigh times more than a -milligram dandelion seed, can travel up to meters in a moderate breeze when launched by a drone. The advance could make it easier, faster and cheaper to deploy sensors that can monitor changes in environmental conditions , such as temperature, humidity, air pressure and light.
“We showed that off-the-shelf components can be used to create tiny things. Our prototype suggests you could use a drone to release thousands of these devices in a single drop. "They will all be carried by the wind a little differently, and you can basically create a network of , devices with this single drop," explains lead author Shyam Gollakota, a UW professor in the Paul G School of Compu C Level Executive List ter Science and Engineering. .Allen. “This is surprising and transformative for the field of sensor deployment, because right now it could take months to manually deploy so many sensors.”
Solar Powered Sensors
Optimal design for wind dispersion
The engineers' first step was to design the optimal shape for wind dispersion. After testing prototypes, the team found that a spoked ring shape worked best.
'The way dandelion seed structures work is that they have a central point and these little bristles that stick out to slow their fall. We took a D projection of that to create the base design for our structures,' says lead author Vikram Iyer, a UW assistant professor in the Allen School. “As we added weight, our bristles began to bend inward. We added a ring structure to make it more rigid and take up more area to help reduce speed.'
A device as light as possible
The next step was to make the device as light as possible. To achieve this, the researchers used solar panels instead of a heavy battery to power the electronics. The advantage of using solar power means that the sensor will not suddenly run out of battery, however, the disadvantage is that without a battery, the system cannot store a charge. To solve this problem, the team incorporated a capacitor, allowing the sensor to store some charge overnight and continue working once the sun goes down.
"So we have this little circuit that will measure how much energy we have stored and once the sun comes up and more energy comes in , it will trigger the rest of the system to turn on because it detects that it is above a certain threshold," Iyer continues.
Another disadvantage of this system is that the electronics will be scattered in nature. Therefore, researchers are currently studying how to make these devices more biodegradable .
“This is just the first step, which is why it's so exciting,” Iyer says. There are many other directions we can take now, such as developing larger scale implementations, creating devices that can change shape as they fall, or even adding more mobility so that devices can move once they are on the ground to get closer to a area that interests us.
Solar Powered Sensors
Share data at a distance of up to meters.
Once deployed, the solar-powered sensors can contain at least four sensors and can share sensor data up to meters away. To measure how far the devices would travel in the wind, the researchers dropped them from different heights, either by hand or with a drone on campus. One trick to extending the devices from a single drop point, the researchers said, is to vary their shapes slightly so that the breeze carries them differently.
Carried on the wind, the common dandelion has evolved an ingenious structure to ensure its seeds spread far and wide. Now, a team of researchers at the University of Washington has applied this same ingenuity to wireless sensors that could be used to monitor climate change .
Solar-powered sensors could make it easier, faster and monitor changes in environmental conditions
These miniature solar-powered sensors, which weigh times more than a -milligram dandelion seed, can travel up to meters in a moderate breeze when launched by a drone. The advance could make it easier, faster and cheaper to deploy sensors that can monitor changes in environmental conditions , such as temperature, humidity, air pressure and light.
“We showed that off-the-shelf components can be used to create tiny things. Our prototype suggests you could use a drone to release thousands of these devices in a single drop. "They will all be carried by the wind a little differently, and you can basically create a network of , devices with this single drop," explains lead author Shyam Gollakota, a UW professor in the Paul G School of Compu C Level Executive List ter Science and Engineering. .Allen. “This is surprising and transformative for the field of sensor deployment, because right now it could take months to manually deploy so many sensors.”
Solar Powered Sensors
Optimal design for wind dispersion
The engineers' first step was to design the optimal shape for wind dispersion. After testing prototypes, the team found that a spoked ring shape worked best.
'The way dandelion seed structures work is that they have a central point and these little bristles that stick out to slow their fall. We took a D projection of that to create the base design for our structures,' says lead author Vikram Iyer, a UW assistant professor in the Allen School. “As we added weight, our bristles began to bend inward. We added a ring structure to make it more rigid and take up more area to help reduce speed.'
A device as light as possible
The next step was to make the device as light as possible. To achieve this, the researchers used solar panels instead of a heavy battery to power the electronics. The advantage of using solar power means that the sensor will not suddenly run out of battery, however, the disadvantage is that without a battery, the system cannot store a charge. To solve this problem, the team incorporated a capacitor, allowing the sensor to store some charge overnight and continue working once the sun goes down.
"So we have this little circuit that will measure how much energy we have stored and once the sun comes up and more energy comes in , it will trigger the rest of the system to turn on because it detects that it is above a certain threshold," Iyer continues.
Another disadvantage of this system is that the electronics will be scattered in nature. Therefore, researchers are currently studying how to make these devices more biodegradable .
“This is just the first step, which is why it's so exciting,” Iyer says. There are many other directions we can take now, such as developing larger scale implementations, creating devices that can change shape as they fall, or even adding more mobility so that devices can move once they are on the ground to get closer to a area that interests us.
Solar Powered Sensors
Share data at a distance of up to meters.
Once deployed, the solar-powered sensors can contain at least four sensors and can share sensor data up to meters away. To measure how far the devices would travel in the wind, the researchers dropped them from different heights, either by hand or with a drone on campus. One trick to extending the devices from a single drop point, the researchers said, is to vary their shapes slightly so that the breeze carries them differently.