Implementation of PoF-powered IoT Sensing Systems for Industry 4.0

Abstract

We propose and experimentally investigate two distinct power-over-Fiber (PoF) approaches, aiming to remotely power Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensing systems for Industry 4.0 environments. The first proof-of-concept is focused on demonstrating a 1-W optical power transmission through a 50-m-fiber-optic link for powering an Arduino Uno, a temperature sensor (DS1820B), and a 433-MHz transceiver (FS1000A). The designed PoF link is able to provide up to 280 mW with power transmission efficiency (PTE) of 28.9%. The second implementation is based on a 100-m PoF link capable of transmitting over 0.6-W optical power and delivering 140-mW electrical power with PTE of 23%. In this scheme, an Arduino Pro Mini, another temperature sensor (LM35), and a 2.4-GHz transceiver (nRF24L01+) are employed. A voltage stability analysis enables to demonstrate that our PoF system is capable of delivering stable output voltage at 8.5 V and 5 V, with only 0.6% and 0.2% voltage fluctuations. In addition, an industrial oven is employed to evaluate the sensor performance considering temperature measurements from both sensing systems. The obtained results demonstrate that PoF might be considered as a potential technology to optically-power IoT wireless sensing systems for Industry 4.0 scenarios.