ViPSN 2.0: A Reconfigurable Battery-Free IoT Platform for Vibration Energy Harvesting

Abstract

Vibration energy harvesting (VEH) is a promising solution for powering battery-free Internet of Things (IoT) systems; however, the instability of ambient vibrations presents significant challenges, such as limited harvested energy, intermittent power supply, and poor adaptability to various applications. To address these challenges, this article proposes ViPSN2.0, a modular and reconfigurable IoT platform that supports multiple vibration energy harvesters (piezoelectric, electromagnetic, and triboelectric) and accommodates sensing tasks with varying application requirements through standardized hot-swappable interfaces. ViPSN 2.0 incorporates an energy indication power management framework tailored to various application demands, including light-duty discrete sampling, heavy-duty high-power sensing, and complex-duty streaming tasks, thereby effectively managing fluctuating energy availability. The platform's versatility and robustness are validated through three representative applications: ViPSN-Beacon, using an ultralow-cost structural lead zirconate titanate (PZT) (φ 35 mm, < $0.002) to enable a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) advertisement from a single transient fingertip press with 100-m line of sight; ViPSN-LoRa, supporting wireless communication powered by wave vibrations in actual marine environments (Bohai Bay) with per-uplink task energy compatible with kilometer-scale field links; and ViPSN-Cam, enabling intermittent image capture and wireless transfer, delivering one frame approximately every 15 s under typical conditions. Experimental results demonstrate that ViPSN 2.0 can reliably meet a wide range of requirements in practical battery-free IoT deployments under energy-constrained conditions.