Fabrication of Portable Self-Powered Wireless Data Transmitting and Receiving System for User Environment Monitoring

With the rapid advance of the semiconductor and Information and communication technologies, remote environment monitoring technology, which can detect and analyze surrounding environmental conditions with various types of sensors and wireless communication technologies, is also drawing attention. However, since the conventional remote environmental monitoring systems require external power supplies, it causes time and space limitations on comfortable usage. In this study, we proposed the concept of the self-powered remote environmental monitoring system by supplying the power with the levitation-electromagnetic generator (L-EMG), which is rationally designed to effectively harvest biomechanical energy in consideration of the mechanical characteristics of biomechanical energy. In this regard, the proposed L-EMG is designed to effectively respond to the external vibration with the movable center magnet considering the mechanical characteristics of the biomechanical energy, such as relatively low-frequency and high amplitude of vibration. Hence the L-EMG based on the fragile force equilibrium can generate high-quality electrical energy to supply power. Additionally, the environmental detective sensor and wireless transmission module are composed of the micro control unit (MCU) to minimize the required power for electronic device operation by applying the sleep mode, resulting in the extension of operation time. Finally, in order to maximize user convenience, a mobile phone application was built to enable easy monitoring of the surrounding environment. Thus, the proposed concept not only verifies the possibility of establishing the self-powered remote environmental monitoring system using biomechanical energy but further suggests a design guideline.