The project
Work package structure
The HE4T project approaches energy harvesting technologies on a seven work package structure of which six are technological and one is reserved for project management and dissemination activities. The major focus of the project is to create energy harvesting utilizing demonstrators based on the needs of the industries identified by interviewing representatives from various size companies operating in the Interreg Aurora region. Always keeping in mind the unique challenges the area faces.
The work packages, or WPs, are as follows:
WP1 - Industrial needs and applications
In this work package the aim is to gather the needs from the industry from the energy harvesting point of view. The industry ranges from large enterprises, SMEs and micro companies. While the focus is on industry, the work also takes into consideration all possible sectors where EH may apply
The WP maps the possible energy phenomena that can be harvested as well as looks for novel applications for EH solutions.
WP4 - Communication and wireless data transfer
In the fourth work package, the communications protocol for data transfer between the sensor and the higher-level systems (such as CMMS etc.) will be researched and developed to be suitable for the studied energy harvesting based powered, battery-less systems.
Existing data transfer methods might be not appropriate to the needs or compatible with the low energy availability of an energy harvester powered system, so suitable data transfer methods with low power consumption will be selected and further developed according to the sensors and data types selected in WP3 and needs from WP1 as well as the energy harvesting solution developed in WP2.
WP2 - Energy Harvesting
WP2's goal is to research, model and develop existing and possible novel energy harvesting technologies and solutions based on the feedback, needs and available energy phenomena identified in WP1.
The WP focuses on developing harvester modules, energy management electronics and energy storage solutions. The harvesters developed are based on inductive, thermoelectric, kinetic, vibration, solar and light sources to name but a few.
WP5 - IoT platform, data processing and data analysis
In the fifth WP the focus is on selecting the most suitable IoT platform to be used for gathering the data submitted by the sensors developed in WP3. This platform will need to meet the requirements from WP1.
It is possible that industry partners already have an IoT platform to provide, then the sensor data communication and formats will be made compatible with the provided platform. Data processing and analytics will also be developed in this work package.
WP3 - Sensor modules and sensor networks
In WP3, the necessary sensor modules and sensor boards are selected, designed and developed so that they can be powered by WP2 based energy harvesting solutions. The developed boards and sensing solutions will be based on the needs identified in WP1.
The industry needs will steer this work package. The work package contains development of efficient harvester-powered converter electronics for selected transducer techniques. Also, the selection or development of the energy storage is important part of this work.
WP6 - Generic demonstrators
This work includes the development of the complete set of energy harvesting systems together with the sensors and IoT platforms with the proposed and verified communications protocols and networking methods.These demonstrators will be concrete solutions based on the accumulative efforts in the previous work packages.
These demonstrators will be presented to industry and on project website through various methods, such as videos. Some designs will also be released as open-source.