1. Department of Electrical, Electronic and Information
Engineering (DEI)
University of Bologna
Micrel Group
Davide Brunelli,
University of Bologna and University of Trento
Email: davide.brunelli@unibo.it , davide.brunelli@unitn.it

2. Expertise of UNIBO (Micrel Lab)
• The group has multi-year experience in software development for
power aware embedded systems and design of environmental
energy harvesters.
Particular emphasis are on the following topics:
- multi-source scavenging Example
by combining heterogeneous energy sources:
- light irradiance and photovoltaic +
- thermal energy
- kinetic energy (human movements Kinetic Energy and Photovoltaic
and vibrations)
….

3. Expertise of UNIBO (Micrel Lab)
Particular emphasis are on the following topics (cont’d) :
- Distributed energy management
Enviromental and Human Energy
is different from battery energy
•Availability varies in time
– Sometimes is scarce
– sometime over-abundant
•Availability varies in space
– Different nodes get different energy
•Somehow repetitive & predictable
– Opportunity for predictive
and adaptive management techniques

4. Expertise of UNIBO (Micrel Lab)
Particular emphasis are on the following topics (cont’d) :
-Energy-aware design, energy saving MAC protocols and
Cross-layer energy optimization for wireless sensor network
protocols.
Environmental aware routing must
be able to exploit exposed nodes
and take into account distance
between nodes

5. Enhanced Power Unit possible Architecture
Energy Transducers
Kinetic Energy,
Photovoltaic … Power Unit
Monitor
Conversion Electronics Measures energy
Take raw electrical signal from and battery
transducer and convert it to a usable DC charging status,
voltage elaborates energy
predictions and
Energy Storage and Delivery provides
Receives energy from conversion information to the
electronics and stores it (SuperCap, powered system
batteries, etc. ) Regulates the output
voltage and current.
UNITN sensing and elaboration platform
5

6. UNIBO Contribution
• To design and implement efficient multi-source harvesters
with smart interface to extend the autonomy of the wearable
for UNITN nodes
UNITN Node
- Energy Status
Power Supply
- Policies for Efficient Energy Use
Smart Power Unit
UNIBO
- Energy Harveter
-Batteries
• To develop harvesting policies which:
- define when and how power is harvested;
- regulate when and how to activate batteries;
- estimate in advance the energy availability

7. Harvesting in WSN-Tunnels (UNIBO)
[Living Lab]
 To develop and integrate Energy Harvesting capabilities to pre-existent WSN for monitoring
in tunnels.
 Innovative platforms of Wind energy Scavenger will be used in a real working scenarios
controllable by developers and users, in the tunnel in Trento configured as “living lab”.

8. Wind Harvesting
Wind
Turbine
W24TH Sensor
Node
Multi-source Sensor nodes with Wind Energy
Harvester Harvesters deployed in Rome
(metro B2 tunnel)
April 2012
Wind Energy Harvester and
sensor node in a lab test

9. Carrier Overview
GENESI
 The GENESI project proposes research addressing all the critical barriers
and challenges that prevent the application of WSNs and CPS for
monitoring structures, buildings and spaces
 Wireless sensor nodes will be capable of achieving virtual infinite lifetime
through a well-balanced combination of cutting edge technologies such
as energy harvesting from multiple sources and fuel cell power supply
 http://genesi.di.uniroma1.it
 Project Reference:257916

10. Carrier Overview
GENESI
 The GENESI project proposes research addressing all the critical barriers
and challenges that prevent the application of WSNs and CPS for
monitoring structures, buildings and spaces
 Wireless sensor nodes will be capable of achieving virtual infinite lifetime
through a well-balanced combination of cutting edge technologies such
as energy harvesting from multiple sources and fuel cell power supply
 http://genesi.di.uniroma1.it
 Project Reference:257916