Design of a wireless power transmission system for sensors in a household environment

Application of computing and communication systems towards monitoring physical devices enables the Industrial Internet, a smart system of sensors integrated within physical objects. A major challenge associated with designing a practical system of sensors is designing an economically viable means to power them at such a large scale, which a wireless power transmission system could facilitate. This thesis addresses the challenge of selecting an appropriate strategy for power transmission and demonstrating its feasibility within a household environment. The first part of the thesis examines potentially feasible strategies for transmitting power to sensors in a household setting. Existing technologies are surveyed and evaluated against the functional requirements associated with this application. Resonant inductive coupling is selected based on its suitability towards the desired application for reasons of power level, safety, obtrusiveness, and efficiency. The second part of the thesis describes the processes of design, simulation, fabrication, and testing of a prototype resonant inductively coupled power transmission system. An accelerometer-based sensor module that communicates via radio frequency is powered by a resonant inductively coupled power transmission system, which consists of a large (1.07 m diameter) transmitter coil embedded within a table and a small (0.038 m diameter) receiver coil adhered to a water bottle. A suitable amount of power is supplied to the receiver module when it is placed within 95% of the primary coil diameter up to a height of 20 cm, and up to a vertical height of about 40 cm along the central axis of the primary coil.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Zaini, Hesham Marwan

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Kamal Youcef-Toumi.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/98746

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/98746