Energy Harvesting for Autonomous Systems

This unique resource provides a detailed understanding of the options for harvesting energy from localized, renewable sources to supply power to autonomous wireless systems. Professionals are introduced to a variety of types of autonomous systems and wireless networkds and explore the capabilities of existing battery-based solutions, RF solutions, and fuel cells. This book focuses on the most promising harvesting techniques, including solar, kinetic, and thermal energy. Readers also learn the implications of energy-harvesting techniques on the design of power management electronics in a system. This in-depth reference discusses each energy-harvesting approach in detail, comparing and contrasting its potential in the field.

Stephen Beeby obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Southampton in 1998 in the subject of micromechanical resonators. He was awarded a prestigious EPSRC advanced research fellowship in 2001 and is currently a reader in the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. His research interests include energy harvesting, MEMS, active printed materials development, and biometrics. He is the coordinator of an EU Framework Integrated Project MICROFLEX and is the principal or coinvestigator on a further 6 projects. He is a cofounder of Perpetuum Ltd. He has coauthored one other book, MEMS Mechanical Sensors, published over 150 publications in the field, and holds 7 patents.

Neil White holds a personal chair in intelligent sensor systems in the School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, U.K. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Southampton in 1988. He is the author/coauthor of over 200 peer-reviewed papers and holds 10 patents in the areas of advanced sensor technologies, instrumentation, and energy-harvesting systems. He is a cofounder and former director of Perpetuum Ltd., a university spin-out company specializing in vibration energy harvesting.