Battery-less Sensing Networks for Food Quality Control with Power Efficient Wireless Power Transfer System and Communication Capabilities

用于食品质量控制的无电池传感网络，具有高能效无线电力传输系统和通信功能

• 批准号: 2315370
• 负责人: Jose Silva-Martinez
• 金额: $ 42万
• 依托单位: Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-15 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2315370&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Battery; less; Sensing; Networks; Food

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimated that approximately 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted every year, which represents about 30% of all food produced globally for human consumption. The major sources of premature decomposition in perishable food arise during the harvesting, packaging, transportation, and storage processes. Harmful microorganisms infect the food and are usually picked up during the transportation and storage of the food packages. An efficient monitoring system of critical food parameters can detect timely needs such as adjustment of transportation conditions as well as adjustment of food distribution plans. Available smart sensors can detect food freshness, ripeness, concentration of microbial pathogens, and emitted gases. Many of these sensors are not toxic and can be used for non-invasive food monitoring. Some of these sensors provide visual information such as color changes while some others provide small sensing current or voltages that can be efficiently monitored and wirelessly transmitted to the central office for proper actions. However, the main challenge of these smart sensors is that they require batteries to achieve long-range operation. This project aims to develop a battery-less green monitoring system with sensing nodes that can be included in every food container. The food container monitoring system measures critical food parameters such as PH, temperature, and humidity. The proposed green technology is cost effective, re-usable and does not require batteries. The research objective of this proposal is to develop a wireless networked sensing system with battery-less sensing nodes that will monitor and report critical food parameters. The food package will be equipped with a semiconductor chip that can receive energy wirelessly to power the sensing and communication functions. A central unit employing a wireless power transmitter and a network control unit will be installed in a key location to power the sensing nodes. The wirelessly received energy is stored in supercapacitors that can be reused multiple times. The research will study power beaming techniques using a phase optimization algorithm to speed up the wireless power transferring process. A phase calibration algorithm will focus the power beam in the direction of the farthest sensing node. When fully charged, the energy accumulated during 11-minute wireless powering should enable the sensing node transmission system to operate for at least 100 milliseconds. Since all sensing nodes covered by the wireless powering antenna's transmission can be simultaneously powered, the control unit can simultaneously power and communicate with multiple sensing nodes. Every food container is associated with an identification code that allows wireless tracking during its transportation, storage, and distribution stages. In this project, 100 food containers and a network prototype covering a typical 20-meter-long transportation container will be considered to demonstrate the proposed battery-less wireless sensing network system’s scalability in real-world applications.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

联合国粮食和农业组织估计，每年浪费了约13亿吨的食物，约占全球生产的所有食品的30％。在收获，包装，运输和储存过程中，出现了可腐烂食品过早分解的主要来源。有害的微生物感染了食物，通常在食品包装的运输和存储期间被捡起。关键食品参数的有效监控系统可以检测及时的需求，例如调整运输条件以及调整食物分配计划。可用的智能传感器可以检测食物新鲜度，成熟度，微生物病原体的浓度和发射的气体。这些传感器中的许多无毒，可用于非侵入性食品监测。其中一些传感器提供了视觉信息，例如颜色变化，而另一些传感器则提供了小型传感器的当前或电压，这些传感器可以有效地监控并无线传输到中央办公室以进行适当的操作。但是，这些智能传感器的主要挑战是它们需要电池才能实现远程操作。该项目旨在开发一个没有电池的绿色监测系统，其中可以包含在每个食品容器中的感官节点。食品容器监测系统测量关键食物参数，例如pH，温度和湿度。拟议的绿色技术具有成本效益，可重复使用并且不需要电池。该提案的研究目标是开发具有无电池灵敏度节点的无线网络灵敏度系统，该系统将监视和报告关键食物参数。食物包装将配备半导体芯片，该芯片可以无线接收能量以供电灵敏度和通信功能。使用无线电源发射器和网络控制单元的中央单元将安装在关键位置，以供电灵敏度节点。无线收到的能量存储在可以多次重复使用的超级电容器中。该研究将使用相优化算法来研究功率光束技术，以加快无线功率传输过程。相位校准算法将把功率光束集中在最远的灵敏度节点的方向上。充满电时，在11分钟无线电源期间累积的能量应使灵敏度节点传输系统至少运行100毫秒。由于可以同时使用无线供电天线传输覆盖的所有灵敏度节点，因此控制单元可以简单地使用多个灵敏度节点供电并通信。每个食品容器都与识别代码相关联，该代码允许无线跟踪其运输，存储和配电阶段。在这个项目中，将考虑100个食品容器和一个涵盖典型的20米长的运输容器的网络原型，以证明拟议的无电池无线无线传感网络在现实世界应用中的可伸缩性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子优点和广泛的影响来审查Crederia的法定任务。