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.

联合国粮食及农业组织估计，每年约有 13 亿吨粮食被浪费，约占全球生产的供人类消费的粮食总量的 30%。 易腐烂食品过早腐烂的主要来源是在收获过程中。食品包装、运输和储存过程中有害微生物通常会在食品包装的运输和储存过程中被拾取，有效的食品关键参数监测系统可以及时发现需要，例如调整运输条件和调整。现有的智能传感器可以检测食品的新鲜度、成熟度、微生物病原体的浓度和排放的气体，其中许多传感器是无毒的，可用于非侵入式食品监测，其中一些传感器提供视觉信息。例如颜色变化，而另一些则提供小的传感电流或电压，可以有效地监控并无线传输到中央办公室以采取适当的行动。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。该项目旨在开发一种无电池带有可安装在每个食品容器中的传感节点的绿色监控系统 食品容器监控系统可测量 PH、温度和湿度等关键食品参数。所提出的绿色技术具有成本效益、可重复使用且不需要电池。该提案的研究目标是开发一种具有无电池传感节点的无线网络传感系统，该系统将监测和报告关键食品参数。食品包装将配备可以无线接收能量以为传感和通信供电的半导体芯片。采用无线电力发射器和功能的中央单元。网络控制单元将安装在关键位置，为传感节点供电，无线接收的能量存储在可多次重复使用的超级电容器中，该研究将研究使用相位优化算法的功率发射技术，以加速无线功率传输。相位校准算法会将功率束聚焦在最远的传感节点的方向上。充满电后，11 分钟无线供电期间积累的能量应能使传感节点传输系统运行至少 100 毫秒。无线供电天线传输覆盖的感测节点可以同时供电，控制单元可以同时为多个感测节点供电并与多个感测节点通信。每个食品容器都与一个识别码相关联，允许在其运输、存储和分配阶段进行无线跟踪。在该项目中，将考虑使用 100 个食品容器和一个覆盖典型 20 米长运输容器的网络原型来展示所提出的无电池无线传感网络系统在实际应用中的可扩展性。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并具有被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来获得支持。