Self-powered 5G NB-IoT system for remote monitoring applications

Highlights: • A magnetic-assisted noncontact energy harvester (MN-EH) is developed for self-powered remote monitoring. • The optimized magnetic arrangement is utilized to reduce the rotating torque. • The MN-EH is successfully demonstrated to power a programmable 5G NB-IoT system. In the new era of 5G and artificial intelligence of things (AIoT), remote monitoring and early warning based on widely distributed self-powered wireless sensing system are particularly important. However, the high power consumption, limited communication range and operation lifespan of this system are serious obstacles in practical applications. Here, we report a self-powered 5G narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) system for remote fire monitoring, driven by a magnetic-assisted noncontact energy harvester (MN-EH) which hybridizes piezoelectric and electromagnetic generator. The rotational MN-EH device can efficiently convert wind energy into electrical power while NB-IoT makes it possible to trade off the low-power and long-range transmission. With the magnetic coupling mechanism, the device can avoid degradation and abrasion to improve the reliability. Through optimizing a magnetic arrangement, the rotating peak torque can be reduced more than 93%. The MN-EH is further developed to power the NB-IoT system which can acquire temperature and CO concentration and transmit them to the cloud server every ~13 min. This work provides an effective strategy and paves the way for practical applications of self-powered remote monitoring system.