A Fully Featured Thermal Energy Harvesting Tracker for Wildlife

Eiko Bäumker, Luca Conrad, Laura Maria Comella and Peter Woias
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Eiko Bäumker: Laboratory for the Design of Microsystems, Department of Microsystems Engineering—IMTEK, University of Freiburg, 79106 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
Luca Conrad: Laboratory for the Design of Microsystems, Department of Microsystems Engineering—IMTEK, University of Freiburg, 79106 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
Laura Maria Comella: Laboratory for the Design of Microsystems, Department of Microsystems Engineering—IMTEK, University of Freiburg, 79106 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
Peter Woias: Laboratory for the Design of Microsystems, Department of Microsystems Engineering—IMTEK, University of Freiburg, 79106 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 19, 1-21

Abstract: In this paper, we describe a novel animal-tracking-system, solely powered by thermal energy harvesting. The tracker achieves an outstanding 100 μ W of electrical power harvested over an area of only 2 times 20.5 c m 2 , using the temperature difference between the animal’s fur and the environment, with a total weight of 286 g . The steps to enhance the power income are presented and validated in a field-test, using a system that fulfills common tracking-tasks, including GPS with a fix every 1.1 h to 1.5 h , activity and temperature measurements, all data wirelessly transmitted via LoRaWAN at a period of 14 min . Furthermore, we describe our ultra low power design that achieves an overall sleep power consumption of only 8 μ W and is able to work down to temperature differences of 0.9 K applied to the TEGs.

Keywords: TEG; thermoelectricity; thermal energy harvesting; tracker; wildlife; animal; ultra low power (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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