Self-Powered Visible Light Communication for Batteryless IoT via Vibration Energy Harvesting

In this paper, we investigate a case towards the emerging Internet of Batteryless Things by leveraging the latest advances in energy harvesting for self-powered computing. We present the design and implementation of a self-powered IoT system for batteryless computing, which employs a hybrid generator combining electromagnetic generators (EMG) and triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) to harvest energy from ambient vibrations. To showcase the potential of the proposed system, we build a prototype for self-powered visible light communication, powering and modulating an LED light for data transmission. Our prototype customizes a mechanically fabricated hybrid generator, which is rectified to sustain a low-power microcontroller. Real-world evaluation shows effective batteryless communication over distances using only the power harvested from environmental vibrations, promising applications in machinery status sensing, equipment malfunctions troubleshooting, and structural health monitoring, all without batteries.