Road bump triboelectric generator excited by a small number of actuations for powering Bluetooth communications

The development of smart roads, designed to autonomously transmit sensor data and support advanced vehicle infrastructure, requires innovative, self-sustaining power solutions. This work explores the potential of mechanical energy harvesting from road traffic using a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) embedded in a speed bump to power environmental sensors and enable Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communication. To this end, we present an optimization framework to maximize the energy conversion in the early stages of transducer operation by tuning the output capacitor (Crect) of the DC rectifier. Through a combination of analytical modeling, SPICE simulations, and experimental validation using a custom test bench, we show that after the first mechanical actuation, tuning Crect to a value close to the minimum value of the TENG capacitance, and choosing the half-wave rather than the full-wave rectifier configuration, can drastically enhance the energy conversion. For the first actuation, half-wave and full-wave are equivalent as long as Crect is minimized and less than the maximum value of the TENG capacitance. Experiments demonstrate the system’s ability to successfully power a 1.8 V BLE module for data acquisition and transmission of four embedded sensors. This work shows the feasibility of harvesting sufficient energy from a low-cost triboelectric generator and with a minimal number of mechanical actuations, enabling practical applications such as vehicle counting or environmental monitoring in smart transportation systems.