Modeling and Prototyping of IoT-based Long Range Self-powered Image Sensing System

This work introduces a long-range self-powered image sensing system for smart civil infrastructure, which addresses the challenges of high energy consumption and the need for frequent battery replacements. Existing camera solutions for long-range image transmission are energy intensive, while conventional self-powered systems operate in different contexts and do not fully meet the requirements of long-range image transmission. This paper examines how to enable battery-less cameras by presenting a model that quantifies energy consumption based on factors such as image resolution, transmission distance, and network selection. Using this model, a prototype design is optimized for energy-efficient long-range image transmission. The prototype achieves an energy consumption of 0.13 mJ per pixel per image transmission, making it 2.3x more efficient than current state-of-the-art solutions. By bridging theoretical modeling with practical deployment, this work enables scalable, real-time visual data collection for smart infrastructure monitoring in remote or hard-to-reach locations.