Self-Powered Sensor Automatically Harvests Magnetic Energy

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MIT researchers have developed a battery-free, self-powered sensor that can harvest energy from its environment.

MIT researchers have developed a battery-free, self-powered sensor that can harvest energy from its environment.

Because it requires no battery that must be recharged or replaced, and because it requires no special wiring, such a sensor could be embedded in a hard-to-reach place, like inside the inner workings of a ship’s engine. There, it could automatically gather data on the machine’s power consumption and operations for long periods of time.

The researchers built a temperature-sensing device that harvests energy from the magnetic field generated in the open air around a wire. One could simply clip the sensor around a wire that carries electricity — perhaps the wire that powers a motor — and it will automatically harvest and store energy which it uses to monitor the motor’s temperature.

Read more at: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MIT researchers have developed a battery-free, self-powered sensor that can harvest energy from its environment. (Photo Credits: Christine Daniloff, MIT)