A press-rotary triboelectric-electromagnetic hybrid energy harvesting device for indoor IoT node power supply and smart home control

Abstract

With the advent of 5G technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) era, powering the widely distributed sensor nodes in the IoT system has already become a critical issue that urgently needs to be addressed now. Here, a press-rotary triboelectric-electromagnetic hybrid energy harvesting device (PR-TEHD) is proposed. It consists of a power generation unit and a sensing unit, with a spring and bearing structure that converts the micro-motion energy generated during manual pressing and rotational movements into electrical energy, while enabling IoT node power supply and smart home control. With a 4.5 V maximum voltage and 14.1 mW peak power, the PR-TEHD can serve as a power supply to drive 320 LEDs for emergency lighting, and in combination with a power management circuit (PMC), it can actuate the wireless transmitter module for stable operation. In addition, a smart home control system based on the PR-TEHD is developed, which uses triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) as sensors to characterize the operating status of household appliances based on the number of voltage pulses, such as adjusting the brightness of lights and controlling the on and off of fans and lights. This work provides a new solution for powering IoT nodes in smart home environments and demonstrates the potential application of the PR-TEHD as a smart home control sensor.