Self-powered 5G NB-IoT system for remote monitoring applications

In the new era of 5G and artificial intelligence of things (AIoT), remote monitoring and early warning based on widely distributed self-powered wireless sensing system are particularly important. However, the high power consumption, limited communication range and operation lifespan of this system are serious obstacles in practical applications. Here, we report a self-powered 5G narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) system for remote fire monitoring, driven by a magnetic-assisted noncontact energy harvester (MN-EH) which hybridizes piezoelectric and electromagnetic generator. The rotational MN-EH device can efficiently convert wind energy into electrical power while NB-IoT makes it possible to trade off the low-power and long-range transmission. With the magnetic coupling mechanism, the device can avoid degradation and abrasion to improve the reliability. Through optimizing a magnetic arrangement, the rotating peak torque can be reduced more than 93%. The MN-EH is further developed to power the NB-IoT system which can acquire temperature and CO concentration and transmit them to the cloud server every similar to 13 min. This work provides an effective strategy and paves the way for practical applications of self-powered remote monitoring system.