Build an underwater IoT without batteries?

The MIT research team created an underwater sensor and communication system that requires little power without a battery. Battery-Free Subsea Internet-of-Things (IoT) can literally contribute to the realization of the Internet of Things underwater. Real-time monitoring of sea water temperature and aquatic organisms could be made possible without battery replacement. If this were possible, it would be possible to build a network of underwater sensors in distant planetary oceans.

The system developed by the research team uses an oscillator that sends sound waves underwater, and generates minute energy when a receiver built into the sensor system receives it. The sensor does not reply or reply using this energy. Binary communication is performed with this 1 or 0 signal. The only energy required for the system to operate is the force contained in the ultrasonic waves sent from the oscillator.

The reason for discovering this system is a little surprising. MIT Media Lab Professor Fadel Adib was watching the nature documentary series Blue Planet with a collaborator, while the Earth’s oceans still have a lot of unresearched parts, and at the same time, batteries that cause ocean pollution I thought the power sensor couldn’t be used.

In other words, the piezoelectric resonator of this system responds to sound waves using equipment used for microphones, etc. 100 years ago, and transforms them or maintains the waveform and determines the reflection according to the state of the sensor. The binary signal returned in this way is collected and analyzed.

The team’s next goal is to enable simultaneous communication in cooperation with other sensors, making it work over long distances. Ultimately, voice and low-resolution images are also likely to be transmitted. In this case, we can expect breakthroughs in remote monitoring systems. Related information can be found here .