AquaE-lite Hybrid-Solar-Cell Receiver-Modality for Energy-Autonomous Terrestrial and Underwater Internet-of-Things
Meiwei Kong, Jia‐Ming Lin, Yujian Guo, Xiaobin Sun, Mohammed Sait, Omar Alkhazragi, Chun Hong Kang, Jorge A. Holguín‐Lerma, Malika Kheireddine, Mustapha Ouhssain, Burton H. Jones, Tien Khee Ng, Boon S. Ooi
Abstract
Our goal is to develop an energy-autonomous solar cell receiver that can be integrated with a variety of smart devices to implement the Internet of Things in next-generation applications. This paper details efforts to develop such a prototype, called AquaE-lite. Owing to the capability of detecting low-intensity optical signals, 20-m and 30-m long-distance lighting and optical wireless communication with data rates of 1.6 Mbit/s and 1.2 Mbit/s have been achieved on a laboratory testbed, respectively. Moreover, field trials on an outdoor solar cell testbed and in the turbid water of a harbor by the Red Sea have been conducted. Under bright sunlight, energy autonomy and 1.2-Mbit/s optical wireless communication over a transmission distance of 15 m have been implemented, which demonstrated that AquaE-lite with an elaborate receiver circuit has excellent performance in energy harvesting and resistance to background noise. In a more challenging underwater environment, 1.2-Mbit/s signals were successfully received over a transmission distance of 2 m. It indicates that energy-autonomous AquaE-lite with large detection area has promising prospects in future underwater mobile sensor networks to significantly relieve the requirement of pointing, acquisition and tracking while resolving the energy issues.