A Vibration-based Energy Harvesting System for Smart Work Zone Barrels

Akram Heidarizadeh, Mohammad Vasef, Dr. Patrick Sun*, Mariam Noor, Dr. Mohamed H. Zaki, Dr. Mohamed Abdel-Aty Dept. of Civil, Environ., and Constr. Engr., University of Central Florida *Email: Peng.Sun@ucf.edu

Motivation and Objective

In order to monitor and enhance the traffic safety, it is beneficial to incorporate robust and low-maintenance location-based sensors into existing work zone barrels. The sensing network is preferred with little maintenance during service, such as charging or replacing batteries. Because of the robustness to different weather conditions, the project aims to harvest ambient energy from structural vibrations in civil infrastructure to provide electric power for positioning sensors without using batteries.

The energy needs to be harvested from the vibrations of the traffic roads to provide accurate real- time information about the work zones boundaries.

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