A System-Level Approach to Sustainable Low Power Sensing: Meeting United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Environmental sensing has gained significant importance, particularly in light of excessive carbon emissions from industrial processes. However, deploying remote wireless sensors in the form of efficient power consumption requirements for sensor nodes is a challenge. This chapter reports a case study focusing on the bespoke, off-the-shelf prototyping of a sustainable, low-power environmental monitoring node. Emphasizing the use of solar converters for sustainable power, this chapter explores the scalability of power requirements for multiple nodes to mitigate the overall carbon footprint. The case study outlines a framework that integrates off-the-shelf hardware components, develops firmware and creates a custom-printed circuit board for a proof-of-concept demonstration. A standalone DC-DC converter was designed and characterized to regulate the output voltage from a solar panel. The chapter concludes with a comprehensive presentation of the entire system design of the sensor node, including experimental results, and a discussion on evaluating energy-harvesting blocks with a power consumption budget allocation.