Low Cost Wireless Vibration Monitoring using Thermoelectric Energy Harvester for Machinery Prognostic

Abstract

This paper presents a microphone-modified low cost vibration sensor that can be operated by a self-battery system using a thermoelectric generator. The developed microphone-based vibration sensor with two batteries for
the efficient use of electric power from the thermoelectric element was integrated as a wireless sensor node. The sensor accuracy was calibrated in two operations. One was an experimental setup to evaluate the frequency dependence of the developed sensor by using waves of a specific vibration compared with piezoelectric accelerometers. The second operation was long term data acquisition in real field. We successfully demonstrated the wireless vibration sensing operation for a motor in real field. It was operated only their sensing and transmitted energy by itself using its surface temperature difference for two months. The raw vibration data was sensed and acquired for two months, and the feature values of the results of time series data were in good agreement with the referenced piezoelectric sensor data.