A Control Flow for Transiently Powered Energy Harvesting Sensor Systems

Abstract

Transient computing enables application execution to be performed despite power outages. Although it handles the non-deterministic nature of energy harvesting (EH), sensor systems envisioned by the IoT seek more cost- and volume-effective solutions, which are better tailored to application requirements. Additionally, a major drawback of transient computing, keeping track of time, hinders its widespread adoption in the IoT. To overcome these challenges, this paper proposes a control flow for sensor systems by combining two state-of-the-art transient computing schemes in an energy-aware manner, underpinned by a strategy for timekeeping. It enables application execution to be reliably performed even under the most severe EH conditions, with an improved cost and volume efficiency, i.e., smaller energy storage. Benefiting from the combination of the two schemes, dynamic adjustment of system performance is achieved, while the time is accurately tracked. To illustrate the applicability of this flow to actual sensor systems, two case studies: a bicycle trip computer and a step counter, are presented. Empirical results reveal that, even with a tiny amount of energy harvested ('tens of uJ), our proposed approach can meet application requirements with smaller storage, i.e., 40% and 66% reduction in required capacitance for the presented case studies.