Contact: Catherine Romano
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 865-574-1617

This project investigates the ability to harvest power from trees to power a distributed sensor network. The power is supplied by the potential between an electrode placed in the ground and one placed in the trunk of the tree supplying a continuous source of 100s of mV. Currently, unattended sensors are limited by battery life, and in certain cases, the size of the sensor; however, the ability to distribute small ubiquitous sensors that are powered indefinitely (potentially decades) can provide unique capabilities. This project will optimize the power supply and make it structurally sound.