Battery-Free Wireless Communications
Wireless communication systems with a myriad of exciting applications, are still limited in being widely deployed everywhere, due to the required environmental conditions necessary for their reliable operations and also their limited life time which depends on the battery life time. In this project the problem of wireless communications in harsh environments, where usage of batteries are not feasible, will be addressed. This research enables usage of wireless sensors in extremely hot/cold environments to monitor specific parameters such as temperature inside shuttle engine or on the exterior of shuttle when entering atmosphere. This project cross cuts three different research areas including: Wireless Communications Systems, Coding Theory, and Sensor Devices.
Research Focus
Designing channel codes for distributed wireless sensor networks with limited resources is a challenging problem by itself. In this project, we even go one step further and focus on passive sensors where no battery is available, hence, intelligent processing of the received signals in a multi-user environment is essential. Applications of this research in embedded sensing in space vehicles and structures are of paramount importance to NASA.