Perpetuum's use of energy-harvesting sensors for railroad structural health monitoring highlights energy harvesting's emerging use cases

November 25, 2019 | Case Study

Energy-harvesting sensors are attractive for internet of things (IoT) sensing applications. One expectation is attaining self-sustainability in IoT sensors, i.e., no power-related maintenance. However, so far, with the exception of the widely installed solar-powered motion sensors, there are very few off-the-shelf energy-harvesting sensors on the market. Perpetuum uses its vibration energy-harvesting sensors to monitor the structural health of railway assets like wheels and tracks, demonstrating a successful use case of energy-harvesting sensors.