An Energy Measurement System for Characterization of Energy Harvesting Systems

Energy neutral computing is seen as a design approach for wireless sensor nodes (WSN) which are powered by energy harvesters. The approach relies on keeping an equilibrium between consumption and harvesting of energy and typically uses models for energy prediction and management. To adapt models to specific systems and environments, often characterization measurements are used. Measurements strongly influence the model quality and with this the usability of such WSN. In this paper a novel measurement system (PiEMS) is presented that outperforms existing approaches and helps to optimize typical characterization tasks. The increased accuracy of characterization and modeling are exemplified for different WSN applications.