Demo: Mobile Wireless Charging and Sensing by Drones

Wireless rechargeable sensor networks (WRSN) are promising platforms for a wide range of applications. Although sensors in a WRSN can be replenished by mobile wireless chargers over distance, challenging issues remain in many aspects. For example, stable wireless charging is hardly achievable in remote locations, and harvested energy on sensor nodes is usually insufficient to establish an ad hoc network with multi-hop communications. We propose DSENSE, a mobile wireless charging and sensing platform using drones to alleviate the pain of energy delivery and data gathering in WRSN. The drone in DSENSE is equipped with a wireless charger which can power nodes in remote locations (e.g., embedded in walls, in soil), retrieve and forward sensor data packets to the cloud. This mobile charging and sensing method executed by drones is demonstrated to be effective and efficient – DSENSE successfully drives WRSN-based monitoring services in both a high-rise building and a large farmland.