Aerosense: A Self-Sustainable and Long-Range Bluetooth Wireless Sensor Node for Aerodynamic and Aeroacoustic Monitoring on Wind Turbines

This article presents a low-power, self sustainable, and modular wireless sensor node for aerodynamic and acoustic measurements on wind turbines and other industrial structures. It includes 40 high-accuracy barometers, ten microphones, and five differential pressure sensors and implements a lossy and a lossless on-board data compression algorithm to decrease the transmission energy cost. The wireless transmitter is based on Bluetooth Low Energy 5.1 (BLE) tuned for long range and high throughput while maintaining adequate per-bit energy efficiency (80 nJ). Moreover, we field-assessed the node capability to collect precise and accurate aerodynamic data. Outdoor experimental tests revealed that the system can acquire and sustain a data rate of 850 kb/s over 438 m. The power consumption while collecting and streaming all the measured data is 120 mW, enabling self-sustainability and long-term in situ monitoring with a 111 cm(2) photovoltaic panel.