Self-powered overspeed wake-up alarm system based on triboelectric nanogenerators for intelligent transportation

Overspeed information monitoring and collecting becomes increasingly important with the rapid development of intelligent transportation, but current overspeed monitoring technologies are constrained by traditional power-supply for large-scale use. Herein, we proposed a self-powered overspeed wake-up alarm system (SOWAS) based on triboelectric nanogenerators. The SOWAS consists of an energy harvesting triboelectric nanogenerator (E-TENG), an energy management module (EMM), an overspeed sensing triboelectric nanogenerator (S-TENG), a power-switch module (PSM) and a wireless transceiver module (WTM). The E-TENG and EMM are used for mechanical energy harvesting, management, and powering for the SOWAS, while the S-TENG, PSM and WTM are employed for active overspeed monitoring and alarm signals transmitting. When the vehicle speed exceeds the setting threshold, the PSM will be activated, and the WTM will send alarm signals with the harvested energy. The response characteristics dependence of the SOWAS on various working parameters were investigated in detail. The developed SOWAS could work sustainably in unattended traffic environment without external power supply for autonomous overspeed monitoring and alarming. Meanwhile, intelligent monitoring of overspeed and improved energy utilization were achieved. This work has enormous potentials and promising prospects for TENG in intelligent transportation, Internet of Vehicles and autonomous driving.