Adaptive Power System for Extending Device Life
Advantages• Allows the device to maintain full operation while at the same time charging the battery with an alternate energy source that is not large enough to do both at the same time.
• Maximizes the energy collected from the alternate energy source.
• Because the charging of the battery is independent of the operation of the overall device, the power system is more customizable to both the battery technology and power needs of the application.
Technology The purpose of this invention is to achieve maximum lifetime/uptime of an individual independently powered device while allowing the hardware to be as greedy as possible, i.e. run applications that consume a large amount of power at any point in time. In order to extend device life, the adaptive power system employs two independent power sources, such as batteries, as well as an alternate energy source, such as solar, wind or other renewable energy source. The power system employs a microcontroller or other processing device to read the voltages of the power sources via an analog to digital converter. The processing device then uses an adaptive software algorithm, detailed in the software section below, as well as historical charging, battery voltage and auxiliary voltage data, to choose which battery will power the device and which battery will be charged, provided that the alternate energy source provides enough power to charge the battery.
Potential Applications In sensor networks, this power system can extend the life and uptime of the network nodes while still allowing all the nodes in the network access to communications and other high power applications at any point in time. In general, access to a power grid is unavailable in these types of systems.
This technology could some day be applied to things like mobile phones. Body heat (if you have a temperature differential, you can create energy) would make an ideal alternate energy source for a dual battery system like ours.
Inventor(s): James Frantz
Type of Offer: Licensing
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