IoT Thrust Seminar | Pushing the Limits of Battery-free IoT

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) concept conjures a long-term vision of trillions of everyday objects (e.g., clothing, keys, and bags) connected to the Internet wirelessly and empowered with intelligent capabilities. However, having battery-powered devices attached to everyday objects is very limiting. Users have to replace or charge the battery frequently. Batteries also add bulk and cost to the device. One of the most fundamental requirements of any solution to achieve IoT is low cost, and ideally, battery free. A classic, commercially used solution is passive RFID and NFC tags. However, these technologies are limited in their scalability and use cases due to their short communication range and limited sensing capabilities. In this talk, I will describe how I push the limits of battery-free IoT systems. Specifically, I approach this from three perspectives: communication, sensing, and beyond. I will talk about how we can enhance the communication range of commercial battery-free IoT systems. I will also demonstrate how we can enable new sensing functions of battery-free IoT by co-optimizing wireless systems and soft materials. Beyond traditional wireless networks and systems, I will describe how I bring my battery-free IoT techniques to new research and application domains, such as cooking and soft robotics.