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Could We Soon Be Using Battery-free Devices?
Researchers in the US have created a platform allowing developers to create and run electronic devices without batteries for “an infinite lifetime”.
A new platform has been released that enables battery-free electronic devices to run using harvested energy.
The tech, called BFree, was designed by teams from Northwestern University and Delft University of Technology (TU Delft).
BFree system includes energy-harvesting hardware and a power-failure-resistant version of programming language, Python.
Researchers claimed that users with a basic understanding of Python can “quickly and easily” turn a DIY smart device into a battery-free version.
The tech enables devices to run perpetually with intermittent energy. When power is interrupted, BFree pauses calculations. When power returns, it automatically resumes where it left off without losing memory or needing to run through a long list of operations before restarting.
When devices bypass the battery begin to rely on energy harvesting, the power supply stops being constant. If the sun goes behind a cloud, for example, then solar power might be temporarily disrupted.
The team have provided evidence of the tech before, introducing the world’s first battery-free Game Boy last year, powered with energy harvested from the user pushing the buttons.
It is hoped that the BFree technology will help to cut the vast amounts of dead batteries that end up as e-waste in landfills around the world.
It will also allow amateur hobbyists and those within the Maker Movement to create their own battery-free electronic devices.
Commenting on the technology, Northwestern’s Josiah Hester, who co-led the work, said: “Right now, it’s virtually impossible for hobbyists to develop devices with battery-free hardware, so we wanted to democratize our battery-free platform.
“Makers all over the internet are asking how to extend their devices’ battery life. They are asking the wrong question. We want them to forget about the battery and instead think about more sustainable ways to generate energy.”
TU Delft’s Przemyslaw Pawelczak, who co-led the work, added: “The maker community is typically more interested in rapidly deploying their devices, and that quickness doesn’t always go well with sustainability.
“We wanted to design a viable product that can connect these two worlds.”
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There is growing concerns around the impact that humans are having on the climate. While this new technology indicates signs of a positive future, Hester, Pawelczak and their team said they are “daunted” by the number of batteries that will be used and eventually end up in landfills.
“Many people predict that we’re going to have a trillion devices in this IoT,” Hester added. “That means a trillion dead batteries or 100 million people replacing a dead battery every few minutes. That presents a terrible ecological cost to the environment.
“What we’re doing, instead, is truly giving power to the people. We want everyone to be able to effortlessly program devices in a more sustainable way.”
