An effective, sustainable and cheap solution to safety and security problems in transports, industries, environment and smart cities is represented by Internet of Things devices and networked wireless sensors. Such devices are often employed in environments where a wired energy supply is not present or not economically convenient. Disposable batteries have high maintenance costs and environmental impact. The alternative is represented by energy harvesters that convert into electricity otherwise wasted energy. However, the use of energy harvesters is strongly limited by the low electrical power they are able to generate.
The business idea is aimed at offering a cheap and compact plugin for energy harvesters, named EHPO (Energy Harvester Power Optimizer). It is able to significantly increase, up to 250%, the electrical power generated by energy harvesters. The increase of the generated power allows the supply of more performing IoT devices and the reduction of the harvesters’ number.The EHPO product is the subject of the PCT patent application entitled “Electronic device and method for the maximization of the mean power extracted from a vibrational harvester”, submitted on 19 March 2020 to the European Patent Office and published on 24 September 2020 with number WO2020/188511 with a very positive written opinion.