Energy-saving Design Adaptation of Wireless Sensor Networks with Solar Rechargeable Batteries

This paper presents an analysis on the capabilities of an algorithm for design adaptation of wireless sensor networks towards energy conservation. The application concerns environmental monitoring in a cultivation field that realizes the concepts of precision agriculture. The sensor system is enhanced with solar rechargeable batteries and the algorithm’s performance on that enhanced approach is compared to the simple design optimization that includes normal batteries for the sensors. The comparison shows significant energy conservation capabilities and extension of the life span of the network. However, this improvement greatly depends on the duration of the measuring cycles of the network, a parameter that needs further investigation and tuning.