Battery-less zero-maintenance embedded sensing at the mithræum of circus maximus

A battery-less, zero-maintenance embedded sensing system successfully operated for nearly two years at the UNESCO-protected Mithræum of Circus Maximus in Rome, demonstrating comparable environmental and structural monitoring capabilities to a battery-operated counterpart despite a 78% reduction in data yield. This breakthrough challenges conventional assumptions about energy harvesting limitations, proving that intermittent computing, low-power hardware, and thermal/kinetic energy sources can be effectively integrated for long-term, maintenance-free deployments—even in extreme conditions such as the site's three-month COVID-19 lockdown. The study highlights the potential of hardware/software co-design to optimize energy management and coupling between energy sources and sensed data, offering a sustainable alternative for archaeological monitoring.

Afanasov, M., Bhatti, N. A., Campagna, D., Caslini, G., Centonze, F. M., Dolui, K., Maioli, A., Barone, E., Alizai, M. H., Siddiqui, J. H., & Mottola, L. (2020). Battery-less zero-maintenance embedded sensing at the mithræum of circus maximus. Proceedings of the 18th Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems, 368–381. https://doi.org/10.1145/3384419.3430722