Waterbomb-origami inspired triboelectric nanogenerator for smart pavement-integrated traffic monitoring

With a rapid development of intelligent transportation systems (ITSs), traffic monitoring has gained increasing attention. Here, we present a new kind of waterbomb-origami-inspired triboelectric nanogenerator (WO-TENG) as a traffic monitoring system to integrate smart pavement with lightweight, cost-effective, excellent deformability, flexibility, and self-rebounding properties. The electrical performance is significantly improved by more than 67% compared with current origami-based TENG, and multi tribo-pairs have great synchronicity. The fully-packaged self-driven WO-TENG is further developed to integrate smart pavement, which can successfully decouple the influence of vehicle speed and weight on the sensing accuracy. This phenomenon demonstrates the feasibility and stability of the WO-TENG for traffic monitoring. Independently of the voltage amplitude and time interval electrical wave, vehicle speed, number of vehicles, and types of vehicles can be further evaluated accurately. This work can not only address the challenge of traditional traffic monitoring system, but also promote the development of TENG based self-powered sensors in ITSs.

Automated summary

This study presents a novel approach for traffic monitoring using a waterbomb-origami-inspired triboelectric nanogenerator (WO-TENG). The WO-TENG integrates smart pavement and offers lightweight, cost-effective, excellent deformability, flexibility, and self-rebounding properties. The electrical performance of the WO-TENG is significantly improved compared to existing origami-based TENG, and multiple tribo-pairs show great synchronicity. The fully-packaged self-driven WO-TENG successfully decouples the influence of vehicle speed and weight on sensing accuracy, indicating its feasibility and stability for traffic monitoring. Accurate evaluation of vehicle speed, number, and types can be achieved, regardless of voltage amplitude and time interval electrical wave.