Today we witness an exponential growth of autonomously operating embedded devices such as Internet of Things (IoT) – incorporated into many physical systems, communicating wirelessly. IoT impact will be tremendous, with projected figures of 100 billion connected devices, and a global economic impact over $11 trillion by 2025. However, powering billions of these devices with standard solutions, like Li-ion batteries, causes huge maintenance and environmental problems; it severely limits their lifetime and functionality. Energy supply forms the Achilles heel of IoT.

ZERO makes IoT devices battery-oblivious, by creating energy-autonomous ultra-low power devices that scavenge their own energy. Hence, energy consumption must be drastically reduced, while energy scavenged should increase. This requires a holistic design approach, i.e., taking all design layers and system components into account.

ZERO provides necessary innovations in various areas, including energy scavenging, low-power circuit design, energy modulated computation, efficient energy conversion for storage in super capacitors, heterogeneous computing, low-power communication, and intelligent system-wide energy management.

ZERO solutions are widely applicable and lead to less waste, less maintenance, and better durability, but above all ZERO enables truly autonomous systems. Finally, ZERO is firmly embedded in the business needs of Dutch and international companies involved in this proposal.