Our Motivation
IoT-ZERO aims to radically enhance the energy efficiency, autonomy, and intelligence of IoT devices, while ensuring secure, resilient, and seamless connectivity across terrestrial (TN) and non-terrestrial networks (NTN)
The transition enabled by IoT-ZERO
Beyond always-on IoT
Today’s low-power IoT systems rely on regular connectivity, centralized scheduling, and heavyweight security. The sensors sample at fixed intervals, early NTN IoT needs power-hungry radio frequency (RF) chains and lacks native support for harvested energy or event-driven/asynchronous behaviour.
The result is unnecessary signalling, radios and clocks kept awake, fast battery drain, short lifetimes, and unreliable operation under intermittent power or coverage, all of which in turn block scale and increase operating expenses (OPEX) and e-waste.
To overcome these limitations, energy must be a first-class design resource (planned like bandwidth or time), devices and networks should act only when events warrant it, and TN–NTN coverage should be provided without costly wake/synchronisation.
Ambition 1
Unified energy-aware architecture for (close to) zero energy IoT
Ambition 4
Integrated neuromorphic IoT platform for ultra-low-power sensing
Ambition 2
Adaptive and asynchronous protocols for low energy IoT
Ambition 5
Energy-efficient passive positioning without network attachment
Ambition 3
(Close to) zero-energy ambient backscatter across TN and NTN
Ambition 6
Energy-efficient secure key generation for ultra-low-power IoT
IoT-ZERO's objectives and ambitions
Our methodology
IoT-ZERO introduces a unified, energy-lifecycle–aware architecture that treats energy as a first-class schedulable resource across sensing, processing, communication, and positioning. Unlike fragmented approaches in today’s IoT, the project delivers a holistic framework that uses AI for policy-bounded closed-loop orchestration at runtime and decision-support, integrating energy observability, asynchronous communication, and neuromorphic design across TN and NTN domains.
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On the device, neuromorphic sensing (A4) emits sparse events and passive positioning (A5) derives fixes from broadcast synchronization signals without attachment. These events trigger either adaptive asynchronous access (A2) or an ultra-low-energy ambient backscatter path (A3). Physical-layer security (A6) spans both ends: the device extracts keys from the channel while the network handles reconciliation and lightweight challenge–response. In the network, IoT Observer, lifecycle modelling, and energy brokerage (A1) infer device state and return budgets and scheduling hints, thus maximizing deep-sleep time across both TN and NTN. Together, these ambitions support the innovation areas and create a framework for sustainable, secure, and standardisation-ready (close to) zero energy IoT.
IoT-ZERO's flagship Proof-of-Concept
Our Proof-of-Concept activities focus on tracking assets without batteries, everywhere and for years. Seamlessly switching between terrestrial and satellite connectivity to never lose sight of what matters.
