Highway and railway as one of the most important means of transportation have made rapid digitalized development but the power supply of sensors has become a bottleneck for further development. In this paper we illustrate that triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) with dual functions of power supply and high-sensitive sensing plays an important role in self-powered intelligent transportation systems. We also review the application of TENG in intelligent transportation systems in recent years, including vehicle detection, exhaust gas treatment, vibration energy harvesting, wind energy harvesting, etc. Finally, we analyze the challenges for application of TENG in intelligent transportation and prospect the development trend of TENG in materials, information, electronics, machinery, transportation, and other multidisciplinary fields.

triboelectric nanogenerator  /  intelligent traffic  /  self-powered  /  sensors