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  • An overview of energy provision for biomachine hybrid robots.

    An overview of energy provision for biomachine hybrid robots.

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    Newswise — Bio-machine hybrid robots (BHRs) represent a new generation of micro-aerial vehicles that be controlled by building an interface between biological and artificial systems. In contrast to conventional bionic robots, they are free of complex mechanical structures, and due to the direct adoption of the animal body, they have superior moving characteristics and lower energy demand. Thus, the BHRs can be applied in many important scenarios, such as urban and wilderness rescue operations, environmental monitoring and hazardous area surveys.

    To accomplish long mission endurance, the energy supply of the control backpack must be considered. As different biological carriers have different requirements for the energy equipment, BHRs’ power supply is an important issue. A review paper by scientists at the Beijing Institute of Technology summarized advancements in supply devices in BHRs research.

    The new review paper, published on Sep. 26 in the journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems, provided a comprehensive overview of the various energy supply methods in BHRs research, from the selection of chemical batteries for different bio-carriers to the development and application of various energy harvesters.

    “You may couldn’t imagine that one day when you are trapped in the wild, the first one to notice your distress message and rescue you is an animal. But this will be a reality in the future.” explained study author Jieliang Zhao, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology.

    For a long time, bionic scientists have expected to be able to mimic the Creator’s ingenious biological designs and constructions. Although scientists have designed and built robots to mimic the movement of animals in nature in every way possible, no bionic robot has yet matched the efficiency and maneuverability of the animal body itself.

    Bio-machine hybrid robots (BHRs) have become another new method. BHRs use animals as carriers and modulate carrier movement by constructing bio-mechanical interfaces to accomplish scenario-specific tasks. The energy supply unit used to power the control backpack and electronic component carried by BHRs determines their future development and practical application, according to Zhao.

    The newly published review analyzed the various energy supply methods in BHRs research. The study authors grouped the energy supply devices into five categories: chemical batteries; solar cells; biofuel cells; bio-thermal harvesters and bio-vibration harvesters. They analyzed the focus of different carrier animals in the selection of chemical batteries separately. For example, when selecting the battery for flying insects, in addition to meeting the basic electrical requirements, it is also necessary to consider the weight and size of the entire battery, to ensure the carrier insect can fly properly.

    Although the size of the batteries becomes smaller and smaller, they can’t provide sustainable energy for BHRs and the frequent charging will affect animal life. Thus, some researchers started to develop solar cells, biofuel cells, bio-thermal harvesters and bio-vibration energy harvesters to supply energy to BHRs. In the review, they contain a summary overview of current research on self-powered devices for BHRs. “Energy harvesters can effectively harvest different forms of energy from the surrounding environment or the animal itself, which could achieve self-powering of the BHRs,” said Zhao.

    Looking forward, the team considers that five important challenges need to be overcome. The first one is developing high energy density energy supply devices. They think with the creation of new materials and advances in micro-nano technology, the main directions for enhancing energy density are provided in terms of composite materials and micro-scale structural design.

    The second one is developing biocompatibility of energy supply devices to avoid serious immune reactions that could affect the animal’s lifetime. The third one is compound energy supply. By reasonably harvesting multiple environmental energy sources and applying multiple energy conversion mechanisms, the space utilization efficiency of energy supply devices be improved effectively and the power output can be also increased.

    The fourth one is the stability of the energy supply because the long-term stability of the energy supply system is a basic requirement for the effective control of BHRs. The last one is an environmentally friendly energy supply. As BHRs are used in the natural environment, addressing the impact of energy supply systems on the environment is a vital challenge.

    “The research field of energy supply for BHRs is still in its infancy,” said Zhao. Most studies have been done only in the laboratory and the output of harvesters is lower than actual demand. As new conceptual robots, BHRs have important application prospects in future scenarios, such as animal monitoring and wildlife rescue. The energy supply system directly determines the practical application of BHRs. This review calls for more researchers to be able to focus on this field and work together to overcome the challenges in energy supply and promote the practical application of BHRs。

    Authors of the paper include Zhiyun Ma, Jieliang Zhao, Li Yu, Mengdan Yan, Lulu Liang, Xiangbing Wu, Mengdi Xu, Wenzhong Wang, Shaoze Yan.

    This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFB3400200), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (3212012), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52075038), the Opening Project of the Key Laboratory of Bionic Engineering (Ministry of Education), Jilin University (KF20200001), and the Opening Project of State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University (SKLTKF20B06).

    The paper, ” A Review of Energy Supply for Biomachine Hybrid Robots ” was published in the journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems on 26 September 2023 at DOI: https://doi.org/10.34133/cbsystems.0053

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    Beijing Institute of Technology

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  • Sustainable land use: More food, more carbon storage

    Sustainable land use: More food, more carbon storage

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    Newswise — Researchers from KIT and HeiGIT Find That Land Use Change Can Increase Both Food Production and Carbon Storage CapacityResearchers from KIT and HeiGIT Find That Land Use Change Can Increase Both Food Production and Carbon Storage CapacityUse of the Earth’s surface by humans for the production of food, for instance, has changed considerably over the past centuries. Global population is increasing. More food is required and can be transported around the world within shortest periods of time. However, the historically developed food production systems do not reflect the biophysical potential of our ecosystems. The study shows that food is not produced at places where that would be most efficient in terms of area use, water consumption, and CO2 emissions. Instead, deforestation is being continued to obtain cropland and pastures and arid fields are being irrigated. These activities have a massive negative impact on water availability and carbon storage.

    But what if fields, pastures, and natural vegetation were moved to where it would be most efficient? What if croplands were restricted to areas that do not require extensive irrigation? To answer these questions, the researchers from KIT and HeiGIT combined a dynamic vegetation model with an optimization algorithm to study alternative global land use scenarios and their impacts.

    Optimized Land Use Would Increase Food Production by More than 80 Percent and CO2 Storage Capacity by Three Percent on the Average

    The researchers modeled optimized land use for climate conditions of an optimistic scenario and a presently more realistic climate change scenario for the near and far future (2033 to 2042 and 2090 to 2099). The result: Spatial reorganization alone would increase food production by an average of 83 percent, water availability by eight percent, and CO2 storage capacity by three percent. These increases would be even higher, if one of the three parameters would be given priority over the remaining two.

    “Our study exclusively covered the biophysical potential as the basis for land use that would consider the target conflicts much better,” says first author Dr. Anita Bayer from KIT’s Campus Alpine in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. “We found that there are indeed regions in which certain land uses would be advantageous or optimal.” According to the study, tropical and boreal forests would have to be preserved or reforested due to their excellent CO2 storage capacities rather than being used as croplands or pastures. Temperate latitudes would have to serve as cropland rather than pastures. This would compensate area loss due to the reforestation of tropical and boreal forests. The wide and open tropical and subtropical savannas and grasslands would have to be used as pastures and for food production. “This optimal land use scheme turned out to be very stable in our study,” Bayer says.

    Deliberate Change of Land Use

    The study shows that regional practice strongly differs from the theoretically achievable optimum. Massive landuse changes would be required to make better use of the biophysical potential, while increasingincrease food production, water availability, and carbon storage capacity at the same time. “Although such major land use changes appear to be unrealistic, we should be aware of the fact that climate change will be associated with big changes of cultivation areas anyway,” says Professor Sven Lautenbach, researcher of HeiGIT and the Geographical Institute of Heidelberg University. “We should not let these changes happen, but try to manage them taking into account the biophysical potential.”

    “Securing global food supply is one of the major challenges of our time and climate change will aggravate this problem in many regions,” says Professor Almut Arneth from the Atmospheric Environmental Research Division of KIT’s Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, KIT’S Campus Alpine in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. “Our study clearly shows that in spite of unfavorable climatic changes, optimized land use could significantly increase agricultural yields and limit area consumption at the same time. It is now important to find ways to implement land use changes that take into account both biophysical conditions and social aspects.”

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    Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

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  • Chaos Raman distributed optical fiber sensing

    Chaos Raman distributed optical fiber sensing

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    Newswise — The timeliness and accuracy of the detection technology is directly related to the safety of people’s lives and property, in the application of this technology, temperature is often a physical quantity that needs to be focused on. Compared with other temperature measurement technologies, Raman distributed optical fiber sensors have the advantages of corrosion resistance, strong resistance to electromagnetic interference, small size of the system, low maintenance and use of cost, so they are widely used in pipeline leakage detection, high rock cable overload detection, warehouse fire detection and other occasions.

    Raman distributed optical fiber sensing is mainly based on the Raman scattering effect in optical fibers as well as optical time-domain reflection techniques to achieve fully distributed sensing along the optical fiber distribution. The spatial resolution, as an important index of this system, reflects the minimum fiber length that the sensing system can resolve when measuring the temperature field. The spatial resolution of existing kilometer-level Raman distributed optical fiber sensing schemes is limited to the meter level, while some power equipment applications require the realization of decimeter-level spatial resolution, and thus the application of distributed optical fiber sensors in some special occasions is severely constrained.

    To solve this problem, the team of Jian Li and Mingjiang Zhang from Taiyuan University of Technology proposed a high spatial resolution Raman distributed optical fiber sensing technique based on the chaotic correlation method.

    In this work, the team proposes a new scheme using chaotic differential reconstruction and chaotic quadratic correlation algorithms to study the sensing distance and spatial resolution of chaotic Raman distributed optical fiber sensing systems. A chaotic laser is used as the light source and its autocorrelation property is utilized to eliminate the effect of the chaotic pulse width of the light source on the spatial resolution of the system. The weak detection signal is enhanced by the quadratic correlation algorithm and derivative analysis, which solves the problem that the signal-to-noise ratio of the signal and the spatial resolution of the system cannot be reconciled in the traditional scheme.

    In the article, a new chaotic Raman distributed optical fiber sensing scheme is proposed by using chaotic laser as a new type of sensing light source, the Raman backward scattering characteristics of continuous and pulsed chaotic laser in the sensing fiber and the modulation principle of FUT on the chaotic Raman scattering signals are investigated, the basic mathematical model is provided for the experiments of the chaotic ROTDR system, and the theoretical basis for the breakthrough of the limitations of spatial resolution by the pulse width of differential reconstruction and one-time correlation algorithm of the chaotic Raman backward scattering signals is analyzed specifically.

    Afterwards, in order to solve the problem that the experimental results are greatly affected by noise, a quadratic correlation algorithm is proposed in the paper, which further demonstrates the chaotic time-domain compression and demodulation mechanism between the temperature change information and the chaotic correlation peaks, and establishes the propagation equations for the differential reconstruction of chaotic Raman backscattered signals and quadratic correlation.

    Finally, the team builds a chaotic ROTDR experimental platform based on the principle of chaotic ROTDR system temperature measurement. The effects of chaotic pulse width, spectral shape, chaotic bandwidth, number of chaotic sub-pulses, amplitude probability distribution, incoming power and system delay on the sensing distance and spatial resolution of the chaotic ROTDR system were investigated from theoretical and experimental perspectives. The experiments are carried out to ensure that the above influencing factors are in the optimal state, and the obtained experimental results can accurately locate the position of the temperature change signal. Finally, a spatial resolution of 10 cm is achieved at a sensing distance of 1.5 km.

    The chaotic ROTDR system was experimentally demonstrated to be able to break the suppression of spatial resolution by pulse width, and eventually achieved spatial resolution on the order of centimeters using a pulse width of 50 ns. Within the limitations of the existing spatial resolution theory, the spatial resolution of this scheme is improved by a factor of 50 over the conventional scheme.

    Raman distributed optical fiber sensing technology based on chaotic correlation method optimizes the spatial resolution performance of traditional sensors, extends the application scenarios of Raman distributed optical fiber sensors, and has great application potential in some occasions where high spatial resolution is required, which provides a new research direction for optical chaos and optical fiber sensing.

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    References

    DOI

    10.1038/s41377-023-01267-3

    Original Source URL

    https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-023-01267-3

    Funding information

    This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under Grants (62075151, 62205234, 62105234); Supported by Fundamental Research Program of Shanxi Province (202103021223042); Supported by Scientific and Technological Innovation Programs of Higher Education Institutions in Shanxi. Supported by Shanxi-Zheda Institute of Advanced Materials and Chemical Engineering.

    About Light: Science & Applications

    The Light: Science & Applications will primarily publish new research results in cutting-edge and emerging topics in optics and photonics, as well as covering traditional topics in optical engineering. The journal will publish original articles and reviews that are of high quality, high interest and far-reaching consequence.

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    Chinese Academy of Sciences

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  • Choosing exoskeleton settings like a Pandora radio station

    Choosing exoskeleton settings like a Pandora radio station

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    Images  //  Video 

    Newswise — Taking inspiration from music streaming services, a team of engineers at the University of Michigan, Google and Georgia Tech has designed the simplest way for users to program their own exoskeleton assistance settings.

    Of course, what’s simple for the users is more complex underneath, as a machine learning algorithm repeatedly offers pairs of assistance profiles that are most likely to be comfortable for the wearer. The user then selects one of these two, and the predictor offers another assistance profile that it believes might be better. This approach enables users to set the exoskeleton assistance based on their preferences using a very simple interface, conducive to implementing on a smartwatch or phone.

    “It’s essentially like Pandora music,” said Elliott Rouse, U-M associate professor of robotics and mechanical engineering and corresponding author of the study in Science Robotics. “You give it feedback, a thumbs up or thumbs down, and it curates a radio station based on your feedback. This is a similar idea, but it’s with exoskeleton assistance settings. In both cases, we are creating a model of the user’s preferences and using this model to optimize the user’s experience.”

    The team tested the approach with 14 participants, each wearing a pair of ankle exoskeletons as they walked at a steady pace of about 2.3 miles per hour. The volunteers could take as much time as they wanted between choices, although they were limited to 50 choices. Most participants were choosing the same assistance profile repeatedly by the 45th decision. 

    After 50 rounds, the experimental team began testing the users to see whether the final assistance profile was truly the best—pairing it against 10 randomly generated (but plausible) profiles. On average, participants chose the settings suggested by the algorithm about nine out of 10 times, which highlights the accuracy of the proposed approach.

    “By using clever algorithms and a touch of AI, our system figures out what users want with easy yes-or-no questions,” said Ung Hee Lee, a recent U-M doctoral graduate from mechanical engineering and first author of the study, now at the robotics company Nuro. “I’m excited that this approach will make wearable robots comfortable and easy to use, bringing them closer to becoming a normal part of our day-to-day life.”

    The control algorithm manages four exoskeleton settings: how much assistance to give (peak torque), how long to go between peaks (timing), and how the exoskeleton both ramps up and reduces the assistance on either side of each peak. This assistance approach is based on how our calf muscle adds force to propel us forward in each step.

    Rouse reports that few groups are enabling users to set their own exoskeleton settings.

    “In most cases, controllers are tuned based on biomechanical or physiological results. The researchers are adjusting the settings on their laptops, minimizing the user’s metabolic rate. Right now, that’s the gold standard for exoskeleton assessment and control,” Rouse said.

    “I think our field overemphasizes testing with metabolic rate. People are actually very insensitive to changes in their own metabolic rate, so we’re developing exoskeletons to do something that people can’t actually perceive.” 

    In contrast, user preference approaches not only focus on what users can perceive but also enable them to prioritize qualities that they feel are valuable.

    The study builds on the team’s previous effort to enable users to apply their own settings to an ankle exoskeleton. In that study, users had a touchscreen grid that put the level of assistance on one axis and the timing of the assistance on another. Users tried different points on the grid until they found one that worked well for them. 

    Once users had discovered what was comfortable, over the course of a couple of hours, they were then able to find their settings on the grid within a couple of minutes. The new study cuts down that longer period of discovering which settings feel best as well as offering two new parameters: how the assistance ramps up and down.

    The data from that earlier study were used to feed the machine learning predictor. An evolutionary algorithm produces variations based on the assistance profiles that those earlier users preferred, and then the predictor—a neural network—ranked those assistance profiles. With each choice the users made, new potential assistance profiles were generated, ranked and presented to the user alongside their previous choice. 

    The study was funded by X, Google’s “Moonshot Factory,” Robotics at Google (now Google Deepmind), and the D. Dan and Betty Kahn Foundation. The concept is currently licensed by Alphabet spinoff Skip Innovations.

    Study: User preference optimization for control of ankle exoskeletons using sample efficient active learning (DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.adg3705)

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    University of Michigan

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  • Using AI to develop hydrogen fuel cell catalysts more efficiently and economically

    Using AI to develop hydrogen fuel cell catalysts more efficiently and economically

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    Newswise — Proton exchange membrane hydrogen fuel cells (PEMFCs) used in hydrogen vehicles use expensive platinum catalysts to facilitate the oxygen reduction reaction at the anode. There are a vast number of elemental combinations and compositions that need to be explored to develop more efficient and cost-effective catalyst materials than platinum, and researchers are still doing a lot of trial and error in the lab.

    The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST, President Seok Jin Yoon) announced that Dr. Donghun Kim and Dr. Sang Soo Han of the Computational Science Research Center, Dr. Jong Min Kim of the Materials Architecturing Research Center, and Prof. Hyuck Mo Lee of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST, President Kwang Hyung Lee) have presented a new artificial intelligence-based catalyst screening methodology and succeeded in developing a new catalytic material based on a ternary element-based alloy (Cu-Au-Pt) that is cheaper and performs more than twice as well as pure platinum catalysts.

    The team developed Slab Graph Convolutional Neural Network (SGCNN) artificial intelligence model to accurately predict the binding energy of adsorbates on the catalyst surface. This is not the first application of AI to materials discovery. The SGCNN model was developed by evolving the CGCNN model, which is specialized in predicting bulk properties of solid materials, to predict surface properties of catalytic materials.

    However, there is a big difference between predicting bulk properties and surface properties. When you can quickly and accurately predict the surface properties of a catalyst, you can more efficiently screen for catalysts that meet the triple bottom line of material stability, performance, and cost. In fact, when developing fuel cell anode reaction catalysts using this methodology, we were able to explore the potential of nearly 3,200 ternary candidate materials in just one day, a scale that would have taken years using the density functional theory (DFT) adsorption energy simulation calculations traditionally used to predict catalyst properties.

    The researchers developed a novel ternary (Cu-Au-Pt) alloy catalyst through experimental validation of 10 catalysts with the potential to outperform platinum catalysts out of approximately 3,200 candidate materials. The catalyst uses only 37% of the element platinum compared to pure platinum catalysts, but the kinetic current density is more than twice as high as that of pure platinum catalysts. The catalyst also exhibits excellent durability, with little degradation after 5,000 stability tests.

    “In the future, we plan to continue to build high-quality adsorption energy data and perform more sophisticated AI modeling, which will further improve the success rate of catalytic material development,” said Dr. Kim of KIST. The new methodology has the advantage of being immediately applicable not only to catalysts for hydrogen fuel cells, but also to various catalytic reactions such as water electrolysis-based hydrogen production, which is essential for the realization of the hydrogen economy. The team plans to further reduce the unit cost and improve the performance of the developed catalysts through material and system optimization.

     

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    KIST was established in 1966 as the first government-funded research institute in Korea. KIST now strives to solve national and social challenges and secure growth engines through leading and innovative research. For more information, please visit KIST’s website at https://eng.kist.re.kr/

    The research was supported by the Samsung Future Technology Fostering Project (SRFC-MA1801-03) of Samsung Electronics (CEO Kye-hyun Kyung) and the Materials Research Data Platform Project of the Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Jong-ho Lee), and was published in the international journal Applied Catalysis B: Environmental.

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    National Research Council of Science and Technology

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  • Superlensing without a super lens: physicists boost microscopes beyond limits

    Superlensing without a super lens: physicists boost microscopes beyond limits

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    Newswise — Ever since Antonie van Leeuwenhoek discovered the world of bacteria through a microscope in the late seventeenth century, humans have tried to look deeper into the world of the infinitesimally small.

    There are, however, physical limits to how closely we can examine an object using traditional optical methods. This is known as the ‘diffraction limit’ and is determined by the fact that light manifests as a wave. It means a focused image can never be smaller than half the wavelength of light used to observe an object.

    Attempts to break this limit with “super lenses” have all hit the hurdle of extreme visual losses, making the lenses opaque. Now physicists at the University of Sydney have shown a new pathway to achieve superlensing with minimal losses, breaking through the diffraction limit by a factor of nearly four times. The key to their success was to remove the super lens altogether. 

    The research is published today in Nature Communications.

    The work should allow scientists to further improve super-resolution microscopy, the researchers say. It could advance imaging in fields as varied as cancer diagnostics, medical imaging, or archaeology and forensics. 

    Lead author of the research, Dr Alessandro Tuniz from the School of Physics and University of Sydney Nano Institute, said: “We have now developed a practical way to implement superlensing, without a super lens. 

    “To do this, we placed our light probe far away from the object and collected both high- and low-resolution information. By measuring further away, the probe doesn’t interfere with the high-resolution data, a feature of previous methods.” 

    Previous attempts have tried to make super lenses using novel materials. However, most materials absorb too much light to make the super lens useful.

    Dr Tuniz said: “We overcome this by performing the superlens operation as a post-processing step on a computer, after the measurement itself. This produces a ‘truthful’ image of the object through the selective amplification of evanescent, or vanishing, light waves. 

    Co-author, Associate Professor Boris Kuhlmey, also from the School of Physics and Sydney Nano, said: “Our method could be applied to determine moisture content in leaves with greater resolution, or be useful in advanced microfabrication techniques, such as non-destructive assessment of microchip integrity.

    “And the method could even be used to reveal hidden layers in artwork, perhaps proving useful in uncovering art forgery or hidden works.”

    Typically, superlensing attempts have tried to home in closely on the high-resolution information. That is because this useful data decays exponentially with distance and is quickly overwhelmed by low-resolution data, which doesn’t decay so quickly. However, moving the probe so close to an object distorts the image.

    “By moving our probe further away we can maintain the integrity of the high-resolution information and use a post-observation technique to filter out the low-resolution data,” Associate Professor Kuhlmey said.

    The research was done using light at terahertz frequency at millimetre wavelength, in the region of the spectrum between visible and microwave.

    Associate Professor Kuhlmey said: “This is a very difficult frequency range to work with, but a very interesting one, because at this range we could obtain important information about biological samples, such as protein structure, hydration dynamics, or for use in cancer imaging.”

    Dr Tuniz said: “This technique is a first step in allowing high-resolution images while staying at a safe distance from the object without distorting what you see.

    “Our technique could be used at other frequency ranges. We expect anyone performing high-resolution optical microscopy will find this technique of interest.”

    DOWNLOAD images at this link.

     

     

     Research paper: A Tuniz & B Kuhlmey, ‘Subwavelength terahertz imaging via virtual superlensing in the radiating near field’, Nature Communications (2023)

    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41949-5

    (Available on request)

     

    DECLARATION

     

    The authors declare no competing financial interests. Research was in part funded by the Australian Research Council.

     

     

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    University of Sydney

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  • Ushering in the era of light-powered ‘multi-level memories’

    Ushering in the era of light-powered ‘multi-level memories’

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    The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) announced that has developed a new zero-dimensional and two-dimensional (2D-0D) semiconductor artificial junction material and observed the effect of a next-generation memory powered by light.

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    National Research Council of Science and Technology

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  • A cheaper, safer alternative to lithium-ion batteries: aqueous rechargeable batteries

    A cheaper, safer alternative to lithium-ion batteries: aqueous rechargeable batteries

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    Newswise — This summer, the planet is suffering from unprecedented heat waves and heavy rainfalls. Developing renewable energy and expanding associated infrastructure has become an essential survival strategy to ensure the sustainability of the planet in crisis, but it has obvious limitations due to the volatility of electricity production, which relies on uncertain variables like labile weather conditions. For this reason, the demand for energy storage systems (ESS) that can store and supply electricity as needed is ever-increasing, but lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) currently employed in ESS are not only highly expensive, but also prone to potential fire, so there is an urgent need to develop cheaper and safer alternatives.

    A research team led by Dr. Oh, Si Hyoung of the Energy Storage Research Center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has developed a highly safe aqueous rechargeable battery that can offer a timely substitute that meets the cost and safety needs. Despite of lower energy density achievable, aqueous rechargeable batteries have a significant economic advantage as the cost of raw materials is much lower than LIBs. However, inveterate hydrogen gas generated from parasitic water decomposition causes a gradual rise in internal pressure and eventual depletion of the electrolyte, which poses a sizeable threat on the battery safety, making commercialization difficult.

    Until now, researchers have often tried to evade this issue by installing a surface protection layer that minimizes the contact area between the metal anode and the electrolyte. However, the corrosion of the metal anode and accompanying decomposition of water in the electrolyte is inevitable in most cases, and incessant accumulation of hydrogen gas can cause a potential detonation in long-term operation.

    To cope with this critical issue, the research team has developed a composite catalyst consisting of manganese dioxide and palladium, which is capable of automatically converting hydrogen gas generated inside the cell into water, ensuring both the performance and safety of the cell. Manganese dioxide does not react with hydrogen gas under normal circumstances, but when a small amount of palladium is added, hydrogen is readily absorbed by the catalysts, being regenerated into water. In the prototype cell loaded with the newly developed catalysts, the internal pressure of the cell was maintained well below the safety limit, and no electrolyte depletion was observed.

    The results of this research effectively solves one of the most concerning safety issues in the aqueous batteries, making a major stride towards commercial application to ESS in the future. Replacing LIBs by cheaper and safer aqueous batteries can even trigger a rapid growth of global market for ESS.

    “This technology pertains to a customized safety strategy for aqueous rechargeable batteries, based on the built-in active safety mechanism, through which risk factors are automatically controlled.” said Dr. Oh, Si Hyoung of KIST. “Moreover, it can be applied to various industrial facilities where hydrogen gas leakage is one of major safety concerns (for instance, hydrogen gas station, nuclear power plant etc) to protect public safety.”

     

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    KIST was established in 1966 as the first government-funded research institute in Korea. KIST now strives to solve national and social challenges and secure growth engines through leading and innovative research. For more information, please visit KIST’s website at https://eng.kist.re.kr/

    This research was supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Lee Jong-ho) through the Nano Future Material Source Technology Development Project and the Mid-Career Researcher Support Project, and the results were published on August 1 in the international journal Energy Storage Materials (IF 20.4).

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    National Research Council of Science and Technology

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  • New technology for customized air purification of toxic gases

    New technology for customized air purification of toxic gases

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    Newswise — Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in daily products such as paints, adhesives, furniture, cosmetics, and deodorants make our lives easier. However, constant exposure can cause serious health problems such as respiratory illness, headaches, dermatitis, and cancer. Natural ventilation is the most effective way to reduce VOCs in indoor air, but recently, air purifiers have become a common method to maintain indoor air quality due to the frequent extreme outdoor condition (e.g. high concentration of fine dust, heat waves, and extreme cold). Generally, air purifiers remove VOCs by adsorption using activated carbon, which has a non-polar carbon surface and a large specific surface area. This activated carbon can effectively remove non-polar substances such as toluene and benzene, but cannot remove polar substances such as ketones and aldehydes.

    The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST, President Seok Jin Yoon) announced that Dr. Jiwon Lee and Dr. Youngtak Oh from the Center for Sustainable Environment Research have developed a new adsorbent technology that can efficiently adsorb amphiphilic VOCs, which have both hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties and are difficult to remove with existing activated carbon technology.

    The KIST research team synthesized a graphene-iron oxide heterostructure by precisely controlling the surface oxidation of graphite and iron, resulting in a high adsorption capacity for amphiphilic VOCs due to the increase of oxygen functional groups and iron oxide on the surface. This unique adsorbent showed up to 15 times better adsorption efficiency for amphiphilic VOCs than conventional activated carbon adsorbents.

    They also found that precise oxygen functional groups and iron oxides control of the adsorbent can offer flexible surface optimization freedom for a desirable nature of the pollutant. By testing four different ketones that are difficult to control with activated carbon adsorbents, the researchers found the correlation between the length of carbon chains and the adsorption efficiency; by optimizing the content of oxygen functional groups and iron oxides in the adsorbent, they were able to bring the maximum removal efficiency for the ketones. The researchers also analyzed the sub-nanometer electron transfer phenomenon between the adsorbent and VOC molecules; they found a link between the geometric shape of the pollutant and its adsorption trend for the first time. This is expected to enable the development of customized detection and control technologies for various air pollutants in our environment.

    “Unlike previous studies that focused on mere improvement of the adsorption performance and regeneration efficiency of adsorbents, we succeeded in developing a breakthrough material that exceeds the limits of existing adsorbents using accessible materials such as graphite and iron, which have high commercialization potential,” said Dr. Jiwon Lee.

     

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    KIST was established in 1966 as the first government-funded research institute in Korea. KIST now strives to solve national and social challenges and secure growth engines through leading and innovative research. For more information, please visit KIST’s website at https://eng.kist.re.kr/

    The research, which was conducted as a major project of KIST (Air Environment Research Program) with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Jong-ho Lee), was published on October 1 in the Chemical Engineering Journal.

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    National Research Council of Science and Technology

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  • Scientists illuminate the mechanics of solid-state batteries

    Scientists illuminate the mechanics of solid-state batteries

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    Newswise — As current courses through a battery, its materials erode over time. Mechanical influences such as stress and strain affect this trajectory, although their impacts on battery efficacy and longevity are not fully understood.

    A team led by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a framework for designing solid-state batteries, or SSBs, with mechanics in mind. Their paper, published in Science, reviewed how these factors change SSBs during their cycling.

    “Our goal is to highlight the importance of mechanics in battery performance,” said Sergiy Kalnaus, a scientist in ORNL’s Multiphysics Modeling and Flows group. “A lot of studies have focused on chemical or electric properties but have neglected to show the underlying mechanics.”

    The team spans several ORNL research areas including computation, chemistry and materials science. Together, their review painted a more cohesive picture of the conditions that affect SSBs by using perspectives from across the scientific spectrum. “We’re trying to bridge the divide between disciplines,” said Kalnaus.

    In batteries, charged particles flow through materials known as electrolytes. Most are liquids, like in the lithium-ion batteries found in electric cars — but solid electrolytes also are being developed. These conductors are typically made from glass or ceramic and could offer advantages such as enhanced safety and strength.

    “True solid-state batteries don’t have flammable liquids inside,” said Kalnaus. “This means that they would be less hazardous than the batteries commonly used today.”

    However, solid electrolytes are still in the early stages of development due to the challenges associated with these novel materials. SSB components swell and shrink during charge and mass transport, which alters the system. “Electrodes constantly deform during the battery operation, creating delamination and voids at the interfaces with the solid electrolyte,” said Kalnaus. “In today’s systems, the best solution is applying a large amount of pressure to keep everything together.”

    These dimensional changes damage solid electrolytes, which are made from brittle materials. They often break in response to strain and pressure. Making these materials more ductile would allow them to withstand stress by flowing instead of cracking. This behavior can be achieved with some techniques that introduce small crystal defects into ceramic electrolytes.

    Electrons leave a system through anodes. In SSBs, this component can be made from pure lithium, which is the most energy dense metal. Although this material offers advantages for a battery’s power, it also creates pressure that can damage electrolytes.

    “During charging, nonuniform plating and an absence of stress-relief mechanisms can create stress concentrations. These can support large amounts of pressure, enabling the flow of lithium metal,” said Erik Herbert, the leader of ORNL’s Mechanical Properties and Mechanics group. “In order to optimize the performance and longevity of SSBs, we need to engineer the next generation of anodes and solid electrolytes that can maintain mechanically stable interfaces without fracturing the solid electrolyte separator.”

    The team’s work is part of ORNL’s long history of researching materials for SSBs. In the early 1990s, a glassy electrolyte known as lithium phosphorous oxynitride, or LiPON, was developed at the lab. LiPON has become widely used as an electrolyte in thin-film batteries that have a metallic lithium anode. This component can withstand many charge-discharge cycles without failure, largely due to the ductility of LiPON. When met with mechanical stressors, it flows instead of cracking.

    “In recent years we have learned that LiPON has robust mechanical properties to complement its chemical and electrochemical durability,” said Nancy Dudney, an ORNL scientist who led the team that developed the material.

    The team’s effort highlights an under-studied aspect of SSBs — understanding the factors that shape their lifespan and efficacy. “The research community needed a road map,” said Kalnaus. “In our paper, we outlined the mechanics of materials for solid-state electrolytes, encouraging scientists to consider these when designing new batteries.”

    UT-Battelle manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. The single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, the Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. 

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  • Dramatically lower the cost of producing green hydrogen

    Dramatically lower the cost of producing green hydrogen

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    Newswise — According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global hydrogen demand is expected to reach 530 million tons in 2050, a nearly six-fold increase from 2020. Currently, the primary method of hydrogen production involves the reaction of natural gas and water vapor, resulting in what is known as ‘gray hydrogen’ due to its carbon dioxide emissions, constituting around 80% of total hydrogen production. In contrast, green hydrogen is produced through water electrolysis using electricity, without emitting carbon dioxide. However, a challenge lies in the inevitable use of expensive precious metal catalysts, such as iridium oxide.

    A research team led by Dr. Yoo Sung Jong of the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Research Center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) have succeeded in significantly reducing the cost of green hydrogen production by implementing an anion exchange membrane water electrolysis device with excellent performance and durability by introducing a carbon support. Carbon supports have been utilized as supports for various electrocatalysts due to their high electrical conductivity and specific surface area, but their usage has been limited because they readily oxidize to carbon dioxide in water electrolysis conditions, specifically at high voltages and in the presence of water.

    The team synthesized a nickel-iron-cobalt layered double hydroxide material, a significantly cheaper alternative to iridium, on a hydrophobic carbon support and used it as an electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction in anion exchange membrane electrolysis. The catalyst showed excellent durability due to the layered structure facing a hydrophobic carbon support and a nickel-iron-cobalt layered double hydroxide catalyst. In terms of carbon corrosion, it was found that the generation of carbon dioxide during the corrosion process was reduced by more than half, primarily because of decreased interaction with water, a key factor in carbon corrosion. It was found that the carbon dioxide generated during the corrosion process was less than half due to the reduced interaction with water, which causes corrosion of carbon.

    As a result of performance evaluation, it is found that the newly developed supported catalyt achieved a current density of 10.29 A/cm-2 in the 2 V region, exceeding the 9.38 A/cm-2 current density of commercial iridium oxide. demonstrated long-term durability of about 550 hours. We also confirmed a correlation between electrolysis performance and the hydrophobicity of carbon, showing for the first time that the support’s hydrophobicity can significantly affect the water electrolysis device’s performance.

    “The results of this research confirm the applicability of water electrolysis devices on carbon supports, which have previously been limited in use due to corrosion problems, and it is expected that water electrolysis technology can grow to the next level if the research focused on catalyst development is expanded to various supports.” “We will strive to develop various eco-friendly energy technologies, including green hydrogen production,” said Dr. Yoo Sung Jong Yoo in KIST.

    ###

    KIST was established in 1966 as the first government-funded research institute in Korea. KIST now strives to solve national and social challenges and secure growth engines through leading and innovative research. For more information, please visit KIST’s website at https://eng.kist.re.kr/

    This research was supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Lee Jong-ho) through the KIST Major Project and Nano and Material Technology Development Project, and the Korea Energy Technology Assessment Institute(Director Kwon Ki-young) Renewable Energy Core Technology Development Project, and the results were published on August 1 in the international journal Energy & Environmental Science (IF 32.5, top 0.4% in JCR).

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  • Argonne joins Illinois manufacturers for ​“Makers on the Move” tour

    Argonne joins Illinois manufacturers for ​“Makers on the Move” tour

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    Newswise — Manufacturers throughout Illinois will have the chance to learn about working with the Materials Manufacturing Innovation Center (MMIC) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, when the MMIC gets on the bus for the second annual Makers on the Move tour. 

    The Illinois Manufacturing Association and Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center (IMEC) sponsor the eight-day, 1,000-mile tour, designed to showcase high-tech, clean, diverse and sustainable modern manufacturing. The branded Makers on the Move bus will stand out on the state’s roadways as it visits facilities, colleges and high schools in all corners of Illinois, starting Friday, Oct. 6 at Boeing in Mascoutah and ending on Oct. 13 at various Chicago facilities.   

    “We look forward to experiencing the diversity of manufacturing in Illinois and helping deliver on the lab’s mission of accelerating science and technology to drive U.S. prosperity and security.”  — MMIC Director Chris Heckle

    Meeting Illinois manufacturers face to face and learning their stories is a great opportunity for the MMIC, which exists to support industry partners in solving enduring manufacturing R&D challenges, identifying commercialization opportunities, licensing new technologies and introducing transformational discoveries to the marketplace, said MMIC Director Chris Heckle.

    “Celebrating October as Manufacturing Month is important to us at Argonne,” she said. ​“We look forward to experiencing the diversity of manufacturing in Illinois and helping deliver on the lab’s mission of accelerating science and technology to drive U.S. prosperity and security.” 

    In 2021, manufacturing contributed $2.3 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), amounting to 12.0% of total U.S. GDP, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). IMEC is an approved center in NIST’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership national network.

    IMEC CEO and President David Boulay said Illinois manufacturers are keen to innovate and will be interested in how MMIC can connect them to Argonne’s cutting-edge research, capabilities and facilities, including the Materials Engineering Research Facility and Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, a DOE Office of Science user facility.

    “Argonne’s expertise in the materials and chemical processing spaces can help solve complex problems,” he said. ​“Argonne is a national laboratory with the MMIC as a great regional resource. Their commitment to traveling across the state with our team, in the spirit of supporting industry, demonstrates the lab’s commitment to partnership in manufacturing innovation.”  

    Launched last year, MMIC executes on Argonne’s commitment to advancing U.S. manufacturing by de-risking and accelerating the scale-up and commercialization of new, complex materials critically important to U.S. competitiveness. With MMIC as a first point of contact, industry can engage with scientists working on a new frontier of advanced manufacturing techniques and access facilities and equipment essential for inventing processes for transformative materials. Learn more.

    The Argonne Leadership Computing Facility provides supercomputing capabilities to the scientific and engineering community to advance fundamental discovery and understanding in a broad range of disciplines. Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science, Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program, the ALCF is one of two DOE Leadership Computing Facilities in the nation dedicated to open science.

    Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America’s scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

    The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://​ener​gy​.gov/​s​c​ience.

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  • High-performance, Earth-friendly Materials for Geothermal Wells

    High-performance, Earth-friendly Materials for Geothermal Wells

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    Newswise — UPTON, NY—The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced $19 million in funding over four years for a new research center focused on exploring the chemical and mechanical properties of cement composites and other materials used in enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). The “Center for Coupled Chemo-Mechanics of Cementitious Composites for EGS” (C4M)—one of 11 Energy Earthshot Research Centers (EERCs) just announced by DOE as part of its Energy Earthshots™ Initiative—will be located in the Interdisciplinary Science Department at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. Research there and at partner institutions will inform the design of Earth-friendly varieties of cement composites, coatings, and other barriers designed to protect geothermal wells. The ultimate goal is to expand the use of this abundant, sustainable form of energy.

    “Our Energy Earthshots are game-changing endeavors to unleash the technologies of the clean energy transition and make them accessible, affordable, and abundant,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “The Energy Earthshot Research Centers and the related work happening on college campuses around the country will be instrumental in developing the clean energy and decarbonization solutions we need to establish a 100% clean grid and beat climate change.”

    Brookhaven Lab materials scientist Tatiana Pyatina, who leads the geothermal materials research effort at Brookhaven Lab and will direct the new C4M EERC, said, “Geothermal energy has the potential to transform abundant heat trapped deep underground into gigawatts of electricity for powering millions of American homes. It is renewable, has a small geographical footprint, and, unlike other green energies [e.g., wind and solar], is available around-the-clock.”

    But there are a few sticking points: The materials used to construct the wells—including cement composites that support and insulate the pipelike metal casings that carry Earth-heated fluids from subterranean depths to the surface—must withstand extreme temperatures and corrosive conditions and last for many years. Enhanced geothermal systems, which force more fluid than is naturally present through hot underground rocks to increase the extraction of heat, experience even greater thermo-mechanical stresses. Such stringent materials requirements can drive up construction costs.

    In addition, the cement currently used in well-supporting composites is an extreme carbon dioxide (CO2) emitter. Almost a pound of the heat-trapping gas is released for every pound of cement produced—through cement-making chemical reactions and the use of fossil fuels to power the process.

    “To realize geothermal energy’s potential, it is therefore essential to rationally design cost-effective, sustainable well-construction materials with a net-zero CO2 footprint,” Pyatina said.

    To achieve that goal, the C4M team will conduct extensive studies of the chemical and mechanical properties of new forms of cementitious composite materials. Their goals are to understand the chemical changes that take place in these materials under high temperature and pressure so they can design reliable and durable composites for use in the extremely challenging underground environments. By quantifying the effects of these chemical changes on materials’ performance, they will learn to control the solidification and transformations of these materials so they can be deployed successfully and economically in well construction and operation.

    “This work will build on a long history of award-winning research at Brookhaven Lab on materials for sustainable energy applications, including geothermal energy,” Pyatina said. “Our hope is that this research will achieve our goal of developing net-zero CO2 materials that will cut the cost of enhanced geothermal systems by 90% by 2035.” 

    Amy Marschilok, the energy systems and energy storage division manager of the Interdisciplinary Science Department, noted, “To meet our Nation’s energy goals we need new approaches to harness green energy and release it on demand. The new C4M EERC epitomizes the Interdisciplinary Science Department mission, leveraging Brookhaven Lab’s expertise across the innovation cycle from fundamental materials science to functional energy systems. I look forward to significant advances under Tatiana’s leadership.”

    New material needs

    In the process of cement production, limestone (calcium carbonate) and other materials are heated to very high temperatures in cement kilns. The high heat triggers a chemical reaction that decomposes the limestone, transforming the calcium carbonate and other ingredients into the compounds that ultimately make up cement powder. The limestone decomposition reaction and the heating that drives it (if powered by fossil fuels) release CO2. To avoid these CO2 emissions, the C4M team will be exploring the use of alternate minerals, possibly even the mud used to drill the wells, which would form its own cement in place.

    To ensure well durability, they’ll be seeking to identify materials with geologically stable mineral phases. They will also investigate the use of inorganic coatings that make the pipe-like well casings more resistant to high temperatures and aggressive environments. Some coatings may protect the metal casings so well that cement would no longer be needed.

    The team will use both laboratory experiments and computational modeling to elucidate and predict the performance of these new cements and composite materials from the atomic to the macroscopic scale, and for a time span ranging from seconds to years. They expect to use information identified through these studies and the use of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing to design advanced materials with long durability for geothermal applications.

    “We have assembled a multi-disciplinary team of leading researchers with complementary expertise,” Pyatina said, noting that the team will leverage expertise and DOE Office of Science user facilities at Brookhaven—including the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) and Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)—as well as at partner institutions, including the Advanced Light Source at DOE’s Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory. Additional partners include DOE’s Sandia National Laboratory, DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, and four universities: University of Texas at Austin (a minority-serving institution), Cornell University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Princeton University.

    “Through this Center, an incredibly talented team has been assembled to develop the fundamental understanding of the materials needed to push back the pressure and temperature boundaries of geothermal power production,” said Thomas Butcher, a research engineer who leads the energy conversion group in Brookhaven Lab’s Interdisciplinary Science Department. “Each member has been leading research in this area for a long time, but this project will allow them to focus on this important challenge in a truly collaborative way.”

    Another group of Brookhaven Lab scientists will participate as partners in one of the other Energy Earthshot Research Centers. That center—“Degradation Reactions in Electrothermal Energy Storage (DEGREES)”—will be led by DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). James Wishart, Simerjeet Gill, and Yu-chen (Karen) Chen-Wiegart, staff scientists at Brookhaven, will be partners in this center. They will explore the interactions of molten salts (used here as heat transfer fluids) with thermal energy storage materials and investigate how contact with molten salt affects the thermal materials’ stability and performance over time. This research will make use of multimodal x-ray synchrotron techniques at NSLS-II and will include studies on samples brought to NSLS-II from other partner institutions.

    Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit science.energy.gov.

    Follow @BrookhavenLab on social media. Find us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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  • Transformer! New multi-purpose robot changes shape for different uses

    Transformer! New multi-purpose robot changes shape for different uses

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    BYLINE: Laura Thomas

    Newswise — Researchers have designed a robot which can change form to tackle varying scenarios.

    A team at the University of Bristol and based at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory have built a tetrahedron shaped robot with flexible piping known as Tetraflex that can move through small gaps or over challenging terrain. It can also encapsulate fragile objects such as an egg and transport them safely within its soft body.

    The findings, published in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, show that the Tetraflex robot is capable of locomoting in multiple different ways. This makes the robot potentially useful for mobility in a challenging or confined environments such as navigating rubble to reach survivors of an earthquake, performing oil rig inspections or even exploring other planets.

    The object transport capability demonstrated also adds another dimension to potential applications. This could be used to pick up and transport payloads from otherwise inaccessible locations, helping with ecological surveying or in nuclear decommissioning.

    Lead author Peter Wharton from Bristol’s School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology explained: “The robot is composed of soft struts connected by rigid nodes. Each strut is formed of an airtight rubber bellow and the length of the strut can be controlled by varying the air pressure within the bellow.

    “Higher pressures cause the bellow to extend, and lower pressures cause it to contract. By controlling the pressure in each bellow simultaneously we can control the robot shape and size change.

    “After this, it was simply a matter of experimenting with different patterns of shape change that would generate useful motions such as rolling or crawling along a surface.”

    Their design uses soft struts which can change length freely and independently. By changing the lengths of the struts by the right amount and in the right sequence, they can generate multiple different ways such as rolling or crawling), change the size of the robot, and even envelop and transport payloads.

    Peter said: “I would say these capabilities are a natural consequence of working with such a versatile structure and we hope that other interesting capabilities can be developed in the future.

    “The most exciting aspect of this study for me is the versatility of Tetraflex and how we might be able to use these robots to explore challenging terrain and achieve tasks in areas humans cannot access. The multiple gaits available to Tetraflex and object transport capability show this versatility well.”

    The team have already enjoyed some success, entering an earlier version of Tetraflex in the RoboSoft 2022 Locomotion Competition in Edinburgh and coming third, demonstrating movement over sand, through small gaps and between obstacles.

    After exploring some capabilities of Tetraflex in locomotion and object transport, they now plan to apply machine learning algorithms which could allow them to really thoroughly explore movement patterns, as well as optimising their current ones.

    He added: “There could be some really creative and effective ways of moving around or interacting with the environment that we haven’t yet discovered.”

     

    Paper:

    ‘Tetraflex: A Multigait Soft Robot for Object Transportation in Confined Environments’ by Peter Wharton et al in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.

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  • NYU Tandon School of Engineering Researchers unveil tool to help developers create augmented reality task assistants

    NYU Tandon School of Engineering Researchers unveil tool to help developers create augmented reality task assistants

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    Newswise — Augmented reality (AR) technology has long fascinated both the scientific community and the general public, remaining a staple of modern science fiction for decades.

    In the pursuit of advanced AR assistants – ones that can guide people through intricate surgeries or everyday food preparation, for example – a research team from NYU Tandon School of Engineering has introduced Augmented Reality Guidance and User-Modeling System, or ARGUS. 

    An interactive visual analytics tool, ARGUS is engineered to support the development of intelligent AR assistants that can run on devices like Microsoft HoloLens 2 or MagicLeap. It enables developers to collect and analyze data, model how people perform tasks, and find and fix problems in the AR assistants they are building.

    Claudio Silva, NYU Tandon Institute Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and Professor of Data Science at the NYU Center for Data Science, leads the research team that will present its paper on ARGUS at IEEE VIS 2023 on October 26, 2023, in Melbourne Australia.  The paper received Honorable Mention in that event’s Best Paper Awards.  

    “Imagine you’re developing an AR AI assistant to help home cooks prepare meals,” said Silva. “Using ARGUS, a developer can monitor a cook working with the ingredients, so they can assess how well the AI is performing in understanding the environment and user actions. Also, how the system is providing relevant instructions and feedback to the user.  It is meant to be used by developers of such AR systems.”

    ARGUS works in two modes: online and offline. 

    The online mode is for real-time monitoring and debugging while an AR system is in use. It lets developers see what the AR system sees and how it’s interpreting the environment and user actions. They can also adjust settings and record data for later analysis. 

    The offline mode is for analyzing historical data generated by the AR system. It provides tools to explore and visualize this data, helping developers understand how the system behaved in the past. 

    ARGUS’ offline mode comprises three key components: the Data Manager, which helps users organize and filter AR session data; the Spatial View, providing a 3D visualization of spatial interactions in the AR environment; and the Temporal View, which focuses on the temporal progression of actions and objects during AR sessions. These components collectively facilitate comprehensive data analysis and debugging.

    “ARGUS is unique in its ability to provide comprehensive real-time monitoring and retrospective analysis of complex multimodal data in the development of systems,” said Silva. “Its integration of spatial and temporal visualization tools sets it apart as a solution for improving intelligent assistive AR systems, offering capabilities not found together in other tools.”

    ARGUS is open source and available on GitHub under VIDA-NYU. The work is supported by the DARPA Perceptually-enabled Task Guidance (PTG) program.

     

    About New York University Tandon School of Engineering

    The NYU Tandon School of Engineering is home to a community of renowned faculty, undergraduate and graduate students united in a mission to understand and create technology that powers cities, enables worldwide communication, fights climate change, and builds healthier, safer, and more equitable real and digital worlds. The school’s culture centers on encouraging rigorous, interdisciplinary collaboration and research; fostering inclusivity, entrepreneurial thinking, and diverse perspectives; and creating innovative and accessible pathways for lifelong learning in STEM. NYU Tandon dates back to 1854, the founding year of both the New York University School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute. Located in the heart of Brooklyn, NYU Tandon is a vital part of New York University and its unparalleled global network. For more information, visit engineering.nyu.edu.

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  • Organic lasers: a bright future

    Organic lasers: a bright future

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    Newswise — Scientists at St Andrews are leading a significant breakthrough in a decades-long challenge to develop compact laser technology.

    Lasers are used across the world for a huge range of applications in communications, medicine, surveying, manufacturing and measurement.  They are used to transmit information across the internet, for medical treatments, and even in the face scanner on phones.  Most of these lasers are made from rigid, brittle, semiconductor crystals such as gallium arsenide.

    Organic semiconductors are a newer class of electronic material. Flexible, based on carbon and emitting visible light, they enable the simple fabrication of electronic devices. They are now widely used for the OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screens found in most mobile phones. 

    A limitation of organic semiconductor lasers is that they typically need another laser to power them. Researchers have been working to overcome this limitation for 30 years, so it is particularly significant that scientists at the University of St Andrews have recently developed an electrically driven organic semiconductor laser.  The team made this breakthrough, reported in the journal Nature, by first making an OLED with world-record light output and then carefully combining it with a polymer laser structure. This new type of laser emits a green laser beam consisting of short light pulses.  

    For now, this is mainly a scientific breakthrough, but with future development the laser could potentially be integrated with OLED displays and allow communication between them, or be used for spectroscopy for the detection of disease and environmental pollutants.

    Prof Ifor Samuel commented “Making an electrically driven laser from organic materials has been a huge challenge for researchers across the world.  Now, after many years of hard work, we are delighted to have made this new type of laser.”

    Prof Graham Turnbull added “We expect this new laser to use less energy in its manufacture, and in the future will generate laser light across the visible spectrum.”

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  • ETRI confirms possibility of wireless communication 40m underground in mine

    ETRI confirms possibility of wireless communication 40m underground in mine

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    Newswise — South Korean researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery that enables wireless communication below the Earth’s surface, a significant departure from their traditional focus on terrestrial communication systems. This development opens new avenues for confirming the survival of individuals trapped due to accidents such as mine collapses during rescue operations.

    Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute(ETRI) announced that they have successfully developed the world’s first “Subterranean Magnetic Field Communication Core Technology.” Utilizing a transmitting antenna with a diameter of 1 meter and a receiving antenna of several centimeters, the institute managed to send and receive voice signal-level capacity up to 40 meters below the Earth’s surface in a mine.

    Conventional wisdom held that wireless communication in the complex underground environments of mines was virtually impossible due to signal attenuation. However, ETRI overcame these obstacles by developing a new communication system that leverages the unique boundary conditions of magnetic fields within the medium. The result is a successful transmission of voice data-level capacity in a mine where stable communication was previously unfeasible.

    The research team miniaturized the size of their transmitting antenna to 1 meter, contrasting with the tens-of-meters scale antennas used in previous international research. The system also features small receiving sensors based on magnetic induction, with dimensions in the order of centimeters.

    According to the researchers, the newly developed transmitting and receiving antennas function akin to an Access Point(AP), essentially serving as a base station linking the surface and the underground. Therefore, it is expected that once transmitting devices on the surface and receiving devices underground are installed, individuals awaiting rescue could communicate through personal devices like mobile phones, connected to these antennas.

    The successful communication test was conducted over a distance of 40 meters inside a mine composed of limestone bedrock. The team explained that they used a very narrow low-frequency band of 20kHz, rather than the MHz or GHz range commonly used in general wireless communication. This frequency band was chosen to minimize material loss in the subterranean or underwater environment, and to suit the size of the antennas. The data transmission rate for voice signals was maintained at around 4kbps, sufficient for basic two-way communication.

    In the labyrinthine darkness of underground mines, which bear a resemblance to the complexity of an ant colony, researchers have demonstrated the ability to transmit data directly over a distance of 40 meters between various levels.

    This successful application of magnetic field communication promises to bring substantial changes to the underground mining industry. Notably, this technology is expected to offer a reliable mode of communication during emergencies such as mine collapses, underground fires, and other disaster scenarios that typically disrupt conventional communication systems.

    ETRI emphasized that magnetic field communication systems would maintain connections between miners and rescue teams during accidents, thereby facilitating better-coordinated rescue efforts. The technology is also seen as a means to reduce response time in emergencies and to enhance safety measures.

    Additionally, Last year, they successfully executed underwater communications up to a depth of 40 meters in freshwater regions such as rivers and streams.

    Moreover, the institute has completed patent applications for key technologies, including transceivers, related antennas, modems, bandwidth extension transmission technology, and miniaturized magnetic field sensors.

    ETRI’s In-kui Cho, Director of EM Wave Basic Technology Research Section, elaborated, “We have conducted successful communication trials between the first and second layers of underground mines using magnetic field communication systems. This greatly reduces the likelihood of communication network disruptions caused by mine collapses.”

    Seung-keun Park Assistane Vice President of Radio Research Division at ETRI, also expressed that beyond mining, magnetic field communication is expected to have a broad impact across various sectors. “This technology is anticipated to be a groundbreaking mode of reliable communication in complex and unpredictable environments like underground construction, tunneling, and ocean excavation,” he said.

    The research team has secured a solid track record, including ten papers published in SCI-indexed journals and twelve international patent applications. Their work is set to be presented at the esteemed international academic conference in the field of communication, the 20th Annual IEEE International Conference on Sensing, Communication, and Networking(SECON 2023), scheduled for September 12, 2023.

    ETRI is concentrating its research on overcoming the limitations of propagating material in extreme conditions like underwater and subterranean environments. Collaborating with industry partners, they aim to further develop this technology for long-distance and miniaturized systems exceeding 100 meters.

    Researchers anticipate that this breakthrough will offer effective communication solutions not only in mine collapses but also in other underground structures like gas and oil pipelines, contributing to increased safety measures during various emergencies.

     

    ###

    The research results are part of the “10pT-class Micro-magnetic Field-based Medium and Long Distance Magnetic Field Communication Technology” project, supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT’s ETRI Research and Development Program. The developmental trials were conducted in collaboration with Admotech Co., Ltd. and Do-It Co., Ltd.

     

    About Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI)

    ETRI is a non-profit government-funded research institute. Since its foundation in 1976, ETRI, a global ICT research institute, has been making its immense effort to provide Korea a remarkable growth in the field of ICT industry. ETRI delivers Korea as one of the top ICT nations in the World, by unceasingly developing world’s first and best technologies.

    This technology was developed with the assistance of the Ministry of Science and ICT.

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  • World-class neutron source takes a break for major Proton Power Upgrade

    World-class neutron source takes a break for major Proton Power Upgrade

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    Newswise — The Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory — already the world’s most powerful accelerator-based neutron source — will be on a planned hiatus through June 2024 as crews work to upgrade the facility.

    Much of the work — part of the facility’s Proton Power Upgrade project — will involve building a connector between the accelerator and the planned Second Target Station at SNS. When complete, the PPU project will bring the accelerator up to 2.8 megawatts from its current record-breaking 1.7 megawatts of beam power.

    Workers will add about 3,000 square feet of concrete tunnel, the “stub,” which will integrate with an existing tunnel. Construction tasks include associated structures, roofing, geomembrane liner, tunnel waterproofing, electrical, fire alarm, ventilation systems and controls.

    “The construction crews have performed all of the excavation work and are transitioning to tunnel base and wall construction,” said ORNL’s Mark Champion, PPU project manager.

    The stub is scheduled to be completed within six months, by the end of February, and most of the rest of this outage will involve installing new components and systems to complete the PPU project.

    That work includes:

    • Installing three new cryomodules, adding more radio-frequency stations and upgrading two high-voltage units to support new 3.0 megawatt klystrons.
    • Installing an injection dump imaging system and new magnets and upgrading deionized water systems, power supplies and a beam power limit system.
    • Installing a new liquid hydrogen refill system, mercury overflow tank and target complete with gas injection and recirculation system.
    • Completing controls integration.

    The upgrade will increase the flow of neutrons — known as the neutron flux — to the First Target Station, or FTS, and eventually also power the STS.

    Power to the FTS — which produces thermal neutrons to analyze samples down to the atomic scale — will increase to 2.0 megawatts, enabling new scientific discoveries in such areas as superconductors, energy materials such as those used in batteries, and basic physics. The additional power will be split via the stub, to power the STS, which will have the world’s highest peak brightness of neutrons, tailored for probing soft matter such as polymers and biological materials, and complex engineering materials. This is used in vaccine research, advanced batteries and for decarbonization studies.

    “It’s very gratifying to reach one of the final stages of the project after several years of planning, design and engineering,” said ORNL’s John Galambos, PPU project director. “It’s a huge tribute to the skills and dedication of the entire PPU team and our partner labs that the project has remained on schedule and on budget despite unprecedented challenges, including Covid-19 and subsequent supply chain issues.”

    The Spallation Neutron Source is an Office of Science user facility at ORNL.

    UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.

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    Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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  • NIH awards researchers $1.2M to develop robotic eye examination system

    NIH awards researchers $1.2M to develop robotic eye examination system

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    Newswise — A collaboration between researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Duke University has developed a robotic eye examination system, and the National Institutes of Health has awarded the researchers $1.2 million to expand and refine the system.

    The researchers have developed a robotic system that automatically positions examination sensors to scan human eyes. It currently uses an optical scan technique which can operate from a reasonably safe distance from the eye, and now the researchers are working to add more features that will help it perform most steps of a standard eye exam. These features will require the system to operate in closer proximity to the eye.

    “Instead of having to spend time in a doctor’s office going through the manual steps of routine examinations, a robotic system can do this automatically,” said Kris Hauser, a U. of I. computer science professor and the study’s principal investigator. “This would mean faster and more widespread screening leading to better health outcomes for more people. But to achieve this, we need to develop safer and more reliable controls, and this award allows us to do just that.”

    Automated medical examinations could both make routine medical services accessible to more people and allow health care workers to treat more patients. However, medical examinations present unique safety concerns compared to other automated processes. The robots must be trusted to operate reliably and safely in proximity to sensitive body parts.

    A prior system developed by Hauser and his collaborators was a robotic eye examination system that deploys a technique called optical coherence tomography which scans the eye to create a three-dimensional map of the eye’s interior. This capability allows many conditions to be diagnosed, but the researchers want to expand the system’s capabilities by including a slit eye examiner and an aberrometer. These additional features require the robot arm to be held within two centimeters of the eye, highlighting the need for enhanced robotic safety.

    “Getting the robot within two centimeters of the patient’s eye while ensuring safety is a bit of a new concern,” Hauser said. “If a patient’s moving towards the robot, it has to move away. If the patient is swaying, the arm has to match their movement.”

    Hauser likened the control system to those used in autonomous vehicles. While the system can’t react to all possible human behaviors, he said, it must prevent “at-fault collisions” like self-driving cars must do.

    The award will enable the researchers to conduct large-scale reliability testing. An important component of these tests is ensuring that the system works for as many people as possible. To achieve this, the researchers have developed a second robot that will use mannequin heads to emulate unexpected human behaviors. Moreover, the second robot will automatically randomize the heads’ appearance with different skin tones, facial features, hair and coverings to help the researchers understand and mitigate the effects of algorithmic bias in their system.

    The system will be designed for use in clinical settings, but Hauser imagines that one day such systems could be used in retail settings much like blood pressure stations.

    “Something like this could be used in an eyeglass store to scan your eyes for the prescription, or it could give a diagnostic scan in a pharmacy and forward the information to your doctor,” he said. “This is really where an automated examination system like this would be most effective: giving as many people access to basic health care services as possible.”

    ***

    Duke University professors Jospeh Izatt of biomedical engineering and Anthony Kuo of ophthalmology are co-principal investigators.

    The award, cosponsored by the National Robotics Initiative, will be distributed over three years.

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    University Of Illinois Grainger College Of Engineering

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  • Nanofluidic device generates power with saltwater

    Nanofluidic device generates power with saltwater

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    Newswise — There is a largely untapped energy source along the world’s coastlines: the difference in salinity between seawater and freshwater. A new nanodevice can harness this difference to generate power.

    A team of researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has reported a design for a nanofluidic device capable of converting ionic flow into usable electric power in the journal Nano Energy. The team believes that their device could be used to extract power from the natural ionic flows at seawater-freshwater boundaries.

    “While our design is still a concept at this stage, it is quite versatile and already shows strong potential for energy applications,” said Jean-Pierre Leburton, a U. of I. professor of electrical & computer engineering and the project lead. “It began with an academic question – ‘Can a nanoscale solid-state device extract energy from ionic flow?’ – but our design exceeded our expectations and surprised us in many ways.”

    When two bodies of water with different salinity meet, such as where a river empties into an ocean, salt molecules naturally flow from higher concentration to lower concentration. The energy of these flows can be harvested because they consist of electrically charged particles called ions that form from the dissolved salt.

    Leburton’s group designed a nanoscale semiconductor device that takes advantage of a phenomenon called “Coulomb drag” between flowing ions and electric charges in the device. When the ions flow through a narrow channel in the device, electric forces cause the device charges to move from one side to the other creating voltage and electric current.

    The researchers found two surprising behaviors when they simulated their device. First, while they expected that Coulomb drag would primarily occur through the attractive force between opposite electric charges, the simulations indicated that the device works equally well if the electric forces are repulsive. Both positively and negatively charged ions contribute to drag.

    “Just as noteworthy, our study indicates that there is an amplification effect” said Mingye Xiong, a graduate student in Leburton’s group and the study’s lead author. “Since the moving ions are so massive compared to the device charges, the ions impart large amounts of momentum to the charges, amplifying the underlying current.”

    The researchers also found that these effects are independent of the specific channel configuration as well as the choice of materials, provided the channel diameter is narrow enough to ensure proximity between the ions and the charges.

    The researchers are in the process of patenting their findings, and they are studying how arrays of these devices could scale for practical power generation.

    “We believe that the power density of a device array could meet or exceed that of solar cells,” Leburton said. “And that’s not to mention the potential applications in other fields like biomedical sensing and nanofluidics.”

    ***

    Kewei Song also contributed to this work.

    The researchers’ article, “Ionic coulomb drag in nanofluidic semiconductor channels for energy harvest,” is available online. DOI: 10.1016/j.nanoen.2023.108860

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    University Of Illinois Grainger College Of Engineering

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