Engineering & Technology
Tonic thermoelectric materials – powering future technology
Are you wearing a smartwatch? If so, what powers it? Chances are, it’s charged using mains electricity. But soon your body’s heat could be powering your wearable devices, using thermopower. Thermoelectric (TE) generators convert thermal energy into electricity. However, conventional TE generators typically can’t provide the voltage levels needed in small, wearable devices. But ionic thermoelectric materials (i-TE materials) can. […]
Scaling down electronic components with diamond films
Diamonds are an engineer’s best friend. As well as their incredible hardness, diamonds have several physical properties that make them excellent for electrical devices – like light-emitting diodes (LEDs). One of the big challenges in electronics is continually trying to miniaturise devices: the smaller they become, the more heat is generated which reduces their lifespan, reliability, and efficiency. Effective thermal […]
Digital twin for integration of design, manufacturing, and maintenance
Design, manufacturing, and maintenance of industrial equipment are usually managed separately, making them inefficient in terms of time and cost. Dr Ming-Liang Zhu, Dr Fu-Zhen Xuan and colleagues at East China University of Science & Technology develop the concept of digital twin technology to increase the efficiency of all phases that make up a product’s lifecycle. Their research offers a […]
Trifluoromethylpyridine: Its chemistry and applications
Trifluoromethylpyridine (TFMP) and its intermediates are important ingredients for the development of agrochemical and pharmaceutical compounds. The presence of a fluorine atom and a carbon-containing pyridine are thought to bestow many of the distinctive physical–chemical properties observed with this class of compounds. Dr Masamitsu Tsukamoto and Mr Tadashi Nakamura, of Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha, Ltd, Japan, take a closer look at this […]
A divide-and-conquer strategy for the vehicle routing problem
Solving the vehicle routing problem is vital for distribution and transportation businesses needing to ensure timely distribution and minimise costs. The multivehicle routing problem is a complex variation involving multiple vehicles and numerous destinations for goods. Jiaqi Li, a graduate student at The University of Hong Kong, Yun Wang at Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, China, and Professor Ke-Lin Du at Concordia […]
Manufacturing on the nanoscale: Optomechanical sensors with multiphoton polymerization
Sensors are the eyes, ears, and noses of autonomous devices. Whether it’s designed to operate on land, in the air or on ground, any autonomous device needs a huge array of sensors to provide real-time information to maneuver or perform more complex tasks. The challenge is making sensors small and light enough that they do not add bulk to the […]
Two-photon polymerization for advanced sensor manufacturing
Sensors built from microscopic optical components could offer numerous benefits, but so far their reach has been limited by shortcomings in 3D manufacturing techniques on non-conventional platforms. In their research, Dr Hengky Chandrahalim, Capt Jeremiah Williams, and colleagues at the US Air Force Institute of Technology, have overcome this challenge through the technique of ‘two-photon polymerization’, which allows them to […]
Predictive discarding for sustainable Industry 5.0
The computer chip shortage has prompted Dr Geert van Kollenburg and his colleagues at Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands, to find data-driven methods to optimise chip manufacturing processes. As part of the MadeIn4 project, they have developed a predictive discarding framework in which quality predictions from artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms are used to decide on whether to discard an […]
Improving the safety of unmanned aerial systems: A fuzzy logic–AI approach
With their ever-increasing capabilities and applications, the use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) is set to soar. This creates an urgent need for solutions that safely manage UAS operations in congested low-altitude airspace. Some advanced UAS-control methods are based on reinforcement learning techniques, but these are not yet fully validated. Taking a fuzzy logic-based approach to this problem are Dr […]
Durability of wood – integration of experimental and numerical approach
If a building is to have a lifetime of fifty years or more, it is important to be able to predict how the construction materials will fare in that timespan. This is particularly challenging for natural materials like wood due to natural differences in the structure. Serena Gambarelli and Josipa Bošnjak at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, employ a hygro-mechanical […]