Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Buildings and Connected Systems”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 217 records · Page 12
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Improving the Power Outage Resilience of Buildings with Solar PV through the Use of Battery Systems and EV Energy Storage

Buildings with solar photovoltaic (PV) generation and a stationary battery energy storage system (BESS) may self-sustain an uninterrupted full-level electricity supply during power outages. The duration of off-grid operation is dependent on the time of the power fault and the capabilities of the home energy management system (HEMS). In this paper, building resilience is quantified by analyzing the self-sustainment duration for all possible power outages throughout an entire year. An evaluation method is proposed and exercised on a reference house in California climate zone 9 for which the detailed electricity usage is simulated using the EnergyPlus software. The influence of factors such as energy use behavioral patterns, energy storage capacity from the BESS, and an electric vehicle (EV) battery on the building resilience is evaluated. Varying combinations of energy storage and controllable loads are studied for optimally improved resilience based on user preferences. It is shown that for the target home and region with a solar PV system of 7.2 kW, a BESS with a capacity of 11 kWh, and an EV with a battery of 80 kWh permanently connected to the home, off-grid self-sustained full operation is guaranteed for at least 72 h.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

U.S. Department of Energy Collegiate Wind Competition 2025 Rules - Phase 1

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office's (WETO) Collegiate Wind Competition (CWC, also referred to as the "Competition" in this rules document) invites interdisciplinary teams of undergraduate students from a variety of academic programs to solve complex wind energy challenges. Through the competition, WETO intends to offer students direct industry experience, valuable exposure to wind energy career pathways, and greater knowledge of wind energy's potential to contribute to a clean energy future. The competition will select up to 35 teams to start, making them eligible to compete for a cash prize pool of up to $280,000 . Each year, the competition identifies a new challenge and set of activities that address real-world research questions, thus demonstrating skills that students will need to work in the wind or wider renewable energy industries. The Collegiate Wind Competition 2025 challenge requires participants to compete simultaneously in four contests: 1) Turbine Prototype Contest: Design, build, and present a unique, wind-driven power system based on market research; 2) Turbine Testing Contest: Test the wind turbine in a competition wind tunnel at the final event; 3) Project Development Contest: Research wind resource data, transmission infrastructure, and environmental factors to create a site plan and financial analysis for a hypothetical wind farm; and Connection Creation Contest: Partner with wind industry professionals, raise awareness of wind energy in your local community, and work with local media to promote your team's accomplishments. The competition does not prescribe a power system market or wind regime. It is expected that each team will participate in all four contests.

collegiate wind competition↗
DOE OSTI2024

Digital Twinning and Predictive Modeling of Traffic for Safe, Efficient, and Reliable Intersections

Over the last decade, the advances in connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) have far surpassed the technological realm of transportation infrastructure. There is a growing need to have a technologically commensurate transportation infrastructure to enable safe and reliable movement of goods and people. The recent creation of Advanced Research Projects Agency - Infrastructure (ARPA-I) through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has further amplified the need to revolutionize the transportation infrastructure system in the US. This need is perhaps felt most at traffic intersections, as more than 50 percent of the combined total of fatal and injury crashes occur at or near intersections. The proposed concept of Infrastructure Perception and Control (IPC) is aimed at bridging this technological gap by building a real-time digital twin of traffic by fusing detections from sensors installed at the intersection. This digital twin can then empower a wide variety of applications such as smart traffic signals or infrastructure-to-everything (I2X) communications. Smart signaling can help avoid crashes through early-prediction, while I2X can augment the CAV sensors under uncertain driving conditions and provide connected vehicles (CVs) with traffic information they can use to optimize their travel.

connected vehicles↗
DOE OSTI2021

BETO 2021 Peer Review - WBS 4.1.2.32: Bioeconomy Scenario Analysis

The Bioeconomy Scenario Analysis project uses systems thinking and analysis to assess current and/or prospective techno-economics, research and development, deployment strategies, policy, and market conditions and their impact on the potential development trajectories of the bioenergy industry over time. Results from this project include identification of opportunities and constraints to industrial development, quantification of multiple metrics (energy, economic, environmental) and informing researchers, decision makers, and industry of the steps needed for a sustainable, nationwide biofuels industry. Analyses from this project enable the creation of a bioenergy industry by (1) inciting policy-makers to explore scenarios for nationwide biofuels production, identifying policy actions consistent with pathways for growth; (2) improving industry’s understanding of industry growth potential under different technology and investment conditions, better targeting their development efforts; and (3) providing universities and other interested stakeholders with tools and analyses that can be adapted to meet research and teaching objectives, connecting students with careers that build the industry. One of the many modeling tools used in this project, the Biomass Scenario Model (BSM) is a publicly-available, unique, validated, state-of-the-art, award-winning, fourth-generation model of the domestic biofuels supply chain which explicitly focuses on how and under what conditions biofuel technologies might be deployed to contribute to the U.S. transportation energy sector. We use models like the BSM to examine the implications of policies and incentives as well as their potential side-effects. The BSM uses a system-dynamics simulation to model dynamic interactions and transitions across the supply chain; it tracks the deployment of biofuels given industrial learning and the reaction of the investment community in the context of land availability, projected oil markets, consumer demand for biofuels, and government policies over time. Under expected market conditions, analyses using the BSM suggest that the biofuels industry may require significant external actions in the early years to thrive. Interventions that accelerate the industrial learning process (e.g. operation of pre-commercial and commercial facilities) have been identified as having strong influence in starting the growth of a commercial biofuel industry. Policies which are coordinated across the whole supply chain in BSM foster the growth of the biofuels industry and production of tens of billions of gallons of biofuels may occur under sufficiently favorable conditions.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Residential Battery Modeling for Control-Oriented Techno-Economic Studies: Preprint

Electrochemical batteries, which serve as electric energy storage devices, are becoming increasingly popular among residential buildings that incorporate solar photovoltaic (PV) systems to help meet their energy needs. Battery economics are affected by performance degradation over time, and managing this degradation can help extend the battery's lifespan. The tradeoff between operational costs/benefits and managing battery degradation is of significant research interest. One of the key factors for assessing battery degradation is the dispatch strategy used to control the charging and discharging of the battery. Conventional dispatch strategies typically use simple rule-based methods, and these overly aggressive charging/discharging cycles can significantly reduce a battery’s life span. Our research seeks to develop optimized dispatch strategies for grid-connected PV homes with a goal of extending battery life while simultaneously taking into consideration utility costs and occupant comfort. To achieve this goal, we adapted lithium-ion battery life- and cyclic-degradation models for use in high-fidelity building simulations, so whole-building and grid-interactive controllers can dispatch the batteries along with other flexible loads. With the help of a co-simulation platform, we performed a simulation study to compute the optimized dispatch strategies for relevant operating conditions brought about by changing geographical locations, weather conditions, and utility pricing. Comparing the optimized strategies with the conventional strategies resulted in a >50% decrease in capacity degradation and >10% average reduction in operational costs during the months of January and July in Fort Collins, Colorado; Phoenix, Arizona; and Portland, Oregon.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Symmetry is the Key to the Design of Reticular Frameworks

De novo prediction of reticular framework structures is a challenging task for chemists and materials scientists. Herein, a computational workflow that predicts a list of possible reticular frameworks based on only the connectivity and symmetry of node and linker building blocks is presented. This list is ranked based on the occurrence of topologies in known structures, thus providing a manageable number of structures that can be optimized using density functional theory, and inform future experiments. This workflow is broadly applicable, correctly predicts known reticular materials, and furthermore identifies novel unknown phases for some systems.

COF↗
DOE OSTI2020

Basic Design Layout of a Modular Pumped Hydro Teaching Unit

This work was originally completed in July 2015 as a proposal to Santa Fe Community College (SFCC) for their engineering program and a follow up to a feasibility study completed for the Community College the year earlier as indicated below. The work was ahead of its time and funding was hard to obtain to implement a project. This work is now being formally released for distribution to a wider audience based on the evolving circumstances in greater society that now favor this approach with funding more readily available. Due to the distribution outside of SFCC, specific architectural drawing sets of the pertinent buildings called out in the design have been removed. No changes to the design have been made. The design layout utilizing a building is not meant to limit the implementation of the design. The elevation difference required may be obtained with a building, a small hill, jacking up the upper tank, or similar means. The design presented is a basic design, identifying major components and how they are connected together. The user may change components under their own liability. All local applicable codes and standards must be followed when building an actual unit, under the authority of a responsible engineer or owner. Appropriate measures must be followed to protect people from hazards such as electricity, water pressure, and general construction. A leak test to verify water tightness of the system should be conducted prior to any operations. The vision of this design is to allow a class of 10 to 15 students to construct the assembly within a month or so time period, and then learn to operate the assembly at their school location under the guidance of their instructor. This will allow the students to learn about the practical concept of storing electricity with water, and gain a hands on experience of the real world challenges faced with full Modular Pumped Hydro Projects.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

A subcellular biochemical model for T6SS dynamics reveals winning competitive strategies

Abstract The type VI secretion system (T6SS) is a broadly distributed interbacterial weapon that can be used to eliminate competing bacterial populations. Although unarmed target populations are typically used to study T6SS function in vitro, bacteria most likely encounter other T6SS-armed competitors in nature. However, the connection between subcellular details of the T6SS and the outcomes of such mutually lethal battles is not well understood. Here, we incorporate biological data derived from natural competitors of Vibrio fischeri light organ symbionts to build a biochemical model for T6SS at the single-cell level, which we then integrate into an agent-based model (ABM). Using the ABM, we isolate and experiment with strain-specific physiological differences between competitors in ways not possible with biological samples to identify winning strategies for T6SS-armed populations. Through in vitro experiments, we discover that strain-specific differences exist in T6SS activation speed. ABM simulations corroborate that faster activation is dominant in determining survival during competition. Once competitors are fully activated, the energy required for T6SS creates a tipping point where increased weapon building and firing becomes too costly to be advantageous. Through ABM simulations, we identify the threshold where this transition occurs in the T6SS parameter space. We also find that competitive outcomes depend on the geometry of the battlefield: unarmed target cells survive at the edges of a range expansion where unlimited territory can be claimed. Alternatively, competitions within a confined space, much like the light organ crypts where natural V. fischeri compete, result in the rapid elimination of the unarmed population.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Graph-component approach to defect identification in large atomistic simulations

In this work, the graph-theoretical concept of connected components is employed to extract the evolution of defect configurations in a polycrystalline aluminum structure containing ~8.3 million atoms. This graph-component approach is applied to reveal details of defect formation, transport, and transformation in the polycrystalline Al under large shear deformation. Building upon standard nearest neighbor analysis, graph theory and associated tools are used to reduce the multi-million-atom system into discrete component subgraphs that represent distinct structural defects. This method allows the automated identification, characterization, and tracking of defective regions within large volumes of data representing atomic-scale processes. Such analysis elucidates relationships between external stimuli, such as strain, and defect distributions, which have a large influence on material properties. The Graph Analytics for Large Atomistic Simulations (GALAS) codebase that implements this analysis, together with user guidance, is openly available at https://github.com/pnnl/galas.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Reactive transport modeling of the Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) system at Stockton University, New Jersey during seasonal operations

Hydrogeochemical processes associated with Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) operations can often impact the system performance owing to mineral precipitation either at the wellbore or in the aquifer owing to changes in temperature and fluid disequilibria. Although failure of ATES systems due to mineral precipitation ("fouling") is common, predictive reactive-transport models have rarely been applied to plan their design and operation. Here, the objective of this study is to develop a reactive-transport model by coupling thermal, hydrological, and chemical (THC) processes to evaluate effects of introduced atmospheric oxygen on water chemistry, mineral precipitation/dissolution, porosity, and permeability changes associated with an ATES system at Stockton University (New Jersey, USA). The THC model builds on a Thermal-Hydrological-Mechanical (THM) model of the site that evaluated system failure owing to possible fracturing in the caprock or around the wellbore. The causes of the system failure are not known – potential causes include hydraulic fracturing owing to elevated pump pressures that took place, a flow pathway created by one of the boreholes, or a pre-existing natural hydrologic connection between the upper unconfined aquifer and the ATES aquifer, any of which could have led to oxygenated water entering the reservoir and causing the observed Fe-oxide fouling on well screens. The THC model is used to evaluate some of the hypotheses and observations regarding system failure owing to geochemical processes. The reactive-transport code TOUGHREACT V4 was used to model the THC processes during seasonal heating and cooling operations at the Stockton ATES site over 6 years of operation. In the THC simulations, the primary effects on geochemistry were observed when the injection water is saturated with atmospheric oxygen. Simulations show greater precipitation of goethite near the cold wells as compared to the warm wells. Although volume fractions of Fe-hydroxides were relatively small, the model was aimed at processes in the aquifer at the scale of meters and larger rather than at the scale of mm or cm (i.e., a well screen). Kaolinite is the dominant precipitating phase, also around the cold wells. Illite dissolves near the cold wells and precipitates near the warm wells. There is a net decrease in the porosity near the cold wells and increase near the warm wells, although a slight amount of thermal contraction near the cold wells and expansion near the warm wells is responsible for a significant proportion of the porosity change. Owing to the coarse discretization of the numerical grid near the wells (compared to the screen thickness) the magnitude of permeability changes at the wellbore are likely underestimated. The reactive transport model in this study can be used for characterization of aquifers, optimizing the operational parameters (temperature, pressure, pH etc.), and planning of mitigation strategies for ATES systems.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Infrastructure-Based Cooperative Perception at a Traffic Intersection: Overview and Challenges: Preprint

Recent advancement in autonomous driving vehicles and V2X communication has attracted increasing attention towards Intelligent Transportation Systems to build a safe and reliable traffic intersection. However, most of the systems are still at the initial stages and require significant progress to become a reality. This paper presents an overview of NREL Infrastructure Perception and Control (IPC) framework which is an open-source track-data fusion engine which takes input from infrastructure-based perception sensors and cooperatively shared messages from Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) and Connected Vehicle (CVs) and the challenges associated with deploying such cooperative perception framework at a four-way traffic intersection in the city of Colorado Springs, CO, USA. The sensor data is collected by deploying two radars and two LiDAR sensors on the IPC mobile lab and two radars on diagonally opposite traffic poles at the proposed intersection. The sensor output results imply the need for rapid sensor calibration to bring the collective perception to a common coordinate frame, the importance of time synchronization between the sensors in order to capture accurate spatial and temporal alignment of the objects, and the need for a health monitoring system with fail safe closed-loop detection model for real-time deployment.

camera↗
DOE OSTI2020

Understanding Impacts of Data Integrity Attacks on Transactive Control Systems

With the rapid growth of internet-connected smart devices capable of exchanging energy price information and adaptively controlling energy consumption of connected loads, the role of transactive control is expected to become more prominent in the modern grid. Transactive control systems integrate the wholesale and retail energy markets, and enable active participation of end users, thereby playing a key role in managing the rising number of distributed assets in the smart grid. The use of internet for the communication of data between the controllers at the building, distribution, and transmission levels makes the system susceptible to cyber-attacks. A skilled adversary can potentially manipulate the exchanged data with the intention of inflicting damage to the system. In this paper, four categories of metrics are put forth for evaluating the performance of the system when under data integrity attacks. A model for scaling-based data integrity attack has been described, and co-simulations have been performed on a 240 bus WECC transmission system model with detailed modeling of distribution systems at specific buses. Our results show that scaling-based data integrity attacks can have non-trivial impacts on the operational, financial, and comfort aspects of the transactive control system.

Smart grid, transactive control system, Buildings-↗
DOE OSTI2020

Decommissioning of the V1 Nuclear Power Plant Jaslovske Bohunice - 20270

The paper focuses on introducing the approach and method applied for decommissioning of the V1 nuclear power plant (further the 'V1 NPP') located in Jaslovske Bohunice in the Slovak Republic, to the conference participants. The Paper outlines activities and steps necessary to comply with the requirements contained in the decision of the Slovak government from 1999 regarding the early shutdown of the V1 NPP. The company responsible for the V1 NPP decommissioning is Jadrova a vyradovacia spolocnost, a.s., (further JAVYS) with the State as a sole shareholder. On the basis of the V1 NPP Decommissioning Conceptual Plan, out of four assessed options, JAVYS selected the immediate decommissioning option (the 'IDO') for the V1 NPP. On the basis of multi-criteria analysis, the IDO specified the approach of immediate and continuous dismantling of equipment followed by demolition of buildings and preparation of the site for its further potential use. The IDO also included the summary of technical, environmental, legislative information as well as the determination of assumed costs for decommissioning of the V1 NPP. Prior to commencement of the V1 NPP decommissioning, within the process of termination of operation, activities connected with de-fuelling, monitoring, processing of historical waste and, not to forget, the process of obtaining the license for the V1 NPP decommissioning were executed. JAVYS decided to divide the decommissioning process into two stages. In 2011, JAVYS obtained a license for the first stage of the V1 NPP decommissioning. Within this stage, dismantling of inactive equipment, demolitions of inactive buildings, monitoring of systems and preparatory works for the upcoming stage of decommissioning were implemented. In 2015, in line with the license for the 2. stage of the V1 NPP decommissioning, the activities of decontamination and dismantling of contaminated and active equipment as well as demolitions of remaining buildings began. In this stage radioactive waste (RAW) produced during the decommissioning is to be processed. After decontamination, the material fulfilling the free release criteria is to be released into the environment, the site is to be cleared from the scope of the Atomic Act and released from the surveillance of the national regulators. Future application of certain methods and techniques for decontamination and dismantling in similar environments might bring an added value to the operators. Paper includes a description of best practices for Nuclear Power Plant VVER type reactors decommissioning. Schedule comparison is given to show how the critical path of certain projects is being managed. Application of the International Standard for Decommissioning Costing (ISDC) methodology provides a uniform method which enables comparison of cost estimates to other nuclear facilities under decommissioning. The cost estimate for the V1 NPP decommissioning has been continuously updated based on more advanced and detailed information on the decommissioning activities and projects. Monitoring of progress of the V1 NPP decommissioning is performed via four key-performance indicators. The Earned Value Management (EVM) methodology is used for evaluating time and cost aspect of decommissioning activities while waste conditioning index is calculated by comparing the actually produced waste to planned values of waste for a respective monitored period. Radiological safety index is assessed by comparison of the personnel records on the individual yearly doses received by each respective employee to the boundary value. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2025

A Systems Thinking Approach to Nuclear Pedagogy and Workforce Development

Nuclear technology's controversial status has been shaped by its early use in military applications, fear driven by high-profile accidents, and unresolved waste management challenges. There have, on the other hand, been periodic claims that a “nuclear renaissance” is imminent, driven by different dynamics at different times, most recently related to growing energy demands and increasing concern over carbon emissions. In this article, we respond to urgent calls for more nuclear engineers, resulting from the latest rallying cry around nuclear energy, by reframing the problem using a systems thinking approach that illuminates new pathways for nuclear workforce development via interdisciplinary pedagogies. By building nuclear education into a wide variety of disciplines, we argue, the nuclear workforce could become more resilient to ebbs and flows in energy markets and public opinion. Widening nuclear education beyond nuclear engineers could also reduce the isolation and compartmentalization that has limited the possibilities of nuclear technology. We show how growing and diversifying the overall nuclear workforce could create a wide variety of career opportunities outside STEM and enable greater specialization within STEM, since nuclear engineers and other specialists could be freed up to focus on technological and infrastructural innovations. We argue that interventions into nuclear education should establish new connections and applications of the nuclear sciences in diverse areas of expertise to develop a broad range of professionals who can contribute to a more stable nuclear workforce, bringing what we call “critical and creative nuclear energy literacies” to long-standing and systemic challenges around nuclear energy.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2021

A Modularized Urban Scale Building Energy Modeling Framework Designed with An Open Mind

In recent years, physics-based building energy modeling (BEM) has started being used to evaluate the performance of buildings in the context of connected communities and on an urban scale to study their aggregated energy use, interactions, and impacts on the energy supply infrastructure and environment. The development of urban-scale BEM solutions needs extensive effort. Existing attempts tend to focus on different aspects of BEM on an urban scale, such as collecting as-built building data from different information sources, integrating geometry modeling with geographic information systems (GISs), representing operational and occupancy profiles, automating workflow, processing and visualizing the results, and conducting large-scale simulations. Urban-scale BEM development would benefit from multi-disciplinary research areas and from an open platform to adopt advancements on data sources and tools. For these purposes, this research proposes a modularized bottom-up model creation and simulation framework that is built on the state-of-the-art BEM tools and can accommodate different building stock data. This framework uses a standardized schema to describe building design and operational characteristics, and it can be instantiated from different building survey datasets with heterogeneous structures. The paper demonstrates how thousands of surveyed buildings from the 2012 U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) were one-to-one converted to EnergyPlus models through the schema and the model generation process, then simulated with distributed computing, and their results are summarized.

Lei, Xuechen↗
DOE OSTI2021

Room Return Path Sensitivity

Standard practice for HVAC return design has evolved from running a dedicated return to each room with a supply, to systems with returns in more centrally located areas of the home with jump ducts, transfer grilles, or simply door undercuts used as return air pathways from isolated rooms. In these latter systems, hallways and stairwells act as large open ducts for conveying air back to a single (or sometimes multiple) central return. When partition doors to an isolated room are closed, the return airflow resistance goes up, significantly impacting airflow balance if an adequate relief pathway is not installed. Airflow imbalances can lead to comfort and building durability issues and increased envelope leakage. To combat this, some jurisdictions have requirements for return air pathways. The supply system topology–or layout–impacts the airflow balance stability in response to adjustments of return pathway resistances. Branching supply topologies typically have reduced static pressure after each split. The static pressure at the final split will be lower than the primary supply plenum. Because of this, if there is a restriction in a room’s return path, supply airflow will tend to redistribute to adjacent ducts at the end of the branch. A properly designed trunk and branch supply system can effectively equalize static pressure by reducing the cross sectional area after each takeoff . Maintaining static pressure within the trunk will reduce the system’s sensitivity to changes in return paths. However, in practice, it is difficult to design and time consuming to install a complex supply plenum. Velocity effects and poor takeoff placement also impact airflow balance. This report considers return systems in three main categories: distributed, with a return duct to each room; multiple central, with one return grille on each floor of a home; and single central, with a single return grille located near the air handling unit. Three supply categories are also considered: radial splitter box, trunk and branch, and home-run with all ducts connecting directly to a central manifold.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2023

Integration of Ag-CBRAM crossbars and Mott ReLU neurons for efficient implementation of deep neural networks in hardware

In-memory computing with emerging non-volatile memory devices (eNVMs) has shown promising results in accelerating matrix-vector multiplications. However, activation function calculations are still being implemented with general processors or large and complex neuron peripheral circuits. Here, we present the integration of Ag-based conductive bridge random access memory (Ag-CBRAM) crossbar arrays with Mott rectified linear unit (ReLU) activation neurons for scalable, energy and area-efficient hardware (HW) implementation of deep neural networks. We develop Ag-CBRAM devices that can achieve a high ON/OFF ratio and multi-level programmability. Compact and energy-efficient Mott ReLU neuron devices implementing ReLU activation function are directly connected to the columns of Ag-CBRAM crossbars to compute the output from the weighted sum current. We implement convolution filters and activations for VGG-16 using our integrated HW and demonstrate the successful generation of feature maps for CIFAR-10 images in HW. Our approach paves a new way toward building a highly compact and energy-efficient eNVMs-based in-memory computing system.

Mott insulators↗
DOE OSTI2025

Integration of a real-time orientation measurement system for a real-time evaluator (RTE) to measure the position and orientation of crane-lifted components

Prefabrication of building components holds the potential to revolutionize the construction industry. Prefabrication consists of manufacturing building components, modules, and other elements in a factory to be shipped and installed on a construction site. Prefabricated components have been produced for various applications including precast concrete panels for new construction and exterior wall retrofits. The manufacturing process has seen much innovation in recent years; however, the installation process has seen minimal advancements. A real-time evaluator (RTE) was developed to reduce the installation cost of prefabricated components by reducing installation time, decreasing rework, and improving accuracy. The RTE uses off-the-shelf hardware and novel algorithms to assist erectors with component installation by measuring the real-time positions of connections and prefabricated components, providing installation guidance through a graphical user interface, and monitoring the accumulated installation errors. An overview of the RTE and the proposed workflow is presented. Previous on-site demonstrations provided valuable feedback from users on the potential areas for improvement of the system. One common request was real-time measurement of component orientation during lifting, a process that previously required that the component remain stationary while the laser tracker cycled through target prisms. This paper will present the incorporation and testing of a real-time orientation measurement system as it was implemented into the RTE, allowing for measurement of component orientation during movement.

Selvakumar, Balaji [ORNL]↗