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Radio frequency sensing and its innovative applications in diverse sectors: A comprehensive study
Recent advancements in radio frequency (RF) sensing technology can be attributed to the development of the Internet of Things (IoT), healthcare, RF-identification, and communication applications. RF sensing is a multidisciplinary research field that requires expertise in computing, electronics, and electromagnetics to cover all system features, including protocol development, antenna design, sensor integration, algorithm formulation, interconnection, data, and analytics. The overarching aim of this work is to present detailed information about RF technologies and their innovations and application diversity from the novel work carried out at CSI Lab1, together in one platform with an extensive survey. This study presents state-of-the art applications and RF sensing that include W-Fi, radar, and SDR and RFID-based sensing. A comprehensive survey and study of the advantages and limitations of each non-contact technology is discussed. Additionally, open research gaps have been identified as well. Decades of knowledge and experience have been put to use to meet new challenges and demands. The development and study of RF systems, IoT, RFID sensing, and research and deployment activities, are briefly discussed. The emerging research projects with industry, institutional research centers, and academic studies are also addressed. Finally, an outline of identified potential future research areas is provided, emphasizing opportunities and challenges.
Innovative applications of block preconditioning and fast linear solvers [Slides]
The goal is to apply principles of linear/nonlinear solvers to lab applications.
Innovative Applications of Laser Scanning and Rapid Prototype Printing to Rock Breakdown Experiments
We present the novel application of two technologies for use in rock breakdown experiments, i.e. close-range, ground-based 3D triangulation scanning and rapid prototype printing. These techniques aid analyses of form-process interactions across the range of scales relevant to breakdown (micron-m). This is achieved through (a) the creation of DEMs (which permit quantitative description and analysis of rock surface morphology and morphological change) and (b) the production of more realistically-shaped experimental blocks. We illustrate the use of these techniques, alongside appropriate data analysis routines, in experiments designed to investigate the persistence of fluvially-derived features in the face of subsequent wind abrasion and weathering. These techniques have a range of potential applications in experimental field and lab-based geomorphic studies beyond those specifically outlined here.
A Class of Selenocentric Retrograde Orbits With Innovative Applications to Human Lunar Operations
Selenocentric distant retrograde orbits with radii from approx. 12,500 km to approx. 25,000 km are assessed for stability and for suitability as crewed command and control infrastructure locations in support of telerobotic lunar surface operations and interplanetary human transport. Such orbits enable consistent transits to and from Earth at virtually any time if they are coplanar with the Moon's geocentric orbit. They possess multiple attributes and applications distinct from NASA's proposed destination orbit for a redirected asteroid about 70,000 km from the Moon.
NASA's Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS): Supporting Wildfire Monitoring and Management Through Successful Collaborations and By Enabling Innovative Applications
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Innovation and reliability of atomic standards for PTTI applications
Innovation and reliability in hyperfine frequency standards and clock systems are discussed. Hyperfine standards are defined as those precision frequency sources and clocks which use a hyperfine atomic transition for frequency control and which have realized significant commercial production and acceptance (cesium, hydrogen, and rubidium atoms). References to other systems such as thallium and ammonia are excluded since these atomic standards have not been commercially exploited in this country.
Analysis of Ideal Towers for Tall Wind Applications: Preprint
Innovation in wind turbine tower design is of significant interest for future development of wind power plants. First, wind turbine towers account for a large portion of overall capital expenditures for wind power projects. Second, for low wind-resource regions of the world, the use of low-cost tall-tower technology has the potential to open new markets for development. This study investigates the relative potential of various tower configurations in terms of mass and cost. For different market applications and hub heights, idealized tall towers are designed and compared. The results show that innovation in wind turbine controls makes reaching higher hub heights with current technology economically viable. At the same time, new technologies hold promise for reducing tower costs as these technologies mature and hub heights reach twice the current average.
Multilayer Architecture Barriers for High Temperature Nuclear Applications
Innovative thin film multilayer metal/ceramic barrier coatings have been developed by Argonne National Laboratory to protect fuel cladding against different phenomena that can be encountered under the harsh operating conditions of advanced nuclear reactors. One phenomenon is Fuel-Cladding Chemical Interaction (FCCI), which can represent a challenge to the performance of steel-clad metallic fuels in sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs), especially when operating to high burnups at elevated cladding temperatures, and long fuel residence time. Another phenomenon is the corrosion of zirconium-based cladding under prototypic boiling water reactor (BWR) conditions and associated cladding during off normal conditions, including loss of coolant accidents (LOCA). This work provides details of the development and testing of a thin film (few microns) multilayer metal/ceramic (CrY/Y 2 O 3 ) coatings on steel cladding and its performance against FCCI. The coating architecture evolved through systematic mechanical testing, radiation tolerance assessments, and high-temperature diffusion studies from a preliminary multilayer concept to an optimized high-performance design. The optimized structure leverages stoichiometric Y 2 O 3 for its exceptional radiation stability, chemical inertness, and ultra-low fission product diffusivity (e.g., Ce diffusivity ~10 -20 m 2 /s in irradiated Y 2 O 3 at 650 °C). This is paired with ductile chromium-rich interlayers (Cr 95 Y 5 ), which significantly enhance fracture toughness and mechanical resilience. Design refinements, including increased ceramic layer thickness and optimized Cr–Y interlayer composition, eliminated fracture propagation and preserved coating integrity under extreme mechanical stress (>10× typical reactor conditions) and prolonged radiation exposure (~300 dpa). Those conditions are well beyond expected conditions during normal operations in SFR, and cover some of the transient conditions as well. In addition, the coating deposition was demonstrated to be applied uniformly to the inner surface of steel tubes representing prototypic SFR cladding. Another phenomenon under consideration in this work is the corrosion of zirconium-based cladding under prototypic boiling water reactor (BWR) conditions and associated off normal conditions including loss of coolant accident (LOCA). Another multilayer thin film coating is considered for mitigation of this phenomenon, where a coating of yttrium aluminum and yttrium aluminum ceramic/metal thin film coating. Preliminary results on the coating performance during high temperature thermal cycling (up to 1000 C) have shown promising performance of the coating. On-going optimization of the coating will continue in FY26.
Evolving Applications of Aerosol Sealant
Solving the issues facing the residential building industry today requires developing not only new technologies but also new, innovative applications of existing high-performance technologies. The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Building America Program is using this approach to develop a low-cost, easy solution for whole-home envelope air sealing. Aerosol sealant is a proven method for sealing ducts quickly and efficiently, especially in hard-to-reach places. This technology, originally developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1994 with support from DOE, seals 70%-90% of duct leaks (LBNL n.d.), saving $600-$850 per year in energy costs for an average household (DOE 2011). A new, innovative application takes this technology out of the duct system and into the conditioned space. Recent Building America projects have validated a method for whole-house air sealing using the aerosol sealant technology. With tighter envelope requirements in new codes and above-code programs, adequately air sealing by hand is more labor-intensive and costly than ever. The aerosol sealing method is designed to eliminate the guesswork and automate this process. The continuous measurement during installation allows builders to dial in the exact air tightness they need to meet their performance goals. Initial field testing shows that this method regularly achieves air leakage levels less than 1 ACH50 as measured by a blower door test. In a current Building America project, the Center for Energy and Environment is performing iterative field tests in 20 homes to identify the optimal integration and sequencing of this method in production home building processes to achieve a lower installation cost than traditional air sealing. This method has the potential to improve quality assurance of envelope sealing and significantly reduce labor costs compared with traditional air sealing approaches.
Applications and Innovations for Use of High Definition and High Resolution Digital Motion Imagery in Space Operations
The first live High Definition Television (HDTV) from a spacecraft was in November, 2006, nearly ten years before the 2016 SpaceOps Conference. Much has changed since then. Now, live HDTV from the International Space Station (ISS) is routine. HDTV cameras stream live video views of the Earth from the exterior of the ISS every day on UStream, and HDTV has even flown around the Moon on a Japanese Space Agency spacecraft. A great deal has been learned about the operations applicability of HDTV and high resolution imagery since that first live broadcast. This paper will discuss the current state of real-time and file based HDTV and higher resolution video for space operations. A potential roadmap will be provided for further development and innovations of high-resolution digital motion imagery, including gaps in technology enablers, especially for deep space and unmanned missions. Specific topics to be covered in the paper will include: An update on radiation tolerance and performance of various camera types and sensors and ramifications on the future applicability of these types of cameras for space operations; Practical experience with downlinking very large imagery files with breaks in link coverage; Ramifications of larger camera resolutions like Ultra-High Definition, 6,000 [pixels] and 8,000 [pixels] in space applications; Enabling technologies such as the High Efficiency Video Codec, Bundle Streaming Delay Tolerant Networking, Optical Communications and Bayer Pattern Sensors and other similar innovations; Likely future operations scenarios for deep space missions with extreme latency and intermittent communications links.
Resonance fluorescence and quantum interference of a single NV center
The detection of a single nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond has attracted much interest, since it is expected to lead to innovative applications in various domains of quantum information, including quantum metrology, information processing and communications, as well as in various nanotechnologies, such as biological and subdiffraction limit imaging, and tests of entanglement in quantum mechanics. We propose a novel scheme of a single NV center coupled with a multi-mode superconducting microwave cavity driven by coherent fields in squeezed vacuum. We numerically investigate the spectra in-phase quadrature and out-of-phase quadrature for different driving regimes with or without detunings. It shows that the maximum squeezing can be obtained for optimal Rabi fields. Moreover, with the same parameters, the maximum squeezing is greatly increased when the detunings are nonzero compared to the resonance case. - Highlights: • The detection of a single nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond is expected to lead to innovative applications in various domains. • A single NV center coupled with a multi-mode superconducting microwave cavity in squeezed vacuum is proposed. • Numerically investigation of the spectra in-phase quadrature and out-of-phase quadrature are considered. • The maximum squeezing can be obtained for optimal Rabi fields.
Advanced teleoperation: Technology innovations and applications
The capability to remotely, robotically perform space assembly, inspection, servicing, and science functions would rapidly expand our presence in space, and the cost efficiency of being there. There is considerable interest in developing 'telerobotic' technologies, which also have comparably important terrestrial applications to health care, underwater salvage, nuclear waste remediation and other. Such tasks, both space and terrestrial, require both a robot and operator interface that is highly flexible and adaptive, i.e., capable of efficiently working in changing and often casually structured environments. One systems approach to this requirement is to augment traditional teleoperation with computer assists -- advanced teleoperation. We have spent a number of years pursuing this approach, and highlight some key technology developments and their potential commercial impact. This paper is an illustrative summary rather than self-contained presentation; for completeness, we include representative technical references to our work which will allow the reader to follow up items of particular interest.
Innovation and application of ANN in Europe demonstrated by Kohonen maps
One of the most important contributions to neural networks comes from Kohonen, Helsinki/Espoo, Finland, who had the idea of self-organizating maps in 1981. He verified his idea by an algorithm of which many applications make use of. The impetus for this idea came from biology, a field where the Europeans have always been very active at several research laboratories. The challenge was to model the self-organization found in the brain. Today one goal is the development of more sophisticated neurons which model the biological neurons more exactly. They should come to a better performance of neural nets with only a few complex neurons instead of many simple ones. A lot of application concepts arise from this idea: Kohonen himself applied it to speech recognition, but the project did not overcome much more than the recognition of the numerals one to ten at that time. A more promising application for self-organizing maps is process control and process monitoring. Several proposals were made which concern parameter classification of semiconductor technologies, design of integrated circuits, and control of chemical processes. Self-organizing maps were applied to robotics. The neural concept was introduced into electric power systems. At Dortmund we are working on a system which has to monitor the quality and the reliability of gears and electrical motors in equipment installed in coal mines. The results are promising and the probability to apply the system in the field is very high. A special feature of the system is that linguistic rules which are embedded in a fuzzy controller analyze the data of the self-organizing map in regard to life expectation of the gears. It seems that the fuzzy technique will introduce the technology of neural networks in a tandem mode. These technologies together with the genetic algorithms start to form the attractive field of computational intelligence.
Advanced Teleoperations: Technology Innovations and Applications
The capability to remotely and robotically perform in-space assembly, inspection, servicing, and science functions would rapidly expand our presence in space, and the cost efficiency of being there.
Unlocking the Vault - Accelerated Delivery Through the Application of Innovation and Collaboration - 19011
The Pile Fuel Cladding Silo (PFCS) at Sellafield was built in 1949/50 to receive and store fuel cladding from reprocessing of Windscale Pile fuel; it has been used to store this material and other waste from the UK nuclear programme ever since. The Silo is unsuitable for indefinite storage; this along with uncertainty in the make-up and condition of the inventory combine to rank the facility alongside the most hazardous in Western Europe. Sellafield Ltd, began working with its supply chain partners Bechtel Cavendish Nuclear Solutions (BCNS - a joint venture between Bechtel Inc and Cavendish Nuclear Ltd) in 2012, to execute a suite of projects to create an access route to the waste and a capability to retrieve waste from the silo for the first time ever. However, the challenge of providing this capability, while maintaining ongoing safe storage of the waste, and underpinning future performance of both the silo and the waste packages for many hundreds of years, proved to be too much for traditional Sellafield Ltd delivery models. With both cost and schedule forecasts doubling from initial estimates, a new approach was clearly required. The team recognised that success would require all of the experience and expertise of each organisation working together to a common goal. Therefore, significant effort was expended to build a collaborative team environment into which an innovative approach to both the engineering of what was provided and the delivery methods for doing it could be launched. Focussing on collaborative culture in which innovation and fit for purpose thinking were encouraged has completely rebuilt stakeholder confidence. The project is now almost complete; 17 months ahead of schedule and British Pounds 100 m less than the approved cost. (authors)