Browse Topic: Soils
This study prepares high-performance PI/VIP composite thermal insulation materials for buildings by integrating polyimide (PI) composite membranes and vacuum insulation panels (VIPs), and uses EnergyPlus to explore their impacts on building energy conservation, operating costs, and carbon emissions under different climates. Experimental results show the materials have low thermal conductivity, long service life, and excellent thermal insulation and flame-retardant properties due to their internal vacuum structure inhibiting heat transfer. Simulations in Jinan (tropical monsoon), Heilongjiang (cold temperate), and Shenzhen (subtropical humid) climates indicate that compared with traditional XPS and rock wool boards, buildings using PI/VIP composites achieve 21.3%, 34.7%, and 18.9% higher annual energy-saving efficiency respectively, with 27%-41% lower carbon emissions; the most significant effects in Heilongjiang highlight the material’s great promotion potential in severe cold areas.
Under a microscope, a bouquet of lollipop-like structures, each smaller than a grain of sand, waves gently in a petri dish of liquid. Suddenly, they snap together, like the jaws of a Venus flytrap, as a scientist waves a small magnet over the dish. What was previously an assemblage of tiny passive structures has transformed instantly into an active robotic gripper.
Robots that can move through sand face significant challenges like dealing with higher forces than robots that move in air or water. They also get damaged more easily. However, the potential benefits of solving locomotion in sand include inspection of grain silos, measurements for soil contaminants, seafloor digging, extraterrestrial exploration, and search and rescue.
When a multimillion-dollar extraterrestrial vehicle gets stuck in soft sand or gravel — as did the Mars rover Spirit in 2009 — Earth-based engineers take over like a virtual tow truck, issuing a series of commands that move its wheels or reverse its course in a delicate, time-consuming effort to free it and continue its exploratory mission. While Spirit remained permanently stuck, in the future, better terrain testing right here on terra firma could help avert these celestial crises.
Tippers transporting loose bulk cargo during prolonged descents are subject to two critical operational challenges: cargo displacement and rear axle lifting. Uncontrolled cargo movement, often involving loose aggregates or soil, arises due to gravitational forces and insufficient restraint systems. This phenomenon can lead to cabin damage, loss of control, and hazardous discharge of materials onto roadways. Simultaneously, load imbalances during descent can cause rear axle lift, increasing stress on the front steering axle, resulting in tire slippage and compromised maneuverability. This study proposes a dynamic control strategy that adjusts the tipper lift angle in real time to align with the descent angle of the road. By synchronizing the trailer bed angle with the slope of the terrain, the system minimizes cargo instability, maintains rear axle contact, and enhances braking performance, including engine and exhaust braking systems. Computational modelling is employed to assess the performance of this approach across varying road gradients, vehicle speeds, and terrain characteristics. The paper further outlines the development of an automated control system for real-time angle adjustment and its integration into the vehicle’s existing electrical architecture.
The success of off-road missions for ground vehicles depends heavily on terrain traversability, which in turn requires a thorough understanding of soil characteristics a key component being soil moisture content. When large areas need to be analyzed, satellite imagery is often used, although this approach typically reduces the spatial resolution. This decrease of spatial resolution creates what are known as mixed pixels, when two or more classes or features are in a single pixel’s area, which can lead to noisier data and lower accuracy models. This paper investigates using linear spectral unmixing as a way to help clean / mitigate noisy data to yield better predictive models. Hyperspectral remote sensing from the Hyperion satellite platform and ground truth from the International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN) are used for the dataset. This study found that soil moisture content prediction, comparing the mixed multilayer perceptron (MLP) model with an unmixing approach revealed a 10–30% change in RMSE and MAE across NDVI ranges incremented by 0.1. Hence, this study demonstrates the potential use of spectral unmixing as a methodology to help enhance predictive models for terrain properties when using (lower spatial resolution / more noisy) remotely sensed datasets.
The automation of labor-intensive picking and planting operations is having an immediate impact in the agricultural indutry. In its simplest form, robotic automation can reduce the labor and soil disturbance while enabling organic soil cover and increasing species diversification through precision approaches to planting, weeding, and spraying. With this, pesticides and fertilizers can be applied in a more targeted way, and with machinery visiting fields more frequently, earlier and more targeted intervention can occur before pests become established. Small, Mobile, and Autonomous Agricultural Robots identifies issues that need to be resolved fo for this technology to thrive, including improving methods of acquiring and labeling training data to facilitate more accurate models for specific applications. It also discusses concepts such as general-purpose mechanical platforms for use as carriers of agricultural automation systems with high stability, positional accuracy, and variable track, as well as the economics of moving capital intensive automation systems toward a service-provision business model. Click here to access the full SAE EDGETM Research Report portfolio.
San Francisco startup Canvas has developed a robotic system handling one of the most labor-intensive trades in construction: drywall finishing. Leveraging robotic arms from Universal Robots, Canvas has built a machine that reduces the usual five to seven days of spraying and sanding the drywall to just around two days for both Level 4 and Level 5 finishes.
A Northwestern University-led team of researchers has developed a new fuel cell that harvests energy from microbes living in dirt. About the size of a standard paperback book, the completely soil-powered technology could fuel underground sensors used in precision agriculture and green infrastructure. This potentially could offer a sustainable, renewable alternative to batteries, which hold toxic, flammable chemicals that leach into the ground, are fraught with conflict-filled supply chains and contribute to the ever-growing problem of electronic waste.
With the recent rise in electric vehicles and mobile devices, managing spent batteries has become a critical global challenge. By 2040, the number of decommissioned electric vehicles is expected to exceed 40 million, leading to a sharp increase in waste batteries. Developing advanced recycling technologies has thus become an urgent priority, as the metals in batteries pose a significant risk of soil and water contamination.
NASA has selected a team of University of Florida aerospace engineers to pursue a groundbreaking $12 million mission aimed at improving the way we track changes in Earth’s structures, such as tectonic plates and oceans.
A Dartmouth-led research team set out to determine if managing green roof soil microbes could boost healthy urban soil development, a methodology that could be applied to support climate resilience in cities.
Spaceflight outside of the Earth’s protective magnetic field is dangerous from a cosmic radiation perspective. Inside Earth’s magnetic field, where the manned International Space Station (ISS) orbits, the radiation encountered is minimal and almost all is deflected by our planet’s magnetic fields. However, outside that protective shield, the Sun’s solar wind (high energy radiation, solar energetic particles or SEPs) consisting of protons, electrons, alpha particles, and plasmas continuously bombards the spacecraft for the months or years of spaceflight.
Komatsu introduced its first battery-electric load-haul-dump (LHD) machine, the WX04B, at the MINExpo tradeshow in September. The WX04B is designed specifically for narrow vein mines in underground hard rock mining operations. Komatsu is pairing the electric LHD with its new OEM-agnostic 150-kW battery charger that was also revealed in Las Vegas. The 4-tonne WX04B LHD features what Komatsu claims is best-in-class energy density, offering up to four hours of runtime on a single charge. The Li-ion NMC (nickel-manganese-cobalt) battery from Proterra has a capacity of 165 kWh and nominal voltage of 660 V. Fewer charge cycles are needed compared to competitors, the company claims, which helps to maximize operational efficiency and minimize downtime. Proterra and Komatsu began their collaboration on the LHD's H Series battery system in 2021, long before Komatsu's acquisition of American Battery Solutions (ABS) in December 2023.
Researchers have taken the first steps toward finding liquid solvents that may someday help extract critical building materials from lunar and Martian rock dust, an important piece in making long-term space travel possible.
Imagine the Moon as a hub of manufacturing, construction, and even human life. It’s no longer a far-fetched idea baked in science fiction lore — increased interest and investment in space exploration are pushing efforts to develop the technologies needed to make the moon a viable home for humans.
Designing non-destructive test (NDT) systems for aerospace clients can feel like engineering with blindfolds on. Even when the parts under test aren’t confidential, they can change rapidly as companies optimize their designs. This accelerated innovation helps launch more powerful, safer vehicles for use inside Earth’s orbit and beyond. But how do you create precision inspection systems without knowing what they’ll inspect in the field?
A new robotic suction cup which can grasp rough, curved, and heavy stone, has been developed by scientists at the University of Bristol. The team, based at Bristol Robotics Laboratory, studied the structures of octopus biological suckers, which have superb adaptive suction abilities enabling them to anchor to rock.
The manufacturing landscape is undergoing a transformation, propelled by the need for innovative, efficient, and precise technology that can effectively replace expensive manual labor. This article examines advancements in Flexiv’s material abrasion technology, specifically focusing on sanding and polishing applications and the utility of force control technology.
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