Ocean wave energy harvesting with high energy density and self-powered monitoring system.

Constructing a ocean Internet of Things requires an essential ocean environment monitoring system. However, the widely distributed existing ocean monitoring sensors make it impractical to provide power and transmit monitored information through cables. Therefore, ocean environment monitoring systems particularly need a continuous power supply and wireless transmission capability for monitoring information.

Fiberbots: Robotic fibers for high-precision minimally invasive surgery.

Precise manipulation of flexible surgical tools is crucial in minimally invasive surgical procedures, necessitating a miniature and flexible robotic probe that can precisely direct the surgical instruments. In this work, we developed a polymer-based robotic fiber with a thermal actuation mechanism by local heating along the sides of a single fiber. The fiber robot was fabricated by highly scalable fiber drawing technology using common low-cost materials.

Detection of medically relevant volatile organic compounds with graphene field-effect transistors and separated by low-frequency spectral and time signatures.

Exhaled human breath contains a mixture of gases including nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, water vapour and low molecular weight volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Different VOCs detected in human breath condensate have been recently related to several metabolic processes occurring inside body tissues in the pathological state, as candidate biomarkers for monitoring conditions such as lung injury, airway inflammation, immunity dysfunction, infection, and cancer. Current techniques for detecting these compounds include several types of mass spectroscopy, which are highly costly, time-consuming and dependent on trained personnel for sample analysis.

Fixed-time regulation of spacecraft orbit and attitude coordination with optimal actuation allocation using dual quaternion.

On-orbit service spacecraft with redundant actuators need to overcome orbital and attitude coupling when performing proximity maneuvers. In addition, transient/steady-state performance is required to fulfill the user-defined requirements. To these ends, this paper introduces a fixed-time tracking regulation and actuation allocation scheme for redundantly actuated spacecraft.

Advanced medical micro-robotics for early diagnosis and therapeutic interventions.

Recent technological advances in micro-robotics have demonstrated their immense potential for biomedical applications. Emerging micro-robots have versatile sensing systems, flexible locomotion and dexterous manipulation capabilities that can significantly contribute to the healthcare system. Despite the appreciated and tangible benefits of medical micro-robotics, many challenges still remain.

3D Printability Assessment of Poly(octamethylene maleate (anhydride) citrate) and Poly(ethylene glycol) Diacrylate Copolymers for Biomedical Applications.

Herein, we present the first example of 3D printing with poly(octamethylene maleate (anhydride) citrate) (POMaC), a bio-adhesive material which has shown particular promise for implantable biomedical devices. The current methods to fabricate such devices made from POMaC are hindered by the imposed constraints of designing complex molds. We demonstrate the feasibility of exploiting additive manufacturing to 3D print structural functional materials consisting of POMaC.

Multiplexed immunosensors for point-of-care diagnostic applications.

Accurate, reliable, and cost-effective immunosensors are clinically important for the early diagnosis and monitoring of progressive diseases, and multiplexed sensing is a promising strategy for the next generation of diagnostics. This strategy allows for the simultaneous detection and quantification of multiple biomarkers with significantly enhanced reproducibility and reliability, whilst requiring smaller sample volumes, fewer materials, and shorter average analysis time for individual biomarkers than individual tests. In this opinionated review, we compare different techniques for the development of multiplexed immunosensors.

A Novel Training and Collaboration Integrated Framework for Human-Agent Teleoperation.

Human operators have the trend of increasing physical and mental workloads when performing teleoperation tasks in uncertain and dynamic environments. In addition, their performances are influenced by subjective factors, potentially leading to operational errors or task failure. Although agent-based methods offer a promising solution to the above problems, the human experience and intelligence are necessary for teleoperation scenarios.

A comparative review of artificial muscles for microsystem applications.

Artificial muscles are capable of generating actuation in microsystems with outstanding compliance. Recent years have witnessed a growing academic interest in artificial muscles and their application in many areas, such as soft robotics and biomedical devices. This paper aims to provide a comparative review of recent advances in artificial muscle based on various operating mechanisms.

Plasmonic optical fiber for bacteria manipulation-characterization and visualization of accumulation behavior under plasmo-thermal trapping.

In this article, we demonstrate a plasmo-thermal bacterial accumulation effect using a miniature plasmonic optical fiber. The combined action of far-field convection and a near-field trapping force (referred to as thermophoresis)-induced by highly localized plasmonic heating-enabled the large-area accumulation of . The estimated thermophoretic trapping force agreed with previous reports, and we applied speckle imaging analysis to map the in-plane bacterial velocities over large areas.

Microfluidics at Fiber Tip for Nanoliter Delivery and Sampling.

Delivery and sampling nanoliter volumes of liquid can benefit new invasive surgical procedures. However, the dead volume and difficulty in generating constant pressure flow limits the use of small tubes such as capillaries. This work demonstrates sub-millimeter microfluidic chips assembled directly on the tip of a bundle of two hydrophobic coated 100 µm capillaries to deliver nanoliter droplets in liquid environments.

Microplastic hotspots in the Snake and Lower Columbia rivers: A journey from the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to the Pacific Ocean.

It is widely understood that microplastics (MPs) are ubiquitous in the marine environment yet less is known about MP abundance in freshwater rivers, particularly those of the western United States. This study documents MP pollution along the Snake River (∼1735 km) and from its confluence with the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. Grab and plankton net samples (mesh size 100 μm) were collected from the top 25 cm of surface water every 80.

Acoustic power delivery to pipeline monitoring wireless sensors.

The use of energy harvesting for powering wireless sensors is made more challenging in most applications by the requirement for customization to each specific application environment because of specificities of the available energy form, such as precise location, direction and motion frequency, as well as the temporal variation and unpredictability of the energy source. Wireless power transfer from dedicated sources can overcome these difficulties, and in this work, the use of targeted ultrasonic power transfer as a possible method for remote powering of sensor nodes is investigated. A powering system for pipeline monitoring sensors is described and studied experimentally, with a pair of identical, non-inertial piezoelectric transducers used at the transmitter and receiver.

Digital photography for assessment of shoulder range of motion: A novel clinical and research tool.

Purpose: Maintenance of a pain-free functional range of motion is the aim of surgery for shoulder trauma. The aim of this study was to show that the range of motion can be accurately assessed using digital photographs.

Materials And Methods: We reviewed 17 patients who had undergone surgery for shoulder trauma.

Non-mechanical sub-pixel image shifter for acquiring super-resolution digital images.

A sub-pixel image shifter is presented, for use in enhancing the spatial resolution of digital image sensors by combining multiple displaced sub-images using a super-resolution (SR) algorithm. The device uses the walk-off phenomenon in birefringent crystals to separate images with opposite polarizations by a sub-pixel displacement. A liquid crystal (LC) waveplate plus a polarizer can then select the specific image to be exposed, with fast, non-mechanical control.

Selective-area doping of porous solgel films for integrated optics.

A technique for doping of porous films by surface adsorption of ions from aqueous solution is demonstrated. Fabrication of the films by use of the solgel technique gives a nanometer-scale porosity, which provides high doping levels and homogeneity. Doping through a masking layer patterned by photolithography is thus possible.

Low-loss one-dimensional photonic bandgap filter in (110) silicon.

A free-space silicon one-dimensional photonic bandgap optical filter is designed and fabricated. A two-stage (110) wafer etching process is employed to form the extremely vertical, smooth, and high-aspect-ratio features that are essential for good optical properties. The (111) oriented planes of the wafer form <0.

Surface-plasmon spatial light modulators based on liquid crystal.

The development of a new class of spatial light modulator (SLM), which uses modulation of lossy guided waves generated by surface-plasmon resonance, is described. The potential advantages of this technique are explained, including increased response uniformity and enhanced sensitivity and speed. An optically addressed SLM that is based on a nematic liquid crystal with a spatial resolution better than 10 line pairs/mm (at 50% modulation transfer function) is demonstrated.