Simply constructed highly dispersed cobalt nanoparticles in diverse N-doped graphitic carbon with remarkable performances for water electrolysis

Metal/carbon composite materials are highly promising electrocatalysts for water electrolysis. In this work, three composites of metal cobalt nanoparticles highly dispersed in N-doped carbon materials were facilely constructed by pyrolysis of different phenylenediamine based Schiff base-Co complexes (PDBs). Interestingly, the composites derived from PDBs based on different phenylenediamine exhibited different morphologies. The superior case is that rodlike composite catalyst was derived from o-phenylenediamine based PDBs. The obtained catalyst exhibited remarkable performances for both cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), as well as overall water electrolysis. Only 172 and 289 mV of overpotentials and 1.57 V of cell voltage were exhibited at 10 mA cm^?2 for HER, OER and water splitting in 1.0 M KOH, respectively. The catalyst also displayed robust stability and high Faraday efficiency, and thus are potential high-performance catalyst for commercial water electrolysis.     

Perception‐aware autonomous mast motion planning for planetary exploration rovers

Highly accurate real‐time localization is of fundamental importance for the safety and efficiency of planetary rovers exploring the surface of Mars. Mars rover operations rely on vision‐based systems to avoid hazards as well as plan safe routes. However, vision‐based systems operate on the assumption that sufficient visual texture is visible in the scene. This poses a challenge for vision‐based navigation on Mars where regions lacking visual texture are prevalent. To overcome this, we make use of the ability of the rover to actively steer the visual sensor to improve fault tolerance and maximize the perception performance. This paper answers the question of where and when to look by presenting a method for predicting the sensor trajectory that maximizes the localization performance of the rover. This is accomplished by an online assessment of possible trajectories using synthetic, future camera views created from previous observations of the scene. The proposed trajectories are quantified and chosen based on the expected localization performance. In this study, we validate the proposed method in field experiments at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Mars Yard. Furthermore, multiple performance metrics are identified and evaluated for reducing the overall runtime of the algorithm. We show how actively steering the perception system increases the localization accuracy compared with traditional fixed‐sensor configurations.     

An easy and scalable approach to synthesize three-dimensional sandwich-like Si/Polyaniline/Graphene nanoarchitecture anode for lithium ion batteries

A new three-dimensional (3D) sandwich-like Si/Polyaniline/Graphene nanoarchitecture anode for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) is successfully fabricated through an easy approach. In this nanoarchitecture, the in-situ polymerized electronic conductive polyaniline (PAni) hydrogel, acting as “glue”, agglutinates tightly to both the silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) and graphene sheets, forming efficient conductive networks with high elastic modulus and high tensile strength. This mechanically robust nanoarchitecture can endure the great volume change of silicon and retain structural stability during Li-ion insertion/extraction. The electrodes consisting of this 3D sandwich-like Si/Polyaniline/Graphene nanoarchitecture reveal excellent electrochemical performance. The progress made in this work provides an easy and scalable route for preparing Si-based anode materials with high performance for advanced LIBs.     

Physics‐based model of lithium‐ion batteries running on a circuit simulator

The authors developed a physics‐based equivalent circuit model of a lithium‐ion battery (LIB) whose parameters are continually updated, reflecting the theoretical calculation results of the Butler‐Volmer equation, diffusion equations of the lithium‐ion and lithium, and Nernst equations of the liquid and solid phases. The developed model was applied to the charge/discharge simulations of an LIB, and the experimental and simulated results of constant current discharges and pulsed‐charge/discharge were found to be in excellent agreement. In particular, using the developed model, analyzing transient responses of the LIB derived from the transition of the electric double layer charging to the electrode reaction is possible. These results demonstrate that the electrochemical performance of an LIB can be calculated on a circuit simulator using the developed model.     

Self‐similarity analysis of vehicle driver's electrodermal activity

This paper characterizes stress levels via a self‐similarity analysis of the electrodermal activity (EDA) collected in a real‐world driving context. To characterize the EDA richness over scales, the fractional Brownian motion (FBM) process and its corresponding exponent H, estimated via a wavelet‐based approach, are used. Specifically, an automatic scale range selection is proposed in order to detect the linearity in a log scale diagram. The procedure is applied to the EDA signals, from the open database drivedb, originally captured on the foot and the hand of the drivers during a real‐world driving experiment, designed to evoke different levels of arousal and stress. The estimated Hurst exponent H offers a distinction in stress levels when driving in highway versus city, with a reference to restful state of minimal stress level. Specifically, the estimated H values tend to decrease when the driving environmental complexity increases. In addition, the estimated H values on the foot EDA signals allow a better characterization of the driving task than that of hand EDA. The self‐similarity analysis was applied to various physiological signals in literature but not to the EDA so far, a signal which was found to correlate most with human affect. The proposed analysis could be useful in real‐time monitoring of stress levels in urban driving spaces, among other applications.     

基于文本与语义相关性分析的图像检索

为了更加有效地检索到符合用户复杂语义需求的图像，提出一种基于文本描述与语义相关性分析的图像检索算法。该方法将图像检索分为两步：基于文本语义相关性分析的图像检索和基于SIFT特征的相似图像扩展检索。根据自然语言处理技术分析得到用户文本需求中的关键词及其语义关联，在选定图像库中通过语义相关性分析得到“种子”图像；接下来在图像扩展检索中，采用基于SIFT特征的相似图像检索，利用之前得到的“种子”图像作为查询条件，在网络图像库中进行扩展检索，并在结果集上根据两次检索的图像相似度进行排序输出，最终得到更加丰富有效的图像检索结果。为了证明算法的有效性，在标准数据集Corel5K和网络数据集Deriantart8K上完成了多组实验，实验结果证明该方法能够得到较为精确地符合用户语义要求的图像检索结果，并且通过扩展算法可以得到更加丰富的检索结果。     

Recent advances in two-dimensional Pt based electrocatalysts for methanol oxidation reaction

Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) had been attracted considerable attention for its advantages of high energy density, simplified systems and readily transportation and storage of methanol. However, the notoriously sluggish kinetics of methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) of the anode reaction, had greatly affected the commercialization of DMFCs. On one hand, Pt based catalyst are still the most effective MOR catalysts, while the high cost caused by the high loadings of electrocatalyst to compensate the low MOR activity impedes the wide accessible of DMFCs. In addition, the occurrence of catalyst poisoning owing to the strong interaction between Pt and carbon monoxide (CO) generated during the MOR processing, further leading to the fast decay in the performance and stability of MOR electrocatalysts. Two-dimensional (2D) Pt based nanostructures is regarded to be one promising and effective class of MOR electrocatalysts, and attracted much attention due to the high electron mobility, highly exposed active sites, and extraordinary thermal conduction. In this review, the mechanism of MOR was firstly introduced, and then the synthesis conditions, structure characteristics and methanol oxidation performances both in acidic and alkaline dielectric of 2D Pt based nanocatalysts were introduced. Subsequently, we briefly analyzed the structural characteristics of 2D Pt based nanocatalysts and their advantages, including the low platinum loadings, high specific surface area and majority of atomic active sites exposed. Finally, the opportunities and challenges for designing of advanced 2D Pt based nanocatalysts was proposed and discussed.