Robophysical study of excavation in confined environments

Soil-dwelling social insects build complex nests. Nest excavation is performed by multiple animals simultaneously and is governed by local interactions of the workers with other nest-mates and their surroundings. To investigate collective confined excavation challenges, we built groups of robotic excavators capable of performing hours of autonomous tunnel excavation in a model cohesive granular medium. Excavator behavior was governed by a simple set of rules triggered by interactions with the surrounding environment and other robots. The rate of tunnel growth and energetic costs of excavation were measured for groups of different numbers operating in wide and narrow tunnels. To extend the results to systems with large numbers of robots, we developed a cellular automata model. Experiments and simulations showed that in sufficiently wide tunnels an increase in the size of the excavating group increased the excavation rates without a significant increase in the energy consumption per robot. A decrease in the tunnel width resulted in a decrease in the excavation rates and increase in the energetic costs of excavation. We attribute this effect to the emergence of multiple time-consuming interactions (clogs) among excavating robots in the confined spaces. Although in all situations clogs were resolvable, clog resolution took longer in the systems with larger number of robots and narrower tunnels. We expect that our robotic system can be used to investigate the behavior of social insects in confined spaces as well as inspire more sophisticated search-and-rescue robotics.     

Additional effort estimation due to ergonomic conditions in order picking systems

Within a warehouse, the picking activity often relies on human operators. Therefore, when designing and evaluating a manual picking system, it is important to consider that, besides the high flexibility the pickers are able to warrant, they inevitably require an additional effort due to their ergonomic working conditions. In this paper, the authors propose a new model to consider such additional effort, starting from the concepts of human availability and rest allowance. The new method allows the evaluation of the current configuration of a certain warehouse, considering two different operative situations (directly employed operators and indirectly employed ones). Moreover, it makes it possible to estimate and to understand the benefits that can be achieved by introducing some ergonomic improvements. The proposed procedure has also been applied to a real industrial case study.     

Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of the Flexible Iron-based MIL-88B Metal–Organic Framework for Advanced Energetic Systems

The 3D metal–organic framework (MOF), MIL-88B, built from the trivalent metal ions and the ditopic 1,4-Benzene dicarboxylic acid linker (H₂BDC), distinguishes itself from the other MOFs for its flexibility and high thermal stability. MIL-88B was synthesized by a rapid microwave-assisted solvothermal method at high power (850 W). The iron-based MIL-88B [Fe₃.O.Cl.(O₂C–C₆H₄–CO₂)₃] exposed oxygen and iron content of 29% and 24%, respectively, which offers unique properties as an oxygen-rich catalyst for energetic systems. Upon dispersion in an organic solvent and integration into ammonium perchlorate (AP) (the universal oxidizer for energetic systems), the dispersion of the MOF particles into the AP energetic matrix was uniform (investigated via elemental mapping using an EDX detector). Therefore, MIL-88B(Fe) could probe AP decomposition with the exclusive formation of mono-dispersed Fe₂O₃ nanocatalyst during the AP decomposition. The evolved nanocatalyst can offer superior combustion characteristics. XRD pattern for the MIL-88B(Fe) framework TGA residuals confirmed the formation of α-Fe₂O₃ nanocatalyst as a final product. The catalytic efficiency of MIL-88B(Fe) on AP thermal behavior was assessed via DSC and TGA. AP solely demonstrated a decomposition enthalpy of 733 J g^?1, while AP/MIL-88B(Fe) showed a 66% higher decomposition enthalpy of 1218 J g^?1; the main exothermic decomposition temperature was decreased by 71 °C. Besides, MIL-88B(Fe) resulted in a decrease in AP decomposition activation energy by 23% and 25% using Kissinger and Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose (KAS) models, respectively.