Soft insect-scale robots achieve swift translational and rotational motion through electrostatic engineering.

Greedy Methods in Plume Detection, Localization and Tracking | InTechOpen, Published on: 2008-11-01. Authors: Huimin Chen

The traditional ammonia desulfurization process (TADP) is mainly used in the coking process of coal. The disadvantage of this process is that it produces ammonium sulfate, sodium sulfate, gypsum, and other low value-added by-products, as well as a large number of sulfur-containing wastewater, which seriously restricts the green development of the coal chemical industry. In this study, the TADP has been effectively improved. A late-model, ecologically friendly, economical, and feasible treatment method for sulfur-containing wastewater was designed. The novel ammonia desulfurization process (NADP) not only realized the high added value utilization of sulfur but also greatly saved water resources by recycling wastewater. The key to this process is to connect the crystallization reactor with the rich liquid outlet of the TADP, which simplifies the desulfurization process and improves the desulfurization efficiency. The sulfur content of coking desulfurization wastewater in the NADP was determined using Ultraviolet-Visible Spectrophotometer. The sulfur removal efficiency was up to 91.5%, indicating that it is feasible to recover sulfur from sulfur-containing wastewater by NADP. The by-product zinc sulfide (ZnS) powder was characterized by XRD, SEM, EDS, TEM, and FT-IR. The results showed that the cubic ZnS powder with high added value could be obtained by NADP desulfurization. This process can provide evidence for effective removal of sulfur from sulfur-containing wastewater and green production of resource utilization.

Miniature film-structured robots achieved remarkable locomotion performance and various applications. The integration of a jumping function could empower existing film-structured terrestrial robots to conquer complex terrains. However, current repeated jumping mechanisms for miniature soft robots are often constrained to specific materials and mechanical configurations, rendering them incompatible with film-structured robots. A solution that effectively addresses these limitations remains absent in the field. This work introduces an electrically actuated solution for repeated jumping in miniature soft robots, utilizing a bistable film structure coupled with a numerical two-rod model. The bistable film structure integrates a flexible film, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) linear spring, and a shape memory alloy spring to achieve repeated jumping motion through snap-through buckling. The numerical model is employed to optimize the spring parameters, tailoring the structure to the specific properties of the target robot. To demonstrate the practicality of this solution, the bistable film structure is seamlessly integrated into an existing fast-steering insect robot, which previously lacks jumping capabilities. By customizing PDMS spring design based on the robot body’s dimensions and stiffness, the prototype robot, measuring 23 × 16 × 8 mm³ in size and 120 mg in weight, demonstrates repeated jumping ability with a maximum horizontal jumping distance of 11.8 cm (5.1 body lengths), a jumping height of 3.8 cm (4.7 body heights) and a jumping frequency of 0.1 Hz. The robot traverses a 43 cm-long road with half walls and trench obstacles in 41 s. This work presents the bistable film structure’s potential as a repeated jumping solution for film-structured robots, enhancing their obstacle-crossing abilities and expanding their applicability in complex environments.