20505 research outputs found
Sort by
Automated USMN integration for precision robotics and large-scale metrology
Get PDFThis study introduces a novel automation framework for the integration of the Unified Spatial Metrology Network (USMN) across Spatial Analyzer (SA) and PolyWorks (PW), addressing critical inefficiencies in manual metrology workflows. Traditional methods for USMN execution and data translation between platforms are labor-intensive, error-prone, and time-consuming. The proposed system automates data transfer, reference point alignment, and coordinate calibration, incorporating real-time error detection to ensure spatial coherence and enhance measurement accuracy. This approach significantly reduces processing time from days to minutes, mitigates human error, and standardizes inter-software interoperability, while maintaining residual RMS error within ≤0.02 mm. Application of this framework to large-scale robotic systems—common in aerospace, shipbuilding, and automotive manufacturing—demonstrates improved precision in automated tasks such as assembly, drilling, and alignment. By enabling seamless integration of multiple spatial instruments, the framework enhances the robustness and repeatability of high-precision measurements. This advancement represents a pivotal contribution to metrology automation and scalable, real-time calibration in complex industrial environments.This work part of a collaboration with AMRC Sheffield, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council's Innovation Launchpad Network+ Researcher in Residence scheme, grant numbers EP/W037009/1 & EP/X528493/1.Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS 2025)Lecture Notes in Computer Scienc
Sustainability framework for manufacturing in the steel industry: emphasis on eco-centric and sociocentric dimensions
Get PDFGlobal policies, legislation, and eco-friendly initiatives have induced the steel industry to integrate sustainable development approaches. Sustainability requires all phases from raw material sourcing to transportation to waste and carbon footprint elimination—yielding positive effects. This research employs a two-step approach in sustainability. The first phase entails conducting a systematic literature review to construct a framework identifying the sustainability key drivers, and afterwards, validating them with industry professionals. In this study, these criteria are weighted and ranked using the Best–Worst Method (BWM) within the bounds of the social and environmental aspects aimed at creating an industry tailored sustainability framework. Findings indicate that the primary ranked environmental concern is ‘E6 (Top management commitment),’ trailed by ‘E2 (Procurement of environmentally friendly raw materials)’ and ‘E4 (Technology advancement).’ Regarding social aspects, the top-ranked criteria observed as ‘S7 (Employee satisfaction) followed by ‘S6 (ISO 26000),’ and ‘S2 (Ethics).’ These results aid steel makers and policymakers remain relevant in the market by assisting the planning process of their business operational efficiencies, sustainability policies, and compliance regulations. This sustainability framework allows the steel industry to improve its competitive position by deepening the integration of social and environmental practices for enduring performance.Discover Sustainabilit
Sim2Know: new paradigm of digital twins to design and inform human-centric knowledge system
Get PDFThe novel framework, Sim2Know, tackles two major challenges in adaptively designing and informing a human-centric knowledge system: the lack of labeled real-world training data and the difficulty of capturing implicit knowledge. First, a digital twin demonstrator is developed to generate high-quality synthetic training data. Next, we propose a hybrid training approach that combines transfer learning from pre-trained self-supervised models with synthetic data augmentation, achieving a precision rate of 90.31 % in identifying 11 essential human action patterns in metal additive manufacturing. Finally, the human-centric knowledge system is designed to capture implicit knowledge through contextualizing human machine interaction beyond explicit domain knowledge.CIRP Annal
Preliminary design of integrated power and thermal management systems for hybrid electric VTOL aircraft architecture
Get PDFHybrid and fully-electric VTOL aircraft present promising solutions to improve urban traffic congestion but face challenges such as limited power and energy density and stringent thermal constraints, requiring effective thermal management. Optimizing the available onboard electrical energy in hybrid-electric aircraft is crucial, and this can be achieved through the implementation of an effective power management strategy. This paper presents a design methodology for an integrated power and thermal management system (IPTMS) using a parallel hybrid-electric civil tilt-rotor aircraft modelled after XV-15, as a case study. A multidisciplinary optimization platform is developed, integrating IPTMS optimization with rotor aerodynamics, flight dynamics, gas turbine performance, mission analysis, and electric powertrain performance models. The study both evaluates direct air-cooling and liquid-cooling options, incorporating Phase Change Materials (PCMs) for heat storage to identify the most effective thermal management solution. A design space exploration is conducted across various degrees of hybridization (DoH) to assess performance impacts both with and without the integration of the thermal management system (TMS). The results indicate that lower DoH with air-cooling TMS result in energy efficiency and emission improvement, while higher DoH configurations encounter thermal load and payload constraints. For shorter-range, double-leg missions, air-cooling with PCMs proved beneficial, achieving up to 8.76% improvement in energy efficiency and emission reductions of 12.95% for CO2 and 1.66% for NOx. Although electrification optimizes energy use and emissions, conventional aircraft still outperform when the maximum payload constraint is lifted through enhanced payload allocation. This work provides a comprehensive framework for IPTMS design in hybrid-electric VTOL aircraft, balancing power and thermal management for efficient and sustainable operation.ASME Turbo Expo 2025: Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Expositio
Coverage path planning for structural inspections with UAV
No full textThis study presents a comprehensive framework for complete inspection of known structures using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle subject to position uncertainty. The proposed strategy is to take a two-stage approach consisting of viewpoint planning followed by routing. The proposed method enhances an existing Viewpoints Generation algorithm, ensuring 100% coverage of the structure while significantly reducing both computing time and the number of viewpoints by up to 99% and 28%, respectively. The path planning problem is formulated to optimise either energy consumption or mission duration. Various Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) solvers are compared, with the Lin-Kernighan Heuristic providing near-optimal results in a short time frame when applied to a full-scale wind turbine model. Validation is conducted in the Gazebo simulation environment, offering realistic conditions, while PX4 Software-In-The-Loop (SITL) and ROS2 ensure seamless deployment on real hardware. The code is available in the Zenodo archive [11].This work was supported by Marshall Futureworx.Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS 25
System analysis and design optimization of future aircraft for power management in ground movement process
Get PDFThis study investigates the optimization of aircraft system architecture for power management during ground operations to reduce CO2 emissions and improve energy efficiency. Focusing on the taxiing, take-off, and landing phases, this research evaluates the potential of electrified systems—such as electric taxiing technologies, electro-mechanical actuators (EMAs), and regenerative braking—to minimize environmental impact. A multi-level functional decomposition method is developed, enabling comparisons between system architectures that incorporate conventional and electrified components. Simulation results highlight the energy-saving potential of EMAs over traditional hydraulic and electrohydraulic actuators. Additionally, hybrid propulsion systems using Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) and Liquid Hydrogen (LH2) are analyzed for their suitability in future aircraft platforms. The findings suggest that electrification and hybridization can significantly reduce fuel consumption during ground operations, and that liquid hydrogen offers the most promising long-term potential for net-zero emission aviation. This research provides a structured framework for designing next-generation aircraft systems that align with sustainability targets and support continued advancements in aviation energy management and system integration.This research was funded by Innovate UK grant number 10002411, under the ATI/IUK Project: LANDOne, with Airbus UK as Industrial Lead.AIAA Aviation Forum and Ascend 202
High-order finite-volume methods for compressible multiphase flows using unstructured meshes
Get PDFFor the simulation of multi-component or multiphase compressible flows, presented in
this thesis is a computationally efficient high-resolution numerical methods that capture
shocks and interfaces in the finite-volume framework on unstructured grids. The robustness
of the CWENO high-order schemes in capturing and resolving the material interface in
multi-component or multiphase flows in the presence of strong gradients and material
discontinuities with oscillation-free solutions and reduced numerical diffusion is demon-
strated using the diffuse interface framework implemented in the open-source unstru-
ctured compressible flow UCNS3D. The UCNS3D is an in-house code in the finite volume
framework written in FORTRAN that is being actively developed by members of Cranfield
University. For this research, some additional multiphase features were implemented in
the code and continuously improved throughout this thesis.
Stringent two- and three-dimensional compressible multiphase/multi-component test
cases, including cavitation, were employed to assess the numerical methods. Results
were compared with other high-order methods and existing experiments, demonstrating
that CWENO is less dissipative, eliminates spurious oscillations at material boundaries,
and provides a high-resolution description of material interfaces with minimal artificial
smearing. These findings highlight CWENO’s superior capability in accurately simulating
complex multiphase or multi-component phenomena in compressible flows.PhD in Aerospac
Evaluating the potential of oxygen isoscapes for tropical timber tracing
No full textIndependent verification of timber origin is needed to enforce legislation aimed at combatting illegal tropical timber trade. A potential technique is tracing back the stable isotope signal preserved in wood samples, but the scarcity of reference data currently hampers its operationalization. This can be overcome by creating isoscapes. Here we develop continental isoscapes (at 0.5° resolution) for five tropical timbers based on wood δ18O ratios and assess their potential for timber tracing. We compiled a pantropical database of δ18O measurements from 712 trees in 20 countries. We tested effects of δ18O in rainfall, potential evapotranspiration (PET), temperature and precipitation on wood δ18O and used these to develop isoscapes based on quantile regression forests. A first indication of the tracing potential of these isoscapes was tested in leave one out cross validation (LOOCV) analyses. Across the five isoscapes, ranges in wood δ18O values (10th-90th percentile) averaged 3.9 ‰ and δ18O differences increased with distance. Yet local variability in wood δ18O was substantial compared to large-scale variability. The LOOCV analysis showed that the actual origin was included in the probable origin for 59–79 % of the cases. The area of probable origin was large, however, suggesting a low spatial precision of assignment. This study finds limited support for a potential to use wood oxygen isoscapes for tropical timber tracing within continents. Necessary future steps in timber isotope tracing include improving regional representation, conducting similar analyses for other isotopes, rigorous testing of species differences and conducting blind sample tests.This work was supported by the European Research Council (grants ERC-StG-242955 and ERC-PoC-665275) and the Dutch Research Council (I-STW-Take-off-14071 and NWO-TTW-OTP-16427).Forest Ecology and Managemen
Impact of high-aspect-ratio wing aircraft concepts on conventional tricycle landing gear integration
Get PDFTo comply with the Paris Agreement targets set in 2015, significant reductions in aircraft emissions are required. This demands a fundamental shift in aircraft design. Therefore, it is essential to study how future aircraft designs will affect the integration and design of landing systems. This research project examines the landing gear issues that arise from adopting specific future aircraft configurations. The study focuses on two primary configurations: the high-aspect-ratio wing and the ultra-high-aspect-ratio wing, with selected aircraft concepts from Cranfield University as baselines. It investigates the design and integration of conventional landing systems into these new aircraft concepts, highlighting the limitations posed by the modified airframes. The selected concepts include either telescopic or trailing arm arrangements, with attachment points on the wings or fuselage. A methodology for preliminary sizing of landing systems is presented, emphasizing automation and determining key performance indicators to assess the suitability of each solution for different aircraft architectures. The challenges of these novel airframes highlight opportunities to move away from conventional solutions and explore unconventional methods of interfacing between the aircraft and the ground.SAE International Journal of Aerospac
CRISPR-enabled genetic logic circuits for biosensing
Get PDFSynthetic biology aims to engineer genetic circuits for custom-designed behaviors in living systems, including sophisticated biosensing applications. The CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) system has gained attention for its potential in genetic circuit design due to its modularity, programmability, precision, and orthogonality. Here we highlight the current CRISPR-based tools for gene regulation at both transcriptional and translational levels. We discuss how these CRISPR technologies facilitate the design and construction of complex genetic circuits that can perform customized logic computations within living systems. Furthermore, we summarize the applications of CRISPR-based genetic logic circuits in biosensing, emphasizing their potential for detecting diverse biological and environmental signals. Finally, we highlight the key challenges facing the development and application of CRISPR-enabled genetic logic circuits and propose directions for future research to overcome these bottlenecks.This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (32320103001, 32271475), “Pioneer” and “Leading Goose” R&D Program of Zhejiang (2024C03011), National Key R&D Program of China (2023YFF1204500), Beijing Life Science Academy (2024200CA0070), Kunpeng Action Program Award of Zhejiang Province, and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2022M722780). ZY thanks Leverhulme Trust Research Leadership Award (RL-2022-041) and Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professorship grant (VP1-2024-030).TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistr