Search

A vital objective in the wetting of Au deposited on chemically heterogeneous oxides is to synthesize a completely continuous, highly crystalline, ultrathin-layered geometry with minimized electrical and optical losses. However, no effective solution has been proposed for synthesizing an ideal Au-layered structure. This study presents evidence for the effectiveness of atomic oxygen-mediated growth of such an ideal Au layer by improving Au wetting on ZnO substrates with a substantial reduction in free energy. The unexpected outcome of the atomic oxygen-mediated Au growth can be attributed to the unconventional segregation and incorporation of atomic oxygen along the outermost boundaries of Au nanostructures evolving in the clustering and layering stages. Moreover, the experimental and numerical investigations revealed the spontaneous migration of atomic oxygen from an interstitial oxygen surplus ZnO bulk to the Au-ZnO interface, as well as the segregation (float-out) of the atomic oxygen toward the top Au surfaces. Thus, the implementation of a 4-nm-thick, two-dimensional, quasi-single-crystalline Au layer with a nearly complete crystalline realignment at a mild temperature (570 K) enabled exceptional optoelectrical performance with record-low resistivity (7.5 × 10

Oxyapatite[Ca2Nd8(SiO4)6O2] glass-ceramics have been suggested as wasteforms for the immobilisation of rare-earth radioactive nuclides because of their high waste-loading capability and good chemical durability. In particular, a partitioning effect is predicted to contribute to an enhancement of corrosion resistance in glass-ceramics compared with that of conjugate glasses of the same composition. Because rare-earths are inherently insoluble nuclides, detection of changes in corrosion behavior between glass-ceramics and conjugate glasses under normal conditions is not easy. In this study, therefore, we revealed the partitioning effect by exposing glass-ceramics and glasses to solution of pH 2, 7 and 10 at 90 °C for 20 d. In addition, we proposed the corrosion mechanism for oxyapatite glass-ceramics under various corrosion conditions. Especially, the glassy phase dissolved first, followed by the oxyapatite phase during pH 7 corrosion.

2D Ballbot is an actual under-actuated system with second-order nonholonomic velocity constraints and input coupling case where only control input is employed to control two outputs of the system. Controlling such a system is not easy because it faces many changelings including nonlinearities, external disturbances, and uncertainties. This study proposed a robust control system for a Ballbot mobile robot. The proposed control scheme is constructed using the hierarchical sliding mode control technique. The kinematics and dynamics of the Ballbot are derived. A Lyapunov function is used to prove the stability of the closed-loop control system. The stabilizing and transferring problems are investigated through several simulations and experiments by using the actual Ballbot platform.

The desire to enhance the efficiency of organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) has driven to the investigation of advanced materials with fascinating properties. In this work, the efficiency of top-emission OLEDs (TEOLEDs) is enhanced by introducing ampicillin microstructures (Amp-MSs) with dual phases (α-/β-phase) that induce photoluminescence (PL) and electroluminescence (EL). Moreover, Amp-MSs can adjust the charge balance by Fermi level (E

Structure engineering is essential for manipulating the chemical, electrical, and optical properties of Au. However, it is challenging to design nanoscopic structures because no effective method is available to deviate from the intrinsic evolution behavior during and after synthesis via vapor deposition. Here, we propose an approach that utilizes the oxidation-induced clustering and layering of Au due to the strong O interference at the outmost surfaces of nanoscopic Au geometries. This promotes the evolution of Au clusters and layers that are highly wetted on their oxide supports. A 4-nm-thick epitaxial Au layer eventually evolved from the proposed growth mode, simultaneously exhibiting higher optical transparency than Ag, a near-bulk resistivity of 8 × 10−8 Ω m, and extreme resilience to chemical corrosion and mechanical deformation. This result provides a definite solution to transparent metal electrodes that are highly vulnerable to degradation in ambient and working environments.

The effect of ultraviolet-ozone (UVO) irradiation on amorphous (am) SnO2 and its impact on the photoconversion efficiency of MAPbI3-based perovskite solar cells were investigated in detail. UVO treatment was found to increase the amount of chemisorbed oxygen on the am-SnO2 surface, reducing the surface energy and contact angle. Physicochemical changes in the am-SnO2 surface lowered the Gibbs free energy for the densification of perovskite films and facilitated the formation of homogeneous perovskite grains. In addition, the Fermi energy of the UVO-treated am-SnO2 shifted upwards to achieve an ideal band offset for MAPbI3, which was verified by theoretical calculations based on the density functional theory. We achieved a champion efficiency of 19.01 % with a statistical reproducibility of 17.01 ± 1.34 % owing to improved perovskite film densification and enhanced charge transport/extraction, which is considerably higher than the 13.78 ± 2.15 % of the counterpart. Furthermore, UVO-treated, am-SnO2-based devices showed improved stability and less hysteresis, which is encouraging for the future application of up-scaled perovskite solar cells.

Crawler excavators are important, utilitarian machines in construction industries. Special features of the chain and chassis allow them to operate and move on unstable ground. The shock motions of the links, which coincide with the changes of the forces impacting the foundation, create vibrations within the entire system. The highest level of vibrations appears when the boom moves, as it holds the robotic excavator's entire actuator with large mass and moment of inertia. These undesired fluctuations cause system instability, driver discomfort, reduced operating efficiency, and increased energy consumption. In this study, a hierarchical sliding mode control focusing on boom movement is designed based on the system dynamic model. This controller allows the boom to move precisely with a slight fluctuation angle of the main body, even while the other links are moving using a parameter estimator. Maintaining stable boom movements significantly simplifies arm and bucket control. The effectiveness of the entire work is investigated by numerical simulation and implementation results on a small-scale hydraulic excavator.

Cable-driven parallel robots (CDPRs) are vulnerable to vibration due to the inevitable flexible properties of the cables. Thus, vibration analysis is critical for CDPR’s operation in which highly accurate motion is required. However, most of the current methods related to vibration analysis of CDPRs rely on simple spring models which have limitations in their performance and complexity that are not general to analyze the vibration of various CDPRs. Hence, accurate, simple and general approaches for vibration analysis in CDPRs are need. To solve this problem, this paper presents the finite element method (FEM) and the modified analytical method to analyze the vibration of CDPRs. To validate these methods, free vibration analysis was conducted using the proposed methods for the planar and spatial cable-driven parallel robots. The natural frequencies of these two CDPRs were computed by the proposed two methods and compared with those of the commercial software, SAP2000. The solutions obtained by the FEM and the modified analytical models turned out to be close to SAP2000’s results, thereby verifying the validity of the proposed methods.

Modern buildings are designed with wheelchair accessibility, giving an opportunity for wheeled robots to navigate through sloped areas while avoiding staircases. Nonetheless, working safely and autonomously in uneven or unstructured environments is still challenging for mobile robots. Herein, we propose the use of a point cloud treatment and Monte Carlo localization in an algorithm for 3D localization of a mobile robot in uneven and unstructured environments. The point cloud treatment consists of projecting the acquired 3D point cloud and generated 2D features. These features are used to recreate an occupancy map. To perform localization in real-time, the robot systems use the occupancy map and 2D features as input in conjunction with the Monte Carlo algorithm.

Hydraulic crawler excavators have been widely used for construction in industry, mining, and agriculture because of their special ability to work on weak soil support. However, the elastic properties of the ground increase the undesired vibrations of the entire operating machine. These oscillations significantly influence the working productivity, the level of fuel expenditure, and the comfort of the driver. There have been many works addressing this problem, although they mainly focus on mechanical dampers. Considering the system from robotic and control aspects, this study presents a new approach to deal with the abovementioned problem. A controller design, which uses a combination of feedback linearization and sliding mode control, is proposed based on a dynamic model. This control law reduces the vibrations of the system working on an elastic foundation, while also allowing for accurate tracking performance of the links. This control law is applied to a small-scale platform to investigate its feasibility for practical applications.