A review on machine learning in flexible surgical and interventional robots: Where we are and where we are going

Minimally Invasive Procedures (MIPs) emerged as an alternative to more invasive surgical approaches, offering patient benefits such as smaller incisions, less pain, and shorter hospital stay. In one class of MIPs, where natural body lumens or small incisions are used to access deeper anatomical locations, Flexible Surgical and Interventional...

Flexible time–space network formulation and hybrid metaheuristic for conflict-free and energy-efficient path planning of automated guided vehicles

Operations of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) are desired to be more energy-efficient while maintaining high transport productivity, motivated by the green production requirements. This paper investigates a new energy-efficient planning problem for determining conflict-free paths of the AGVs in its transport roadmap. In this problem, the...

Rapid Fabrication of High-Performance Flexible Pressure Sensors Using Laser Pyrolysis Direct Writing

The fabrication of flexible pressure sensors with low cost, high scalability, and easy fabrication is an essential driving force in developing flexible electronics, especially for high-performance sensors that require precise surface microstructures. However, optimizing complex fabrication processes and expensive microfabrication methods...

Managing connected and automated vehicles with flexible routing at “lane-allocation-free” intersections

With the development of internet of vehicles and automated driving, individual-based trajectory control at intersections becomes possible. Trajectory planning and coordination for connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) have been studied at isolated “signal-free” intersections and in “signal-free” corridors under the fully CAV environment in...

Review of wave interaction with continuous flexible floating structures

Thin continuous flexible floating structures have been shown to have technical and economic advantages for Offshore Floating Photovoltaic (OFPV) installations. In terms of large horizontal dimensions compared to the wave length, these structures are similar to sea ice as well as Very Large Floating Structures (VLFS), e.g. as proposed for...

Synchromodal transport planning with flexible services: Mathematical model and heuristic algorithm

As a critical feature of synchromodal transport (ST), service flexibility plays an important role in improving the utilization of resources to reduce costs, emissions, congestions, and delays. However, none of the existing studies considered flexible services under the framework of synchromodality. This paper develops a Mixed Integer Linear...

Transformation towards a carbon-neutral residential community with hydrogen economy and advanced energy management strategies

Cleaner power production, distributed renewable generation, building-vehicle integration, hydrogen storage and associated infrastructures are promising for transformation towards a carbon–neutral community, whereas the academia provides limited information through integrated solutions, like intermittent renewable integration, hydrogen sharing...

High Step Coverage Interconnects By Printed Nanoparticles

The growing diversity in the used materials in semiconductor packaging provides challenges for achieving good interconnection. Particularly the very soft substrates, such as paper and polymers, and very hard, such as silicon carbide, offer unique challenges to wire-bonding or formation of vertical interconnects. Complementary technologies are...

Spatial-temporal potential exposure risk analytics and urban sustainability impacts related to COVID-19 mitigation: A perspective from car mobility behaviour

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) poses a significant threat to the population and urban sustainability worldwide. The surge mitigation is complicated and associates many factors, including the pandemic status, policy, socioeconomics and resident behaviours. Modelling and analytics with spatial-temporal big urban data are required to assist...

Harnessing Plasticity in an Amine-Borane as a Piezoelectric and Pyroelectric Flexible Film

We demonstrate that trimethylamine borane can exhibit desirable piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties. The material was shown to be able operate as a flexible film for both thermal sensing, thermal energy conversion and mechanical sensing with high open circuit voltages (>10 V). A piezoelectric coefficient of d₃₃≈10–16 pC N...

Wafer Scale Flexible Interconnect Transfer for Hetrogeneous Integration

A polymer-based wafer level integration technology suitable for miniaturized and multi-functional systems integration was developed and demonstrated in this work. Wafer scale flexible interconnects were firstly fabricated on one wafer, and then transferred to another wafer. Such transfer process involved wafer bonding and application of...

A mathematical model in charactering chloride diffusivity in unsaturated cementitious material

In this paper, a new analytic model for predicting chloride diffusivity in unsaturated cementitious materials is developed based on conductivity theory and Nernst-Einstein equation. The model specifies that chloride diffusivity in unsaturated cementitious materials can be mathematically described as a function of chloride diffusivity in...

Liquid-Si Technology for High-Speed Circuits on Flexible Substrates

Recently, flexible, wearable and disposable electronics have attracted a lot of attention. Printing enables low-cost fabrication of circuits on flexible substrates. Printed organic and metal oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs) have been researched intensively due to the ease of solution-processing. But their carrier mobility and reliability are...

Single-grain Si thin-film transistors for monolithic 3D-ICs and flexible electronics

We review our recent achievements in monolithic 3D-ICs and flexible electronics based on single-grain Si TFTs that are fabricated inside a single-grain with a low-temperature process. Based on pulsed-laser crystallization and submicron sized cavities made in the substrate, amorphous-Si precursor film was converted into poly-Si having grains that...