Overview of Space Plug-and-Play Avionics Interface Technology

The rapid construction of satellite systems has become a priority development direction of space technology. Space plug-and-play avionics (SPA) technology has the characteristics of short development cycle, low cost, strong pertinence, and quick results, so it has become a hot research topic in various countries today. This paper comprehensively summarizes the technical system and development trend of SPA. Firstly, the SPA hardware architecture and its three generations evolution process is analyzed; then, the application of SPA technology, including the development of PnP series satellites, OSR-1 satellite, panel extension satellite is introduced; finally, the development trend of SPA technology, including coordinated development of hardware and software technologies, and transforming traditional satellite test methods is also put forward.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) promotes the production of advanced liquid transportation fuels from lignocellulosic biomass by funding fundamental and applied research that advances the State of Technology (SOT). As part of its involvement with this mission, Idaho National Laboratory (INL) completes an annual SOT report for biomass feedstock logistics. This report summarizes supply system impacts of Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO)-funded research and development efforts at INL and INL collaboration with external partners (e.g. Forest Concepts, Purdue University ) that lead to improvements in feedstock supply systems. These include improvements to and observed performance of innovative harvest and collection methods, storage technologies, transportation and handling approaches, and advanced preprocessing technologies. Biomass quality and variability, and the interface between feedstock quality and conversion performance are key drivers in addition to delivered feedstock cost. In this report, we estimate the benefits of R&D technology improvements to individual supply system unit operations and present the status of feedstock logistics technology development for converting herbaceous biomass into biofuels. These analyses are supported by experimental data where possible and help to align the SOT relative to the cost goals defined in the Multi-Year Plan. The 2021 Herbaceous SOT incorporates an advanced biomass fractionation system for separating anatomical fractions (e.g. leaf, stem, husk, and cob) of delivered corn stover, thus, to maximize the goal of reducing extrinsic ash and improving carbohydrate content in the pre-processed biomass. The air classification in the fractionation system is supported by a Spudnik Air separator, which is a large-scale equipment that can efficiently remove soil contaminant (about 25%) and separate high ash content tissue such as leaf and husks. By eliminating extrinsic ash in biomass and the high ash content fractions, we have reduced ash content of three-pass corn stover from 11.20% to 6.00%, and increased carbohydrate content from 56.80% to 60.16%. This technical improvement has allowed us to eliminate two-pass corn stover from the biomass supply curve, therefore largely reduced the harvesting and collection cost, and transportation costs within the feedstock logistics system. In addition, the second stage hammer mill was replaced with rotary shear, which is less sensitive to moisture content than hammer milling and has higher throughput with lower energy consumption. The reduced energy consumption has also contributed to the modeled cost reduction. The 2021 nth-plant Herbaceous SOT predicts a modeled delivered feedstock cost of $78.21/dry ton (2016$), this is a $0.54/dry ton (2016$) decrease from the 2020 Herbaceous SOT nth-Supply case cost. Technology improvements that contributed to this modeled cost reduction include reduced cost in the feedstock harvesting, collection and transportation cost caused by eliminating two-pass corn stover, and reduced energy consumption cost by replacing the hammer mill with rotary shear. A preliminary greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) assessment was completed by scaling the 2020 Herbaceous nth-plant GHG data from the 2020 Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation model (GREET) , shows a decrease of 9.77 kg CO2e/ton from the 2020 SOT (77.48 kg CO2e/ton in the 2020 Herbaceous Feedstock SOT to 67.71 kg CO2e/ton in the 2020 Herbaceous Feedstock SOT). This net reduction is attributed to reduced transportation distances for biomass delivery from field to depot, and reduced energy consumption by using rotary shear, and will be updated once Argonne National Laboratory has completed their Supply Chain Sustainability Analysis for the 2021 SOTs. In the 1st-plant analysis of the 2021 Herbaceous SOT system, the average throughput was 2,044 dry tons/day or 92.7% of the name plate capacity. During the simulation the daily throughput ranged from 848.1 dry tons/day to 2,338 dry tons/day, which equates to 38.5% to 106% of the daily nameplate capacity. After the year of operation 715,400 tons (98.33% of the annual nameplate capacity) of preprocessed feedstock were produced; the variability in throughput was primarily caused by equipment failures in the system. Failures due to wear were the largest cause of disruption within the system, accounting for 70.04% of the failures and 91.28% of the total downtime. Previously, moisture related failures were the cause of the majority of downtime, but new storage strategies and equipment (bale dryer for the first 25% of stover harvested) data from the Biomass Storage project (WBS 1.2.1.1) led to the elimination of moisture related downtime. Ultimately the system on-stream time was 87.65% during the simulation period. Considering the operational delays and material losses in the system, the average cost per ton of biomass was $82.34/dry ton, with a range from $72.24/dr

The article presents an analysis that underscores the importance of constructing a topology for optical networks in free space. This topology is envisaged to connect various space devices, including artificial satellites, nanosatellites, moon walker, Mars probes, and future space equipment that will utilize quantum technologies. These connected devices will facilitate intelligent applications and remote optical control within the realm of space technology. The article introduces a novel optical network topology for space equipment, terrestrial optical terminals, and terrestrial optical-controlled equipment, with due consideration for transit optical communication. Furthermore, a simplified Markov scheme illustrating this proposed topology has been formulated, accompanied by a stability model. This research offers valuable insights into the development of optical networks in space, paving the way for advanced communication and control systems for future space missions and technologies.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) promotes the production of advanced liquid transportation fuels from lignocellulosic biomass by funding fundamental and applied research that advances the State of Technology (SOT). As part of its involvement with this mission, Idaho National Laboratory (INL) completes an annual SOT report for biomass feedstock logistics. This report summarizes supply system impacts of Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO)-funded research and development efforts at INL and elsewhere (such as the High-Tonnage Feedstock Logistics projects (Webb et al. 2013a, Webb et al. 2013b, Webb et al. 2013c, Webb and Sokhansanj 2014, Sokhansanj et al. 2014)) that lead to improvements in feedstock supply systems. These include improvements to and observed performance of innovative harvest and collection methods, storage technologies, transportation and handling approaches, and advanced preprocessing technologies. Biomass quality and variability, and the interface between feedstock quality and conversion performance are key drivers in addition to delivered feedstock cost. In this report, we estimate the benefits of R&D improvements to individual supply system unit operations and present the status of feedstock logistics technology development for converting biomass into biofuels. These analyses are supported by experimental data where possible and help to align the SOT relative to the cost goals defined in the Multi-Year Program Plan. The 2019 Herbaceous SOT incorporates several technology changes in feedstock preprocessing and introduces opportunities from the integrated landscape management (ILM) strategy and increased grower participation to reduce biomass access costs, while maintaining or improving grower profitability. During FY18 uneven flow from the horizontal bale grinder was identified as a significant issue limiting preprocessing system throughput. Based on FSL-funded research at INL, the 2019 Herbaceous SOT replaces the horizontal bale grinder used in the first stage size reduction with a bale processor. The improved uniformity of biomass flow entering the PDU eliminated slugging flow from the first stage size reduction and improved the throughput of downstream operations. In order to achieve moisture reduction through frictional heating during grinding (which allowed elimination of the costly rotary drum dryer in previous SOTs), the second stage grinder was changed from a rotary shear, which does not remove moisture, back to a hammer mill. Finally, the 2019 Herbaceous SOT introduces modified three-pass and two-pass corn stover supply curves derived from the BT16 resource assessment, based on FY19 modeling results (WBS 4.2.1.20) quantifying economic benefits of ILM in the supply area, together with modeling results (WBS 1.2.1.5) identifying ILM strategies to increase grower participation. The 2019 Herbaceous SOT report documents the current modeled cost of an herbaceous feedstock supply system from harvest to the pretreatment reactor throat for hydrocarbon fuel production via biochemical conversion, based on equipment and processes now available or potentially available in the near term. The modeled cost also considers both the required quality and the availability of the biomass resources. The 2019 Herbaceous SOT predicts a modeled delivered feedstock cost of $81.37 /dry ton (2016$); this is a $2.30/dry ton (2016$) decrease from the 2018 Herbaceous SOT. Technology improvements that contributed to this modeled cost reduction include reduced cost for the new preprocessing design and quantification of the opportunities of the integrated landscape management (ILM) strategy and an increased grower participation rate to reduce the grower payment portion of biomass access costs, while maintaining or improving grower profitability. A greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) assessment was completed by Argonne National Laboratory using the 2019 Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation model, estimating an increase of 14.89 kg CO2e/ton from the 2018 SOT (69.27 kg CO2e/ton in 2018 to 84.16 kg CO2e/ton in 2019). The increase of energy consumption during preprocessing along with higher transportation distance to access low cost biomass from further distance contributed to the increase of GHG emissions in the 2019 Herbaceous SOT. The reason for the increased transportation distances was the cost tradeoff of going farther from the biorefinery to access the cheaper ILM-derived counties (the cheaper price outweighed the cost of increased supply radius).

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) promotes the production of advanced liquid transportation fuels from lignocellulosic biomass by funding fundamental and applied research that advances the state of technology (SOT). As part of its involvement with this mission, Idaho National Laboratory (INL) completes an annual SOT report for biomass feedstock logistics. This report summarizes supply system impacts of Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO)-funded research and development efforts at INL and elsewhere (such as the High-Tonnage Feedstock Logistics projects (Webb et al. 2013a, Webb et al. 2013b, Webb et al. 2013c, Webb and Sokhansanj 2014, Sokhansanj et al. 2014) that lead to improvements in feedstock supply systems. These include improvements to and observed performance of innovative harvest and collection methods, storage technologies, transportation and handling approaches, and advanced preprocessing technologies. Biomass quality and variability, and the interface between feedstock quality and conversion performance are key drivers in addition to delivered feedstock cost. In this report, we estimate the benefits of R&D improvements to individual supply system unit operations, and present the status of feedstock logistics technology development for converting biomass into biofuels. These analyses are supported by experimental data where possible, and help to align the SOT relative to the cost goals defined in the Multi-Year Program Plan. The 2018 Herbaceous SOT aligned feedstock logistic design with current biorefinery’s design capacity utilized by biochemical conversion platform. Currently biochemical conversion platform utilizes a 725,000 dry ton/year biorefiney design for the techno economic analysis. Hence, feedstock delivered cost in the 2018 Herbaceous SOT is calculated based on biorefinery’s 725,000 dry ton design capacity instead of 800, 000 dry ton capacity utilized in the 2017 Herbaceous SOT. Biomass availabilities in this SOT were updated to year 2018 data from the 2016 Billion-Ton Report (BT16) (DOE 2016a), with the exception of switchgrass, for which the 2018 Herbaceous SOT utilized the 2019 switchgrass availability data from BT16. The BT16 report (DOE 2016a) does not project switchgrass availability in 2018; the soonest switchgrass is available in the BT16 report is 2019. Therefore, availability of switchgrass for this analysis was that projected for 2019. The 2018 Herbaceous SOT incorporates same technologies utilized in the 2017 Herbaceous SOT. However, a sensitivity analysis is performed to understand the impact of variation of process parameters on those technologies on feedstock logistic cost. New R&D data that shows the variations of process parameters affecting process performance is incorporated in the 2018 SOT to measure the variations in delivered feedstock cost. The 2018 Herbaceous SOT has also provided projected delivered feedstock of 2022 design case based on near term technical target under BETO funded R&D project. Finally, updated biorefinery size of 725,000 dry ton/year was incorporated within least-cost formulation model to select optimal siting and depot scales during optimization of the least cost blend. This modification to the optimization algorithm allows the trade-off between the cost of increased supply radius and the savings from selecting biomass from higher producing counties to be assessed. Such optimization has also showed the economic benefit of decentralized depots in comparison to centralized preprocessing co-located with the biorefinery by decoupling the biorefinery and feedstock locations. The 2018 Herbaceous SOT report documents the current modeled cost of a herbaceous feedstock supply system (from harvest to the pretreatment reactor throat, including grower payment) for hydrocarbon fuel production via biochemical conversion, based on equipment and processes now available or potentially available in the near term. The modeled cost also considers both the required quality and the availability of the biomass resources. The 2018 Herbaceous SOT predicts a modeled delivered feedstock cost of $83.67/dry ton (2016$); this is a $0.23/dry ton (2016$) decrease from the 2017 Herbaceous SOT. The modification of biorefinery’s designed capacity and increased projected biomass availability in the same supply shed contributed to this modeled cost reduction. The least-cost formulation model to optimally site and scale local distributed preprocessing depots also contributed to the cost reduction by considering county-level grower payment and distance from the biorefinery as variables in the optimization algorithm. Sensitivity analysis on various process parameters that affect delivered feedstock cost in the 2018 Herbaceous SOT shows that the delivered cost could varies from $80.45-$88.83/dry ton. The top factors that causes such variations are: effective baling rate, bale density, hammer mill throughput, interest rate and storage dry matter loss.

In the face of the contradiction between the increasing demand for agricultural products and the sharp reduction of agricultural resources and labor force, agricultural robot technology is developing explosively on the basis of decades of technical and industrial exploration. In view of the complexity and particularity of the development of agricultural robot technology, it is of great value to summarize its development characteristics and make reasonable judgments on its development trend. In this paper, the type of agricultural robot systems was first discussed. From the classification of agricultural robot systems, the development of main types of monitoring robots, non-selective and selective working robots for crop farming, livestock and poultry farming and aquaculture were introduced in detail. Then the scientific research, core technology and commercialization of different types of agricultural robots were summarized. It is believed that navigation in complex agricultural environments, damage-free robot-crop interaction and agronomy-robot fusion have high scientific value and significance to promote the revolutionary advances in agricultural robot technology. The characteristics of inter-discipline between agricultural robot technology and new materials, artificial intelligence, bionics, agronomy are research focus. The fast damage-free operation, autonomous navigation for complex environments, target detection for complex backgrounds and special design for agricultural robots are considered to be the key technology of agricultural robot development, and the development path is given. Finally, robot-crop interaction simulation, big data support and artificial intelligence are regarded as paths to realize the breakthrough of key agricultural robot technologies. The summary and prospect of this paper are of positive significance to promote the overall development of agricultural robot technology. Keywords: agricultural robot, type, selective, non-selective, trend DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20211404.6821 Citation: Jin Y C, Liu J Z, Xu Z J, Yuan S Q, Li P P, Wang J Z. Development status and trend of agricultural robot technology. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2021; 14(4): 1–19.

Developments in fiber optic communications have been rejuvenated after the glut of the overcapacity at the turn of the century. The boom of video-centric network applications finally resulted in another wave of vast build-outs of broadband access networks such as FTTH, DOCSIS 3.0 and WI-FI systems, which in turn also drove up the bandwidth demands in metro and regional WDM networks. These new developments have rekindled research interests on technologies not only to meet the surging demand, but also to upgrade legacy network infrastructures in an evolutionary manner without disrupting existing services and incurring significant capital penalties. Standard bodies such as IEEE, ITU and OIF have formed task forces to ratify 100Gb/s interface standards. Thanks to the seemingly unlimited bandwidth in single-mode fibers, advances in optical networks has traditionally been fueled by more capable physical components such as more powerful laser, cleaner and wider bandwidth optical amplifier, faster modulator and photo-detectors, etc. In the meanwhile, the mainstream modulation technique for fiber optic communication systems has remained the most rudimentary form of on-off keying (OOK) and direct power detection for a very long period of time because spectral efficiency had never been a concern. This scenario, however, is no longer valid as demand for bandwidth is pushing the limit of current of current WDM technologies. In terms of spectral use, all the 100-GHz ITU grids in the C-band have been populated with 10Gb/s wavelengths in most of the WDM transport networks, and we are exhausting the power and bandwidth offered on existing fiber plant EDFAs. Beyond 10Gb/s, increasing the transmission to 40Gb/s by brute force OOK approach incurs significant penalties due to chromatic and polarization mode dispersion. With conventional modulation schemes, transmission impairments at 40Gb/s speed and above already become such difficult challenges that the efforts to manage these problem have severely hindered the rate of return on the investment from an economical viewpoint, let alone 100Gb/s transmission. In addition, to enable fast turn-up of new services and reduce network operation costs, carriers are also deploying reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs) and transparent optical networks. ROADMs impose more impairments to transmitted signals and are important considerations in designing backbone transmission links. Recently, advanced modulation schemes have been investigated in both the academia and industry as ways to improve the spectral efficiency and alleviate transmission impairments. Signal processing techniques familiar to traditional telecommunication engineers are also playing more and more important roles in optical communications because of the fast advance in mixed signal processing and growing abundance of computational power. In this invited talk, we review the current challenges faced in upgrading existing 10Gb/s metro and regional WDM networks and the potential solutions to enable 40 and 100Gb/s wavelength services.

foreign matter intrusion on train operation safety is becoming increasingly serious. Based on a large amount of research data, among many factors affecting the operation safety of high-speed railway, the detection of personnel and foreign matter intrusion is difficult, and the preventive measures are limited, mainly because of its strong randomness and complexity. This paper systematically introduces the development status of high-speed railway line protection technology at home and abroad, especially summarizes the development status of high-speed railway line monitoring technology in China, and proposes a new design of foreign object intrusion detection and alarm device based on new sensors and networks, which has certain reference value for high-speed railway line protection and railway bureaus and departments in related fields.

Due to widespread applications and rapid development of cloud computing and Internet services, hyperscale data centers have experienced an unprecedented demand for networking. Data center networks are required not only to handle fast-growing traffic, which doubles almost every one to two years, but also to provide high flexibility and availability to support rapidly changing businesses as well. Therefore, hyperscale data center networks have become one of the main drivers for optical interconnect technologies in recent years. In this article, technologies for scaling optical interconnects for inter-data center interconnects (DCIs) are presented. We first describe hyperscale data center network architectures and requirements, as well as the differences between carrier’s optical transport networks and DCI optical networks, with the main focus on metro-DCI and campus-DCI networks. The scale and fast growth rates of DCI networks require innovations not only in data plane technologies but also in control and management planes as well. In data planes, high-capacity flexible coherent technology, pluggable wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) optical transponders, including 100G direct-detection four-level pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM4) and coherent 400ZR/800ZR, and flex-grid and disaggregated reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) optical networks are described. Control and management planes are an integral part of optical transport networks and crucial for effectively operating DCI networks. We show that standard protocols, data models, and modular design of a software platform are essential to building a scalable open and disaggregated optical network, which is fundamental to enabling high automation and intelligence in an optical network. An example control and management platform is discussed in detail. With current fiber capacity approaching the nonlinear Shannon limit, challenges to further scale DCI networks and some potential technologies to support ever-increasing traffic growth are discussed at the end.

In recent years, continuous manufacturing technology has attracted considerable attention in the pharmaceutical industry. This technology is highly sought after for its significant advantages in cost reduction, increased efficiency, and improved productivity, making it a growing trend in the future of the pharmaceutical industry. Compared to traditional batch production methods, continuous manufacturing technology features real-time control and environmentally friendly intelligence, enabling pharmaceutical companies to produce drugs more efficiently. However, the adoption of continuous manufacturing technology has been slow in the field of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) pharmaceuticals. On the one hand, there is insufficient research on continuous manufacturing equipment and technology that align with the characteristics of TCM preparations. On the other hand, the scarcity of talent with diverse expertise hampers its development. Therefore, in order to promote the modernization and upgrading of the TCM pharmaceutical industry, this article combined the current development status of the TCM industry to outline the development status and regulatory requirements of continuous manufacturing technology. At the same time, it analyzed the problems with existing TCM manufacturing models and explored the prospects and challenges of applying continuous manufacturing technology in the field of TCM pharmaceuticals. The analysis focused on continuous manufacturing control strategies, technical tools, and pharmaceutical equipment, aiming to provide targeted recommendations to drive the development of the TCM pharmaceutical industry.

Magnesite is a non-metallic mineral rich in magnesium. Due to its excellent fire resistance, it is widely used in the manufacture of magnesia-carbon bricks, magnesia and other refractory materials, which are widely used in various fields such as chemical industry and metallurgy. Due to the uneven distribution of magnesite resources and the reduction of high-quality magnesite resources caused by large-scale mining, the selection of low-grade magnesite has become a key problem of magnesium resources. The lower grade ores are abandoned because they contain a large amount of impurities and do not meet the requirements of industrial production, which leads to the unreasonable utilization of magnesite resources. This paper summarizes the current status of low-grade magnesite separation technology and flotation reagent development in China, and gives some suggestions on the development of low-grade magnesite beneficiation technology, aiming at providing certain theory and reference value for magnesite beneficiation.

A set of ISO standards on climate change adaptation exist that are relevant for the application by cities. However, the knowledge of these is limited among the target groups as well as support is needed to foster their application at city level. The CitISOsCA research project addressed these aspects by different engagement activities using mainly surveys and workshops. The main outcomes of this research are seven verified elements to support applying a standard at city level, and aspects to consider when start the application of a CCA standard in a city. The research fills the gap in literature, which lacks on information on how the application of standards can be fostered.

With the development of society, energy issues have been increasingly valued. Solar energy, as an emerging energy source, has received widespread attention. This article conducts in-depth research on the application of solar technology in different fields. Firstly, the basic principles of solar photothermal technology and solar photothermal technology are analyzed. Secondly, the applications of photothermal and photovoltaic technology in different fields are introduced. Finally, the development status of solar photothermal and photovoltaic technology is discussed.

With the rapid development of automobile electronic industry, more and more electronic control technologies are replacing the traditional mechanical devices of automobile. Modern automobile chassis control technology is developing towards the direction of wire control. The wire control system will replace the traditional control system which mainly consists of hydraulic, pneumatic and mechanical systems, so as to realize the integration with other systems. In this paper, the development status of vehicle by wire control technology in various countries, as well as the composition, working principle and control method of vehicle by wire steering system and brake by wire system are summarized, the key technologies affecting the development of vehicle by wire control are summarized, and the application of by wire control technology in the future automotive field is prospected.

A failure recovery system utilizing a multi-core fiber (MCF) link with field programmable gate array-based optical switch units was developed to achieve high capacity and highly reliable optical networks in access areas. We describe the novel MCF link based on a multi-ring structure and a protection scheme to prevent link failures. Fan-in/ -out devices and connectors are also presented to demonstrate the development status of the MCF connection technology for the link. We demonstrated path recovery by switching operation within a sufficiently short time, which is required by ITU-T. The selection of a protecting path as a failure working path was also optimized as the minimum passage of units for low loss transmission. The results we obtained indicate that our proposed link has potential for the network design of highly reliable network topologies in access areas such as data centers, systems in business areas, and fiber to the home systems in residential areas.