Researchers at UPM have developed an alarm system for construction

vehicles with a low-cost radar network that can prevent collisions and improve
safety in work environments.

The Radar and Microwave Group (GMR) at the Universidad Politcnica de Madrid
(UPM) has developed an innovative system based on the usage of multiple
radars that is installed in the vehicles creating a sensor network. This system will
provide workers with a general view at the blind spots facilitating making
decisions and preventing collisions.

The usage of large vehicles such as dump trucks is one of the main causes of
accidents in construction sites, some of them with fatal consequences. This
vehicle has numerous blind spots due to its size and design making difficult the
driving and increasing the zone of collision risk.

Nowadays, there are diverse safety systems for these types of vehicles such as
cameras or sirens. However, these systems do not have many advantages due to
adverse conditions in construction sites. The suspended particles obstruct the
camera lens and loud noises disturb the sirens. To summarize, an innovative
solution was needed to solve this safety issue.

Radars are high reliability sensors hardly affected by the suspended particles,
rain or fog. These radars do not need light to work and can be used in any work
environment at any time. This way, GMR has developed a system based on a
low-cost radar networks was installed in the vehicle that detects obstacles
around the vehicle and can be seen through a screen. Besides, the latest
advances in electronics and processing speed allow researchers to miniaturize
and to develop the proposed system.

The biggest challenge was to develop a high performance and reliability system
in order to prevent collisions and to reduce the false alarms rate. A worker can be
suspicious of a system that generates several false alarms during a work day and
this could have severe consequences if a real detection is ignored. The false
alarms rate can be drastically reduced thanks to the usage of multiple sensors
placed around the car and a chain processing and data fusion.

The field tests conducted with the first prototype have proved the viability of
the developed solution. Thanks to its easy installation and reduced cost, this new
solutions can be extensively deployed in large vehicles used in
construction improving the work area safety. Besides, these types of vehicles
need certain time to start and stop the motor due to their size and weight. In this
regard, the usage of this system can optimize the constructive processes
reducing the duration and construction cost.

This technology opens the door to a new safety work environment providing the
drivers of these vehicles with a better view.
Para peneliti di UPM telah mengembangkan sistem alarm untuk kendaraan konstruksi dengan
jaringan radar penerbangan murah yang dapat mencegah tabrakan dan meningkatkan
keselamatan di lingkungan kerja.

Radar dan Microwave Group (GMR) di Universidad Politcnica de Madrid (UPM) telah
mengembangkan sistem yang inovatif berdasarkan penggunaan beberapa radar yang dipasang
di kendaraan menciptakan jaringan sensor. Sistem ini akan menyediakan pekerja dengan
pandangan umum di blind spot memfasilitasi pengambilan keputusan dan mencegah
tabrakan.

Penggunaan kendaraan besar seperti truk merupakan salah satu penyebab utama kecelakaan
di lokasi konstruksi, beberapa dari mereka dengan konsekuensi yang fatal. Kendaraan ini
memiliki banyak bintik-bintik buta karena ukuran dan desain membuat sulit mengemudi dan
meningkatkan zona risiko tabrakan.

Saat ini, ada sistem keamanan yang beragam untuk jenis kendaraan seperti kamera atau
sirene. Namun, sistem ini tidak memiliki banyak keuntungan karena kondisi yang merugikan
dalam lokasi konstruksi. Partikel tersuspensi menghalangi lensa kamera dan suara keras
mengganggu sirene. Untuk meringkas, solusi inovatif diperlukan untuk memecahkan masalah
keamanan ini.

Radar sensor keandalan yang tinggi hampir tidak terpengaruh oleh partikel-partikel, hujan
atau kabut. Radar ini tidak membutuhkan cahaya untuk bekerja dan dapat digunakan dalam
setiap lingkungan kerja setiap saat. Dengan cara ini, GMR telah mengembangkan sistem
didasarkan pada jaringan radar penerbangan murah dipasang di kendaraan yang mendeteksi
rintangan di sekitar kendaraan dan dapat dilihat melalui layar. Selain itu, kemajuan terbaru
dalam elektronik dan kecepatan pemrosesan memungkinkan peneliti untuk miniaturirasi dan
untuk mengembangkan sistem yang diusulkan.

Tantangan terbesar adalah untuk mengembangkan kinerja tinggi dan keandalan sistem untuk
mencegah tabrakan dan mengurangi alarm tingkat false. Seorang pekerja bisa curiga terhadap
sistem yang menghasilkan beberapa alarm palsu selama hari kerja dan ini bisa memiliki
konsekuensi berat jika deteksi real diabaikan. Alarm tingkat false dapat dikurangi secara
drastis berkat penggunaan beberapa sensor ditempatkan di sekitar mobil dan rantai
pengolahan dan fusi data.

Uji lapangan dilakukan dengan prototipe pertama telah membuktikan kelangsungan hidup
solusi yang dikembangkan. Berkat instalasi mudah dan mengurangi biaya, solusi baru ini
dapat secara luas digunakan dalam kendaraan besar digunakan dalam konstruksi
meningkatkan keselamatan area kerja. Selain itu, jenis kendaraan perlu waktu tertentu untuk
memulai dan menghentikan motor karena ukuran dan berat badan mereka. Dalam hal ini,
penggunaan sistem ini dapat mengoptimalkan proses konstruktif mengurangi durasi dan biaya
konstruksi.
Teknologi ini membuka pintu untuk lingkungan kerja keselamatan baru menyediakan driver
dari kendaraan ini dengan pandangan yang lebih baik.

a new method of building materials using light, developed by researchers at the

University of Cambridge, could one day enable technologies that are often
considered the realm of science fiction, such as invisibility cloaks and cloaking
devices.

Although cloaked starships won't be a reality for quite some time, the technique
which researchers have developed for constructing materials with building
blocks a few billionths of a metre across can be used to control the way that
light flies through them, and works on large chunks all at once. Details are
published today (28 July) in the journal Nature Communications.

The key to any sort of 'invisibility' effect lies in the way light interacts with a
material. When light hits a surface, it is either absorbed or reflected, which is
what enables us to see objects. However, by engineering materials at the
nanoscale, it is possible to produce 'metamaterials': materials which can
controled the way in which light interacts with them. Light reflected by a
metamaterial is refracted in the 'wrong' way, potentially rendering objects
invisible, or making them appear as something else.

Metamaterials have a wide range of potential applications, including sensing and

improving military stealth technology. However, before cloaking devices can
become reality on a larger scale, researchers must determine how to make the
right materials at the nanoscale, and using light is now shown to be an enormous
help in such nano-construction.

The technique was developed by the Cambridge team involves using

unfocused laser light as billions of needles, stitching gold nanoparticles together
into long strings, directly in water for the first time. These strings can then be
stacked into layers one on top of the other, similar to Lego bricks. The method
makes it possible to produce materials in much higher quantities than can be
made through current techniques.

In order to make the strings, the researchers first used barrel-shaped molecules
called cucurbiturils (CBs). The CBs act like miniature spacers, enabling a very
high degree of control over the spacing between the nanoparticles, locking them
in place.

In order to connect them electrically, the researchers needed to build a bridge

between the nanoparticles. Conventional welding techniques would not be
effective, as they cause the particles to melt. "It's about finding a way to control
that bridge between the nanoparticles," said Dr Ventsislav Valev of the
University's Cavendish Laboratory, one of the authors of the paper. "Joining a few
nanoparticles together is fine, but scaling that up is challenging."

The key to controlling the bridges lies in the cucurbiturils: the precise spacing
between the nanoparticles allows much more control over the process. When the
laser is focused on the strings of particles in their CB scaffolds, it produces
plasmons: ripples of electrons at the surfaces of conducting metals. These
skipping electrons concentrate the light energy on atoms at the surface and join
them to form bridges between the nanoparticles. Using ultrafast lasers results in
billions of these bridges forming in rapid succession, threading the nanoparticles
into long strings, which can be monitored in real time.

"We have controlled the dimensions in a way that hasn't been possible
before," said Dr Valev, who worked with researchers from the Department of
Chemistry and the Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy on the project.
"This level of control opens up a wide range of potential practical applications."