Tuning the spontaneous light emission in phoxonic cavities

The modulation of spontaneous light emission of active centers through elastic waves in Si/SiO_2 multilayer phoxonic structures that support dual photonic-phononic localized modes, in the bulk or at the surface, is studied by means of rigorous full electrodynamic and elastodynamic calculations. Our results show that strong dynamic modulation of the spontaneous emission can be achieved through an enhanced acousto-optic interaction when light and elastic energy are simultaneously localized in the same region

Alternative evacuation procedures and smart devices' impact assessment for large passenger vessels under severe weather conditions

Within the expansive domain of maritime safety, optimizing evacuation procedures stands as a critical endeavour. After all, evacuation is literally the last and fundamental safety level afforded to mariners and passengers. Recent incidents have rekindled interest in assessing the performance of this ultimate safety barrier. However, addressing evacuability requires a holistic approach. The authors present herein the setup, simulation, and ultimately evaluation of a novel approach and its ability to rigorously assess multiple innovative risk-control options in a challenging, realistic setting. Moreover, its benchmarking against conventional regulation-dictated evacuation processes is captured distinctively along with the relative effectiveness of each proposed measure. Such measures include smart technologies and procedural changes that can result in substantial improvements to the current procedures. These will impact the ongoing discourse on maritime safety by providing insights for policymakers, vessel operators, emergency planners, etc., and emphasize the need for further research and development efforts to fortify the industry against evolving safety challenges

SafePASS : a new chapter for passenger ship evacuation and marine emergency response

Despite the current high level of safety and the efforts to make passenger ships resilient to most fire and flooding scenarios, there are still gaps and challenges in the marine emergency response and ship evacuation processes. Those challenges arise from the fact that both processes are complex, multi-variable problems that rely on parameters involving not only people and technology but also procedural and managerial issues. SafePASS Project, funded under EU's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, is set to radically redefine the evacuation processes by introducing new equipment, expanding the capabilities of legacy systems on-board, proposing new Life-Saving Appliances and ship layouts, and challenging the current international regulations, hence reducing the uncertainty, and increasing the efficiency in all the stages of ship evacuation and abandonment process

SafePASS Project : A Risk Modelling Tool for Passenger Ship Evacuation and Emergency Response Decision Support

One of the biggest challenges in the field of maritime safety is the integration of all the systems related to the evacuation and emergency response under one Decision Support Tool that could broadly cover all the emergency cases and assist in the co-ordination of the evacuation process. Besides, for a decision support tool to be useful we need to be able to calculate the Available time to Evacuate based on real-time data, such as the passenger distribution on board and of course based on the various sensor data that will monitor the damage and its propagation. For all the above, the risk modelling tool developed in SafePASS H2020 project is able to estimate the potential fatalities both in the design phase and in real-time, assessing the evacuation and abandonment risk dynamically, based on real-time data related to the passenger distribution, route, semantics, LSA availability, procedural changes, and damage case (fire or flooding) propagation

StrathVoyager Student Team Technical Report to NJORD Challenge 2023

Starting from basic design and operational concepts on paper, as modular ASV was designed and built within approximately 12 months on a budget of around £5000. The boat participating in the Njord competition features a catamaran design comprised of two custom designed NPL hulls. The catamaran platform was designed to be fully modular and is constructed with 3D-printed hulls and carbon fibre decks. The platform is propelled using a static dual-thruster configuration. Computation is facilitated by an Nvidia Jetson, a Raspberry Pi 4B, and an Arduino MEGA. The system is powered by two custom-made 5S BMS 21V Li-Ion battery packs. The navigation sensor system consists of an Ouster OS32 3D Lidar with a built-in IMU, a Stereovision Zed Mini depth camera, an Adafruit Ultimate GPS Module PA1616D, and an Adafruit BNO055 Absolute Orientation Sensor. Further internal sensors, including voltage, current sensors, as well as a temperature sensor, are integrated. The ASV connects wirelessly to a remote control via an nRF2401 module, and to a laptop for operation monitoring via Holybro Telemetry Sik radio. Autonomous operation is enabled through sensor fusion of camera and Lidar information to identify environmental features, such as waypoints, and to generate virtual waypoints for the autonomous control system. The autonomous control system consists of an in-house developed deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithm that enables Line of Sight operation, as well as obstacle avoidance. As a backup, a general PID LOS waypoint tracking controller is also implemented in parallel. Extensive lab and pond testing has been carried out to develop and refine the system. Key features and innovations of the StrathVoyager ASV include: • Fully modular 3D printed and carbon fibre ASV. • Depth camera and 3D lidar sensor fusion for autonomous control. • DRL-based autonomous control