Study on tightly coupled LiDAR-Inertial SLAM for open pit coal mine environment

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence and unmanned and other related disciplines, the intelligence and unmanned of coal mining equipment has become a new trend. The application of intelligent equipment will greatly improve the productivity of coal mine operations as well as personnel safety. In this environment, the existing LIDAR-based Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) solution is prone to positioning drift and large mapping errors. To address these problems, a tightly coupled SLAM algorithm based on LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) is proposed, which uses both LiDAR and IMU sensors as data inputs.The front-end uses an iterative extended Kalman filter to fuse the pre-processed LiDAR feature points with the IMU data and uses backward propagation to correct the radar motion distortion, the back-end uses the LiDAR relative positional factor to use the LiDAR inter-frame alignment results as a constraint factor together with the loopback factor to complete the global factor map optimization. The robustness and accuracy of the algorithm are verified using open source dataset and open pit coal mine field dataset. The experimental results show that the accuracy of the proposed algorithm is consistent with the current LiDAR SLAM algorithm in the urban structured environment, while the proposed algorithm improves the localization accuracy by 46.00% and 23.15% with higher robustness than the FAST-LIO2 and LIO-SAM tightly coupled algorithms for the open pit coal mine field environment of more than 2000 meters long, respectively

A CEI-Based Method for Precise Tracking and Measurement of LEO Satellites in Future Mega-Constellation Missions

With the development of low-orbit mega-constellations, low-orbit navigation augmentation systems, and other emerging LEO projects, the tracking accuracy requirement for low-orbit satellites is constantly increasing. However, existing methods have obvious shortcomings, and a new tracking and measurement method for LEO satellites is thus urgently needed. Given this, in this paper, a Connected Element Interferometry (CEI)-based “near-field” measurement model for low-orbit satellites is proposed. On this basis, the goniometric error formula of the model is derived, and the factors included in each error source are briefly discussed, followed by the simplification of the error formula. Furthermore, for the feasibility analysis of the proposed method, the common view time of CEI array on LEO satellites is analyzed in different regions and different baseline lengths. Finally, this paper simulates the effects of satellite–station distance, baseline length, and goniometric angle on the error coefficients in the goniometric error formula, and provides the theoretical goniometric accuracy of this model for different baseline lengths and goniometric angles. Under a baseline length of 240 km, the accuracy can reach 10 nrad. The research results of this paper could play the role of theoretical a priori in accuracy prediction in future low-orbit satellite tracking measurements

Using Untargeted LC-MS Metabolomics to Identify the Association of Biomarkers in Cattle Feces with Marbling Standard Longissimus Lumborum

Background: To improve the grade of beef marbling has great economic value in the cattle industry since marbling has the traits of high quality and comprehensive nutrition. And because of the marbling’s importance and complexity, it is indispensable to explore marbled beef at multiple levels. This experiment studied the relationship between fecal metabolites and marbling characters, and further screened biomarkers. Results: We performed fecal metabolomics analysis on 30 individuals selected from 100 crossbreed cattle (Luxi Yellow cattle ♀ × Japanese Wagyu cattle ♂), 15 with an extremely high-grade marbling beef and 15 with an extremely low-grade marbling beef. A total of 9959 and 8389 m/z features were detected in positive ionization and negative ionization mode by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Unfortunately, the sample separation in the PCA is not obvious, and the predictive ability of the orthogonal partial least squares discrimination analysis (OPLS-DA) model is not good. However, we got six differential metabolites filtered by VIP > 1 and p < 0.05. After that, we used weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) and found out a module in each positive and negative mode most related to the trait of marbling beef, and then identified three metabolites in positive mode. By further annotation of the Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG), it was found that these metabolites involved a variety of metabolic ways, including sphingomyelin metabolism, linoleic acid metabolism, glycerophospholipid metabolism, and so on. Finally, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate the predictability of metabolites, and the result showed that SM(d18:0/16:1(9Z)) (AUC = 0.72), PC(15:0/18:2(9Z,12Z)) (AUC = 0.72), ADP (AUC = 0.71), PC(16:0/16:0) (AUC = 0.73), and 3-O-Sulfogalactosylceramide (d18:1/18:0) (AUC = 0.69) have an accuracy diagnosis. Conclusions: In conclusion, this study supports new opinions for the successive evaluation of marbling beef through metabolites. Furthermore, six non-invasive fecal metabolites that can evaluate beef marbling grade were found, including SM(d18:0/16:1(9Z)), PC(15:0/18:2(9Z,12Z)), ADP, PC(16:0/16:0), and 3-O-Sulfogalactosylceramide

Enzyme-Based Mesoporous Nanomotors with Near-Infrared Optical Brakes

As one of the most important parameters of the nanomotors’ motion, precise speed control of enzyme-based nanomotors is highly desirable in many bioapplications. However, owing to the stable physiological environment, it is still very difficult to in situ manipulate the motion of the enzyme-based nanomotors. Herein, inspired by the brakes on vehicles, the near-infrared (NIR) “optical brakes” are introduced in the glucose-driven enzyme-based mesoporous nanomotors to realize remote speed regulation for the first time. The novel nanomotors are rationally designed and fabricated based on the Janus mesoporous nanostructure, which consists of the SiO2@Au core@shell nanospheres and the enzymes-modified periodic mesoporous organosilicas (PMOs). The nanomotor can be driven by the biofuel of glucose under the catalysis of enzymes (glucose oxidase/catalase) on the PMO domain. Meanwhile, the Au nanoshell at the SiO2@Au domain enables the generation of the local thermal gradient under the NIR light irradiation, driving the nanomotor by thermophoresis. Taking advantage of the unique Janus nanostructure, the directions of the driving force induced by enzyme catalysis and the thermophoretic force induced by NIR photothermal effect are opposite. Therefore, with the NIR optical speed regulators, the glucose-driven nanomotors can achieve remote speed manipulation from 3.46 to 6.49 μm/s (9.9-18.5 body-length/s) at the fixed glucose concentration, even after covering with a biological tissue. As a proof of concept, the cellar uptake of the such mesoporous nanomotors can be remotely regulated (57.5-109 μg/mg), which offers great potential for designing smart active drug delivery systems based on the mesoporous frameworks of this novel nanomotor.The work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFA0209401), National Natural Science Foundation of China (22088101, 21875043, 22075049, 21733003, and 51961145403), Key Basic Research Program of Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (17JC1400100), Shanghai Rising-Star Program (20QA1401200), Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (22ZR1478900, 18ZR1404600, 20490710600). This publication was made possible by the NPRP Grant No. NPRP 12S-0309-190268 from the Qatar National Research Fund. The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors

Precise Control of Perovskite Crystallization Kinetics via Sequential A-Site Doping

Two-step-fabricated FAPbI3-based perovskites have attracted increasing attention because of their excellent film quality and reproducibility. However, the underlying film formation mechanism remains mysterious. Here, the crystallization kinetics of a benchmark FAPbI3-based perovskite film with sequential A-site doping of Cs+ and GA+ is revealed by in situ X-ray scattering and first-principles calculations. Incorporating Cs+ in the first step induces an alternative pathway from δ-CsPbI3 to perovskite α-phase, which is energetically more favorable than the conventional pathways from PbI2. However, pinholes are formed due to the nonuniform nucleation with sparse δ-CsPbI3 crystals. Fortunately, incorporating GA+ in the second step can not only promote the phase transition from δ-CsPbI3 to the perovskite α-phase, but also eliminate pinholes via Ostwald ripening and enhanced grain boundary migration, thus boosting efficiencies of perovskite solar cells over 23%. This work demonstrates the unprecedented advantage of the two-step process over the one-step process, allowing a precise control of the perovskite crystallization kinetics by decoupling the crystal nucleation and growth process

Perovskite Solar Cells Based on Low-Temperature Processed Indium Oxide Electron Selective Layers

Indium oxide (In₂O₃) as a promising n-type semiconductor material has been widely employed in optoelectronic applications. In this work, we applied low-temperature solution-processed In₂O₃ nanocrystalline film as an electron selective layer (ESL) in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) for the first time. By taking advantages of good optical and electrical properties of In₂O₃ such as high mobility, wide band gap, and high transmittance, we obtained In₂O₃-based PSCs with a good efficiency exceeding 13% after optimizing the concentration of the precursor solution and the annealing temperature. Furthermore, to enhance the performance of the In₂O₃-based PSCs, a phenyl-C₆₁-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) layer was introduced to modify the surface of the In₂O₃ film. The PCBM film could fill up the pinholes or cracks along In₂O₃ grain boundaries to passivate the defects and make the ESL extremely compact and uniform, which is conducive to suppressing the charge recombination. As a result, the efficiency of the In₂O₃-based PSC was improved to 14.83% accompanied with <i>V</i>_OC, <i>J</i>_SC, and FF being 1.08 V, 20.06 mA cm^–2, and 0.685, respectively

Crystallization of sequentially deposited perovskite films

In situ grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) data measured during the perovskite film-formation proces