Intelligent Industrial Cleaning: A Multi-Sensor Approach Utilising Machine Learning-Based Regression

Effectively cleaning equipment is essential for the safe production of food but requires a significant amount of time and resources such as water, energy, and chemicals. To optimize the cleaning of food production equipment, there is the need for innovative technologies to monitor the removal of fouling from equipment surfaces. In this work, optical and ultrasonic sensors are used to monitor the fouling removal of food materials with different physicochemical properties from a benchtop rig. Tailored signal and image processing procedures are developed to monitor the cleaning process, and a neural network regression model is developed to predict the amount of fouling remaining on the surface. The results show that the three dissimilar food fouling materials investigated were removed from the test section via different cleaning mechanisms, and the neural network models were able to predict the area and volume of fouling present during cleaning with accuracies as high as 98% and 97%, respectively. This work demonstrates that sensors and machine learning methods can be effectively combined to monitor cleaning processes

The Hypanis Valles delta: The last highstand of a sea on early Mars?

One of the most contentious hypotheses in the geological history of Mars is whether the northern lowlands ever contained an oceanic water body. Arguably, the best evidence for an ocean comes from the presence of sedimentary fans around Mars' dichotomy boundary, which separates the northern lowlands from the southern highlands. Here we describe the palaeogeomorphology of the Hypanis Valles sediment fan, the largest sediment fan complex reported on Mars (area >970 km2). This has an extensive catchment (4.6 x 105 km2) incorporating Hypanis and Nanedi Valles, that we show was active during the late-Noachian/early-Hesperian period (∼3.7 Ga). The fan comprises a series of lobe-shaped sediment bodies, connected by multiple bifurcating flat-topped ridges. We interpret the latter as former fluvial channel belts now preserved in inverted relief. Meter-scale-thick, sub-horizontal layers that are continuous over tens of kilometres are visible in scarps and the inverted channel margins. The inverted channel branches and lobes are observed to occur up to at least 140 km from the outlet of Hypanis Valles and descend ∼500 m in elevation. The progressive basinward advance of the channellobe transition records deposition and avulsion at the margin of a retreating standing body of water, assuming the elevation of the northern plains basin floor is stable. We interpret the Hypanis sediment fan to represent an ancient delta as opposed to a fluvial fan system. At its location at the dichotomy boundary, the Hypanis Valles fan system is topographically open to Chryse Planitia – an extensive plain that opens in turn into the larger northern lowlands basin. We conclude that the observed progradation of fan bodies was due to basinward shoreline retreat of an ancient body of water which extended across at least Chryse Planitia. Given the open topography, it is plausible that the Hypanis fan system records the existence, last highstand, and retreat of a large sea in Chryse Planitia and perhaps even an ocean that filled the northern plains of Mars

A multi-sensor approach for fouling level assessment in clean-in-place processes

Clean-in-place systems are largely used in food industry for cleaning interior surfaces of equipment without disassembly. These processes currently utilise an excessive amount of resources and time, as they are based on an open loop (no feedback) control philosophy with process control dependent on conservative over estimation assumptions. This paper proposes a multi-sensor approach including a vision and acoustic system for clean-in-place monitoring, endowed with ultraviolet optical fluorescence imaging and ultrasonic acoustic sensors aimed at assessing fouling thickness within inner surfaces of vessels and pipeworks. An experimental campaign of Clean-in-place tests was carried out at laboratory scale using chocolate spread as fouling agent. During the tests digital images and ultrasonic signal specimens were acquired and processed extracting relevant features from both sensing units. These features are then inputted to an intelligent decision making support tool for the real-time assessment of fouling thickness within the clean-in-place system

A multi-sensor approach for fouling level assessment in clean-in-place processes

Clean-in-place systems are largely used in food industry for cleaning interior surfaces of equipment without disassembly. These processes currently utilise an excessive amount of resources and time, as they are based on an open loop (no feedback) control philosophy with process control dependent on conservative over estimation assumptions. This paper proposes a multi-sensor approach including a vision and acoustic system for clean-in-place monitoring, endowed with ultraviolet optical fluorescence imaging and ultrasonic acoustic sensors aimed at assessing fouling thickness within inner surfaces of vessels and pipeworks. An experimental campaign of Clean-in-place tests was carried out at laboratory scale using chocolate spread as fouling agent. During the tests digital images and ultrasonic signal specimens were acquired and processed extracting relevant features from both sensing units. These features are then inputted to an intelligent decision making support tool for the real-time assessment of fouling thickness within the clean-in-place system

A Dexterous Tip-extending Robot with Variable-length Shape-locking

Soft, tip-extending "vine" robots offer a unique mode of inspection and manipulation in highly constrained environments. For practicality, it is desirable that the distal end of the robot can be manipulated freely, while the body remains stationary. However, in previous vine robots, either the shape of the body was fixed after growth with no ability to manipulate the distal end, or the whole body moved together with the tip. Here, we present a concept for shape-locking that enables a vine robot to move only its distal tip, while the body is locked in place. This is achieved using two inextensible, pressurized, tip-extending, chambers that "grow" along the sides of the robot body, preserving curvature in the section where they have been deployed. The length of the locked and free sections can be varied by controlling the extension and retraction of these chambers. We present models describing this shape-locking mechanism and workspace of the robot in both free and constrained environments. We experimentally validate these models, showing an increased dexterous workspace compared to previous vine robots. Our shape-locking concept allows improved performance for vine robots, advancing the field of soft robotics for inspection and manipulation in highly constrained environments.Comment: 7 pages,10 figures. Accepted to IEEE International Conference on Rootics and Automation (ICRA) 202

An Australian twin study of cannabis and other illicit drug use and misuse, and other psychopathology

Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug throughout the developed world and there is consistent evidence of heritable influences on multiple stages of cannabis involvement including initiation of use and abuse/dependence. In this paper, we describe the methodology and preliminary results of a large-scale interview study of 3,824 young adult twins (born 1972–1979) and their siblings. Cannabis use was common with 75.2% of males and 64.7% of females reporting some lifetime use of cannabis while 24.5% of males and 11.8% of females reported meeting criteria for DSM-IV cannabis abuse or dependence. Rates of other drug use disorders and common psychiatric conditions were highly correlated with extent of cannabis involvement and there was consistent evidence of heritable influences across a range of cannabis phenotypes including early (≤15 years) opportunity to use (h(2) = 72%), early (≤16 years) onset use (h(2) = 80%), using cannabis 11+ times lifetime (h(2) = 76%), and DSM abuse/dependence (h(2) = 72%). Early age of onset of cannabis use was strongly associated with increased rates of subsequent use of other illicit drugs and with illicit drug abuse/dependence; further analyses indicating that some component of this association may have been mediated by increasing exposure to and opportunity to use other illicit drugs