Insiders and analysts predict the3 d打印技术trends看在我们最新的系列文章中集中on the future of 3D printing.
The New Collar Network, a non-profit education organization based in Santa Fe, has been awarded a hardware grant for its novel 3D printed early wildfire detection system.
The project idea is one of five winners selected to receive the Knowles AISonic™ Hardware Grant, a competition launched in partnership with engineering education platformWevolver.
Knowlesis a global developer of advanced micro-acoustic and audio processing equipment and will award the five winners with its recently launched Knowles AISonic™ IA8201 Raspberry Pi Development Kit. Additionally, the firm will provide technical support to the winning teams to help develop their project ideas.
“我们为这个奖项感到特别自豪，”新领网络创始人兼首席执行官Sarah Boisvert解释说。“因为这三个团队成员均为美国姊妹公司劳动3D打印学徒计划的登记学徒，Fab Lab Hub, LLC. With creativity and innovative problem-solving, these apprentices beat out teams from college and university engineering departments!”
The growing threat of wildfires
根据National Interagency Fire Center(NIFC), wildfires are becoming more and more prevalent around the world.
In the US in particular, parts of California and the West Coast have recently experienced exponential growth in wildfire counts due to record-breaking temperatures and ongoing drought conditions. Looking at the figures, the past year saw California lose twice as many acres of land to major wildfires as the five-year average.
Beyond just the environmental impacts to local wildlife, wildfires also have major implications for the people living in the affected areas. Thelatest Verisk estimates声称2021年有超过200万个加利福尼亚州的高度至极端野火风险。这是美国任何州的最多物业。
New Collar Network’s 3D printed detection system
为了减轻野火日益增长的风险，新的项圈网络为依赖声学监视的早期检测系统提出了一种创新的新设计。该设备将配备3D打印的套管，并利用Knowles Aisonic™IA8201 Raspberry Pi Development套件，这是一种将语音，音频边缘处理和机器学习听力功能组合在一起的多合一设备。
The proposed design will be able to listen out for fire ignition, reignition, and power line sounds to determine a possible wildfire risk ahead of time. It will also be incorporated with other devices such as field cameras in the forest to aid with reliability. Additionally, the New Collar Network’s early detection system will be able to communicate with a wider network of products to notify emergency services as soon as possible.
To enable the detection system to survive out in the wild, the design team has opted to use 3D printing to fabricate the casing. As such, users will be able to strap the device to trees branches or combine it with a magnet to attach it to metal structures at various points throughout an area of woodland.
If successful, the device is expected to save more acres of forest, give more time for communities to evacuate, decrease firefighter response times, and provide more precise fire location details.
As it stands, the New Collar Network’s early wildfire detection system is only at the design stage. However, with support from Knowles, the team is set to demonstrate a proof-of-concept and develop a prototype in due course.
Additive manufacturing has an ever-growing list of novel applications and environmental monitoring is one of them. Researchers atSanta Clara Universityhave previously used 3D printing to build an upgraded version of thehydration sensing units deployed in agricultural irrigation systems. By redesigning, 3D printing and iterating on parts of these sensors, the engineers have been able to improve their thermal detection capabilities, and shrink their overall size.
More recently, researchers fromTrinity College Dublinand theSFI Research Centre for Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research（琥珀）使用3D打印来开发novel set of microscopic gas sensors. Designed to mimic the color-changing feathers of a peacock, the 3D printed sensors are capable of changing colors in the presence of certain solvent vapors. As such, they can be used to provide a very visual manner of detecting hazardous pollutants
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Featured image shows The New Collar Network team in the 3D Printing Lab – Filip Perez, Jed Beddo, and Alec Kerr. Photo via New Collar Network.
