Innovations

EPA Grant:  Ultralow Power Sensor Package for Ground Level Air Pollution Levels from Wildland Fires

Wild fires produce significant air pollution, posing health risks to first responders, residents in nearby areas, and downwind communities. Wildfires are increasing in size and intensity, and the fire season is growing longer. Technologies for measuring air pollutants, including particulates, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon dioxide, over the wide range of levels expected in areas downwind of wildland fires are needed.

KWJ proposes to integrate printed gas sensors and particle sensor into a single, <8oz package.

Full Abstract

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USDA Grant:  Ultralow Power Sensors for Firefighter Safety and Monitoring of Surrounding Air Quality

KWJ has developed a line of small, low-cost yet accurate electrochemical gas sensors, with very low-power electronics. KWJ is also working with several collaborators to develop of an ultralow power sensor for monitoring atmospheric “ultrafine” particulate. For particulate, we propose to develop a miniature, extremely low-power electrostatic PM monitor by integrating our patented “diffuse plasma ionization sources” (DPIS) with electrostatic plates for fractionation and measurement of particulate.We plan to integrate the gas and particulate sensors into a single, low-power and lightweight package which can be deployed in distributed networks of stationary as well as wearable/mobile sensor modules.

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Title:  Autonomous Environmental Monitoring and Management Platform for Remote Habitats

An automated mobile air quality (AQ) sensor array will provide high quality environmental data within the confined physical parameters of a space habitat. Project results, including generated data, will be used to develop algorithms for artificial intelligence (AI) which will ultimately automate monitoring of experiments as well as life support systems on the International Space Station (ISS), the Lunar Gateway, and beyond.

Initially, SPEC Sensors will demonstrate a platform for AQ monitoring in a form factor compatible with autonomous robots such as the Astrobee, currently in use aboard the ISS National Laboratory. In this phase, ground-based laboratory evaluations will be performed with a mobile prototype to address flight certification requirements necessary for integration with the current Astrobee fleet, and for safe delivery to the ISS National Lab by Magnitude.io. These experiments will also generate the training data for the proposed machine learning algorithms developed by the University of Missouri – St. Louis. The complexity of these algorithms will determine hardware requirements for the final phases of the project. For example, a reference array mounted on a mobile robot, in conjunction with remote fixed arrays will require a unique implementation of edge-computing methods and mesh-compatible hardware.

In Phase II, the platform will perform passive AQ monitoring from the payload bay of an Astrobee during sorties on the ISS. The temporal, spatial, and physical environmental data collected from these flights will generate real training data for machine learning development, and require minimal support from the station’s crew. Finally, in Phase III of this project, with updated software and hardware, this system will be provided to NASA and the ISS National Lab for integration into current and future operational systems. With the successful demonstration of this technology, we expect other needs will arise that can be solved with this AI enabled array.

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Title:  Low-Cost Wearable Device for Total Environmental Health Monitoring

The World Health Organization (WHO) is predicting more than 6 million deaths this year and untold injury, making air quality the fourth largest contributor to the human disease burden. Additionally, the USAF has indicated a need for a modular wearable instrument, capable of measuring atmospheric volatiles, aerosols, and pollutants. This will enable real time environmental monitoring of the surroundings that service members are exposed to in the workplace and in the home. This will also provide the necessary understanding to assess the risks associated with Total Exposure Health (TEH). SPEC Sensors plans to leverage its expertise in manufacturing commercial gas sensors, as well as its ability to develop novel methods of sensor miniaturization to create a truly wearable environmental sensing solution, which includes a 12-gas mixed sensor array in an initial form factor of 56 cubic inches. With the development of a stable, highly sensitive aerosol/particle detector, this volume is expected to decrease to less than 10 cubic inches. This reduced volume is possible due to the SPEC Sensors’ compact profile and very low power requirements. This technology will enable the USAF (and the average consumer) to identify potential health hazards and to mitigate risks before serious injury to health

Anticipated Benefits/Potential Commercial Applications
Given the link between the quality of the air we breathe and human health, monitoring the presence of contaminants such as environmental

Title:  Screen-Printed Gas Sensor Using Nanoparticulate Catalyst

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project seeks to combine the technology for a high performance amperometric gas sensor, AGS, with the fabrication methods of printed electronics, first for sensing carbon monoxide (CO). In Phase I KWJ demonstrated a unique combination of technologies and fabricated a CO sensor that, in performance testing, was compared to commercial sensors 10-100 times larger and 10-100 times more expensive. The new unique geometry sensor response characteristics we as good or better than commercial sensors. The printed-AGS sensor provides a general platform for sensors that is both low cost and high performance. In Phase II, this novel Printed-CO-sensor and the process for fabrication will be optimized and innovative beta-prototypes designed and fabricated. The prototype sensors will be subjected to comprehensive testing and integrated with state-of-the-art electronics including tiny micro-powered RFID technology to demonstrate a fully compensated, high performance, yet low-cost, CO sensor and sensor system. This would represent the first major advancement of AGS technology in the USA in several decades, and the resulting product is potentially disruptive to the marketplace.

 Full Abstract