a compelling need to utilize advanced technologies in the agriculture sector to increase agricultural productivity and reduce food losses to guarantee food security. [2] In this regard, "smart agriculture" or "precision agriculture" has been attracting increasing attention due to its capability for using less to grow more compared to traditional agricultural practices. In addition, it improves the quality of the work environment and social aspects of farming, ranching, and other relevant professions. [4] Smart agriculture comprises a set of technologies that combines sensors, information systems, enhanced machinery, and informed management to optimize production by accounting for variabilities and uncertainties within sustainable agricultural systems. [3][4][5] Among the set of technologies, advanced sensing systems that monitor soil health and conditions and crop developments are of paramount importance because they collect and evaluate critical data for decision making and management, especially when crop growth conditions vary considerably over space and time. Spatial variation may result from soil properties, diseases, weeds, pests, and previous land management. In particular, some soil properties (e.g., moisture, pH, nutrients) and plant diseases may form long-term spatial patterns. Temporal variability arises from weather patterns and management practices. In summary, the soil properties relevant to crop growth include a range of soil conditions including soil gas, moisture, temperature, nutrients, pH, and pollutants in the soil (Figure 1). [6,7] Monitoring the soil conditions will provide key information not only to improve resource utilization to maximize farming outputs and minimize environmental side effects but also to build site-specific databases of relationships between soil conditions and plant growth for intelligent and sustainable agriculture systems. Traditionally, soil properties are measured by soil sampling and offsite laboratory analysis or by on-site measurement to provide an extensive knowledge of soil information. [8] Seasonally varying crop growth conditions, such as water stress, lack of nutrients, diseases, weeds, and insects, are evaluated by visual inspection and laboratory analysis of plant tissues. The relatively periodically coarse sampling/measurement rate of these conventional strategies may not be sufficient to reveal variation at the appropriate spatial and temporal resolution. Novel technologies for collecting soil information with sufficient spatiotemporal resolutions are in demand to build efficient smart or precision agriculture systems. With the Soil sensors and plant wearables play a critical role in smart and precision agriculture via monitoring real-time physical and chemical signals in the soil, such as temperature, moisture, pH, and pollutants and providing key information to optimize crop growth circumstances, fight against biotic and abiotic stresses, and enhance crop yields. Herein, the recent advances of the important soil sensors in agricultural applications, in...
Additive manufacturing, i.e., 3D printing, is being increasingly utilized to fabricate a variety of complex-shaped electronics and energy devices (e.g., batteries, supercapacitors, and solar cells) due to its excellent process flexibility, good geometry controllability, as well as cost and material waste reduction. In this review, the recent advances in 3D printing of emerging batteries are emphasized and discussed. The recent progress in fabricating 3D-printed batteries through the major 3D-printing methods, including lithographybased 3D printing, template-assisted electrodeposition-based 3D printing, inkjet printing, direct ink writing, fused deposition modeling, and aerosol jet printing, are first summarized. Then, the significant achievements made in the development and printing of battery electrodes and electrolytes are highlighted. Finally, major challenges are discussed and potential research frontiers in developing 3D-printed batteries are proposed. It is expected that with the continuous development of printing techniques and materials, 3D-printed batteries with long-term durability, favorable safety as well as high energy and power density will eventually be widely used in many fields.
Silk is a natural fiber renowned for its outstanding mechanical properties that have enabled the manufacturing of ultralight and ultrastrong textiles. Recent advances in silk processing and manufacturing have underpinned a re-interpretation of silk from textiles to technological materials. Here, it is argued that silk materials-optimized by selective pressure to work in the environment at the biotic-abiotic interface-can be harnessed by human micro- and nanomanufacturing technology to impart new functionalities and opportunities. A critical overview of recent progress in silk technology is presented with emphasis on high-tech applications enabled by recent innovations in multilevel modifications, multiscale manufacturing, and multimodal characterization of silk materials. These advances have enabled successful demonstrations of silk materials across several disciplines, including tissue engineering, drug delivery, implantable medical devices, and biodissolvable/degradable devices.
Soft crawling robots have attracted great attention due to their anticipated effective interactions with humans and uncertain environments, as well as their potential capabilities of completing a variety of tasks encompassing search and rescue, infrastructure inspection, surveillance, drug delivery, and human assistance. Herein, a comprehensive survey on recent advances of soft crawling robots categorized by their major actuation mechanisms is provided, including pneumatic/hydraulic pressure, chemical reaction, and soft active material‐based actuations, which include dielectric elastomers, shape memory alloys, magnetoactive elastomers, liquid crystalline elastomers, piezoelectric materials, ionic polymer–metal composites, and twisted and coiled polymers. For each type of actuation, the prevalent modes of locomotion adopted in representative robots, the design, working principle and performance of their soft actuators, and the performance of each locomotion approach, as well as the advantages and drawbacks of each design are discussed. This review summarizes the state‐of‐the‐art progresses and the critical knowledge in designing soft crawling robots and offers a guidance and insightful outlook for the future development of soft robots.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.