I-Corps: Airborne Chemical Sensing Platform for Remote and Hazardous Environments

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将进一步开发新的数字化制造方案，新材料和结构，以构建紧凑的激光光子系统。它将带来新的创新和产品机会。该技术有可能产生具有上级热管理性能的坚固和超轻量的激光光子系统，其可以以比传统手段低得多的成本进行数字化制造。 制造数字化的创新和新材料和结构的利用将允许在开发激光和光子系统方面进行快速的设计修改和彻底的设计创新，以更广泛地部署在移动的无人机平台上，用于广泛的工业，消费者，环境和军事应用。这个I-Corps项目将评估使用陶瓷和金属粉末原料构建激光系统的几种增材制造工艺。该技术利用自下而上制造方案的灵活性，生产由弯曲、蜂窝结构制成的具有嵌入式冷却和传感功能的整个激光光子系统。这将导致大幅减少人工装配和校准的劳动力成本。通过光学、机械和热设计相结合的优化，我们打算完全实现激光光子系统的制造，使其在重量、尺寸、热、机械性能、制造成本等方面具有目前商业产品无法达到的优势。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project will further develop new digitized manufacturing schemes, new materials and structures to construct compact laser photonic systems. It will open new innovation and product opportunities. The technology has potentials to yield robust and ultra-lightweight laser photonic systems with superior thermal management performance, which can be digitally manufactured at much lower cost than conventional means. The innovation in manufacturing digitization and utilization of new materials and structures will allow rapid design modification and radical design innovation in developing laser and photonic systems for wider deployments on mobile drone platforms for a wide array of industrial, consumer, environmental, and military applications.This I-Corps project will evaluate several additive manufacturing process using both ceramic and metal powder feedstocks to build laser systems. The technology exploits the flexibility of the bottom-up manufacturing schemes to produce entire laser photonic systems made of flexure, cellular structures with embedded cooling and sensing functions. It will lead to drastic reduction on labor cost in manual assembly and alignments. Through combined optical, mechanic, and thermal design optimizations, we intend to completely digitize the manufacturing of laser photonic systems with advantages in weight, size, thermal, mechanic performance, manufacturing costs, which are unattainable by current commercial products.