Category Archives: Newsworthy

Bluetooth 5.0

Custodians of the Bluetooth standard are a flexible lot, considering the enhancements the popular short-range 2.4 GHz wireless technology has been receiving. The Bluetooth SIG or Special Interest Group has allowed it to evolve in ways not envisioned by the inventors. Their foresight will be allowing this technology to expand beyond three billion shipments beginning next year.

The latest incarnation of the technology is the Bluetooth 5.0. This indicates the seriousness with which SIG wants to entrench Bluetooth as a vital component of the IoT or Internet of Things. By 2025, more than 80 billion connected things will be busy exchanging data across networks wirelessly. According to IDC or the International Data Corporation, Bluetooth will be the governing standard for these networks.

That is understandable, as Bluetooth has its roots in short-range handset communication. It all started in mid 90s at Ericsson, when engineers Sven Mattisson and Jaap Haartsen wanted to get rid of the jumble of wires linking their electronic devices. They devised low-throughput, short-range radio links for exchanging information between handsets, without having to plug in a cable. The Ericsson endeavor turned into an open standard operating in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz band, and several others joined them, including Toshiba, IBM, and Nokia.

Around 1998, the standard was named Bluetooth, after an ancient Scandinavian king. However, performance of Bluetooth 1.0 was below expectations, achieving only 700 kbps under ideal but practical conditions. In addition, manufacturers had their own problems in getting their equipment to interoperate. Subsequent iterations not only added bandwidth but also added 79 1-MHz channels for randomly hopping around to avoid RF interference from other devices on the license-free 2.4 GHz band.

Incorporation into cellphones brought major success to Bluetooth, as the handset started to be center of the personal area networks, linking almost everything electronic to the smartphones. Additions to the firmware stack of Bluetooth optimized its performance to suit specific applications, such as in cars, printers, speakers, and in PCs. By now, Bluetooth was in version 3.0+, with a bandwidth of 3 Mbps. Moreover, by co-locating to an 802.11 channel, Bluetooth was soon competing with Wi-Fi at 24 Mbps.

Bluetooth was able to achieve its biggest breakthrough with version 4.0, also called Bluetooth low energy. This version introduced a second radio using a lightweight stack but interoperable with its elder brother. Now, even compact wireless devices could send a tiny amount of data in a rapid burst, returning to an ultra-low power consumption state of sleep. This mode allowed the devices to operate for long periods from small-capacity batteries.

With Bluetooth 5.0, its low energy part also gets a speed boost to 2 Mbps, which makes things run far more smoothly. Now, IoT sensors can receive over the air updates to keep them protected from hackers. The range has also increased four times. This makes Bluetooth 5.0 viable for the entire house applications such as smart lights, with the throughput dropping to 125 kbps when the range is extended.

To make it competitive to other industrial and smart home networking technologies such as Z-Wave, Zigbee, and Thread, Bluetooth 5.0 now incorporates the Mesh Networking standard.

Measuring Air Quality with IoT Sensor

Bosch Sensortec is making an IoT environmental sensor for measuring air quality. The BME680 can measure the indoor air quality, relative humidity, barometric pressure, and ambient air temperature. It has four sensors housed within a single LGA package measuring 3x3x0.95 mm, and both mobile and stationary IoT applications can use the package for use in smart homes, offices, buildings, elder care, sports, and fitness wearables.

The BME680 measures the indoor air quality through its internal gas sensor by detecting a wide variety of gases in the range of parts per billion. The gases it can detect include hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and volatile organic compounds. While measuring altitude and pressure, the BME680 is accurate to within ±1 m and ±12 Pa respectively. Its temperature measurement capability extends from −40°C to +85°C, and it can measure relative humidity from 0% to 100%. In addition, the BME680 can measure an offset temperature coefficient of 1.5 Pa/K.

The BME680 consumes current according to its measuring parameter. While capable of operating from a supply voltage of 1.71 V to 3.6 V, it has a data refresh rate of 1 Hz. When measuring temperature and humidity, the BME680 consumes 2.1 µA, and 3.1 µA when measuring temperature and pressure. The current consumption goes up to 3.7 µA when measuring pressure, temperature, and humidity, while the maximum consumption is between 0.09 and 12 mA when the device is measuring gas, temperature, humidity, and pressure. Therefore, although the current consumption depends on its operating mode, its average current consumption in sleep mode goes down to 0.15 µA.

As an integrated environmental sensor, Bosch Sensortec has developed the BME680 specifically suited for mobile applications and wearables. As for both applications the size and low power consumption are key requirements, Bosch Sensortec has expanded its existing family of environmental sensors by adding the BME680 to its repertoire, while integrating the temperature, humidity, pressure and gas sensors, all of which are highly linear and highly accurate.

The BME680 comes in an 8-pin metal lid LGA package measuring only 3x3x0.95 mm. Bosch Sensortec has designed the sensor for optimized consumption that depends on its specific operating mode, high EMC robustness, and long-term stability. The specialty of the gas sensor within the BME680 is it can detect a wide spectrum of gases for assessing the indoor air quality for individual well-being. For instance, the BME680 can detect VOC or volatile organic compounds from alcohol, adhesives, glues, office equipment, furnishings, cleaning supplies, paint strippers, lacquers, and paints based on formaldehyde.

Applications for the BME680 are numerous. It can be used for altitude tracking as well as calorie expenditure for sports activities. It is sensitive enough for indoor navigation as it can detect change of floors and elevation. As GPS enhancement, it can improve time-to-first-fix, slope detection, and dead reckoning. As home automation control, the user can use the BME680 as an advanced HVAC control. Scientific experiments can use it for measuring volume and airflow, while agriculturists can use it as warning against dryness or high temperature. Sports enthusiasts can use it for monitoring fitness, well-being, detecting skin moisture, change in room, and for context awareness. BME680 is suitable for use as a personalized weather station and for indoor air quality measurement.

3D NAND Memories Cross 10TB

At the Flash Memory Summit in Toronto, Micron Technology exhibited their NVM Express or NVMe Solid State Drives that use the company’s 3D NAND technology to achieve capacities over 10 TB.

According to Dan Florence, Micron built the 9200 series of NVMe SSDs from ground up to overcome the restrictions placed by the legacy hard drives. Dan Florence is the SSD product manager for Micron’s Storage Business Unit. The design of the new storage portfolio addresses the data demands that are presently surging, while maximizing the efficiency of data centers. According to Florence, this improves the overall total cost of ownership for customers. The NVMe over Fabric architecture of Micron is way ahead of standard developments, and is the storage foundation for the Micron SolidState Platform.

According to Florence, the 9200 SSDs from Micron can be up to ten times faster than the fastest SATA SSDs. The 9200 SSDs can achieve transfer speeds of 4.6 GB/s with one million read IOPS. This makes them ideal for high-capacity use case performance as application/database acceleration, high frequency computing, and high frequency trading. Regular interfaces were more attuned to spinning media, which allows NVMe several advantages over the traditional interfaces. As the NVMe sits on the PCIe bus, it not only overcomes a huge amount of latency, but also offers higher bandwidth, allowing users to get much higher IOPS.

Traditionally, PCIe has many custom drivers working in iterations, and the NVMe offers better ease of use. This is allowing NVMe SSDs to be adopted faster, as they can be plugged into almost any system and with any operating system.

The earlier generation of NVMe SSDs from Micron was limited in capacity. The 9200 series can go up to 11 TB, almost three times the capacity of the older generation, making then the first monolithic NVMe SSDs to cross the 10 TB boundary. That also makes it easier for the operating system to manage, while allowing for lower power consumption. Additionally, Micron makes the 9200 series in the U.2 form factor, which allows the new SSDs to achieve more density per server.

Micron claims their new NVMe SSDs, in random performance, can outperform the fastest hard drives by 300-1200 times, and the fastest SSDs by three to seven times. Of course, this is dependent upon the use case and configuration. According to Florence, database applications and transaction processing are increasingly using random performance, as they use a random IO access pattern. Moreover, the workload of several data analyses also follow the same pattern, since working with large pipes of data makes sequential handling more important for data ingest. This includes massive amounts of IoT data as well as user-generated content.

Most general applications also use some level of random IO, and the new NVMe SSDs can use most of the bandwidth in the PCIe bus. According to Florence, the value driver lies in the amount of data moved and worked with, which is also applicable to a growing number of applications. The new NVMe SSDs are a clear leader this area, as the dollar per IOPS becomes increasingly more important.

Robotics and Motion Control

Across the industrial space, automation is a growing trend in factory floors throughout the world. This is essential to improve the efficiency and production rates. When creating the automated factory, engineers may introduce a robotic system or implement a motion control system. Although both can essentially accomplish the same task, they have their own unique setups, motion flexibility, programming options, and economic benefits.

The Basics

A straightforward concept, motion control initiates and controls the movement of a load, thereby performing work. A motion control system is capable of precise control of torque, position, and speed. Motion control systems are typically useful in applications involving rapid start and stop of motion, synchronization of separate elements, or positioning of a product.

Motion control systems involve the prime mover or motor, the drive, and its controller. While the controller plans the trajectory, it sends low-voltage command signals to the drive, which in turn applies the necessary voltage and current to the motor, resulting in the desired motion.

An example of a motion control system is the programmable logic controller (PLC), which is both noise-free and inexpensive. PLCs use the staple form of ladder-logic programming, but the newer models also have human-machine-interface panels. The HMI panels offer visual representations of programming the machine. With PLCs, the industry is able to control logic on machinery along with control of multiple motion-control setups.

Robots are reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulators that can move material, tools, parts, or specialized objects. They can be programmed for variable motion for the benefit of performing a variety of tasks.

Most components making up the motion control system are also a permanent part of robots. For instance, a part of the robot’s makeup includes mechanical links, actuators, and motor speed control. The robot also has a controller, which allows different parts of the robot to operate together with the help of the program code running in the controller. Most modern robots operate on HMI that use operating systems such as Linux. Typical industrial robots take many forms such as parallel picker, SCARA, spherical, cylindrical, Cartesian, or a simple articulated robotic arm.

Robot systems also make use of drives or motors to move links into designated positions. Links form the sections between joints, and robots can use pneumatic, electric, or hydraulic drives to achieve the required movement. A robot receives feedback from the environment from sensors, which collect information and transmit it to the controller.

The Differences

While the robot is an expensive arrangement, a motion control system has components that are modular, and offer greater control over cost. However, motion controller components require individual programming to operate, and that puts a greater knowledge demand on the user.

Motion control systems, being modular, offer the scope to mix and match old hardware with the new. This facilitates multiple setups, with modular configuration ability, and applicable cost constraints.

With hardware differences between products decreasing rapidly, purchasing decisions are now mostly based on the software of the system. For instance, most modern systems are plug-n-play type, and they rely more on their software for compatibility.

Salt Water Makes Li-Ion Batteries Safer

So far, high-energy lithium-ion batteries were always a matter of concern on account of safety. If you wanted to remain safe from exploding batteries, an aqueous battery such as made from nickel/metal hydride would be preferable, but then it would give you lower energy.

Usually, 3-V batteries using aqueous electrolyte technologies are unable to achieve higher voltages because of the cathodic challenge. This happens as the aqueous solution degrades one end of the battery made from either lithium or graphite. One research team solved this problem by covering the graphite or lithium anode with a gel polymer electrolyte coating.

As the coating is hydrophobic, it does not allow water molecules to reach the electrode. However, when the battery charges for the first time, the coating decomposes, forming a stable layer separating the solid anode from the liquid electrolyte. The layer protects the anode from side reactions that could deactivate the anode. This allows the battery to use anode materials that are more effective, such as lithium metal or graphite, and allowing the battery reach higher energy densities and cycling abilities. The gel coating improves the safety of the battery, and is now comparable to the safety standards of non-aqueous lithium-ion batteries.

Organic solvents used in non-aqueous batteries are highly flammable. In comparison, aqueous lithium-ion batteries use water-based electrolytes that are non-flammable. Another advantage of this gel polymer coating is if this layer is damaged, the reaction with the lithiated graphite or lithium anode is very slow, preventing smoking, fire, or explosion that would normally happen if in the damaged battery the metal came into direct contact with the electrolyte.

This aqueous lithium-ion battery with the gel covering the anode has power and energy density matching its counterpart with non-aqueous electrolyte, and is suitable for commercial applications. However, the researchers intend to improve on the number of full-performance cycles the battery can complete. According to the researchers, this will reduce material expenses as far as possible. Although at present the battery is able to complete only 50-100 cycles, the team intends to increase that to 500 or more.

The researchers are also trying to manipulate the electrochemical process to allow the battery achieve 4 V on its terminals. According to the researchers, this is the first time they have been able to stabilize the reactive anodes such as lithium and graphite in aqueous media. They feel this opens a huge field of possibilities into several different topics in electrochemistry. For instance, this could cover not only lithium-ion batteries, but also lithium-sulfur, sodium-ion batteries, and other batteries using multiple ion chemistry technologies such as magnesium and zinc, and electrochemical and electroplating synthesis.

The researchers understand that interphase chemistry requires to be perfected before they can commercialize their product. They also feel that they need to work more towards scaling up the technology so that big cells can be used for testing. However, the researchers are confident they will be able to commercialize their product within the next five years, provided they are able to gather more funding.

Monitoring Sound & Vibration for Process Control

In a production environment, one can always find two common themes for the successful application of acoustical or vibrational monitoring. Usually, workers judge the noise or vibration event as being the start or end of a particular process. Initiated by such an event, an automated control system can easily minimize any loss of production.

On the production floor, control of manufacturing processes have used continuous monitoring of sound and vibration for the past several years. For instance Brüel & Kjær had used their 2505 Multipurpose Monitor in the early 1980s to automatically monitor vibration signals. One could connect an accelerometer, a microphone, or other piezoelectric device to this monitor, and set limits for alerting the user whenever the levels exceeded them. They had filters to limit the signal bands, and detectors to average signals that fluctuated highly. On the output side, relays interfaced with the process control systems or other instrumentation. No other expensive analysis systems were necessary if the process control technician used this device to monitor acoustic or vibration levels automatically. People used these monitors also in the machine condition monitoring field as basic overall vibration detectors to switch off the machine if vibration levels exceeded the set limits.

Discrete analog circuit boards enclosed in weather proof enclosures made up these early monitors. The user had to select the circuit cards necessary for their specific application. Usually, a circuit card was capable of performing a specific function, such as RMS detector, amplifier or attenuator, high and/or low pass filter, and signal conditioner. The circuit cards worked together with the relays, alarm indicators, and the meter module. With very little dynamic range, users had to be very careful in selecting a circuit card for each application. One had to be knowledgeable about the transducer they employed and the particular measurement they were making. If conditions changed, they had to order additional circuit cards.

The above disadvantages of the analog system made Brüel & Kjær develop their digital signal processors replacing the monitors with modern electronics. They now had software controlling the functions of RMS detection, gain/attenuation, and filtering. End users found the application of the new monitors much simpler, as a monitor could be field-programmed for meeting the demands of the present task. The supplied software and its use in setting up and control of the unit allowed users to save time they earlier spent on analyzing the required settings before purchasing the monitor.

The new monitors use a PC interface for setting up and to display the results of their measurements. Users can store programmed data within the unit, so the monitor can operate even without the presence of the PC and retain measurements if the power fails. Digital signal processing within the unit allows the user to set up many low and high pass filters, true RMS, and peak-to-peak measurements. Users can set other built-in voltage references and test functions for set-ups related to new tests, including relays and indicators for system failure. In addition, the presence of electrical outputs for unconditioned and conditioned AC signals makes these new monitors ideal for real-time detection and control of acoustic and vibration events.

Nanoparticles Toggle a Window between Clear and Reflective

By applying a coating on a clear window, it has been possible to convert the window into a one-way reflective mirror. If applied correctly, the coating allows people from inside the room to see outside, but for those outside the room, the windowpanes act like mirrors, preventing them from looking in. To revert to the clear glass, it is necessary to peel off the coating. Clearly, this is not a reversible process.

A research team from the Imperial College London has now developed a process by which window panes can instantly turn reflective, or clear, as the user wishes. The material for the coating they use is made of an array of gold nanoparticles. This is different from the earlier chemical process, which, although based on nanoscopic systems that did alter the optical properties of the glass pane, was not reversible.

Using gold nanoparticles that are thousands of times smaller than the width of a single human hair, the researchers placed them in an array between two liquids that normally do not mix. On application of voltage, the nanoparticles assembled themselves into a new configuration of close dense formation. This made the surface reflective. Removal of voltage allowed the nanoparticles to drift apart, and the surface reverted to its transparent nature. The applied voltage modulated the density of the nanoparticle layer to allow or disallow light passing through the liquid layers.

According to Professor Joshua Edel, coauthor of the study, the team had achieved a really fine balance. For a long time, the applied voltage only served to form a clump of the nanoparticles as they assembled, rather than allowing them to space out evenly and accurately. The team had to build several models and conduct innumerable experiments to reach the point where they had a really tunable layer of nanoparticles.

Anthony Kucernak, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at Imperial, explains the phenomenon. The application of a specific voltage drives the nanoparticles, and they travel to an interface. The nanoparticles congregate here to form a mirror, reflecting the incident light, and not allowing it to pass through. Switching to a different voltage or removing the voltage allows the nanoparticles to move away from the interface, making the mirror transparent again.

Scientists have already been working with smart windows with the ability to adjust to sunlight falling on them. Such windows self-shade, allowing only a part of the sunlight falling on them to pass through. This helps in regulating the temperature of a building, and saving on expenditure on heating and cooling. Other developments turn windows into solar power generators, augmenting the power supply, and turning skyscrapers into potential solar farms.

The new window/mirror innovation will further advance the temperature control ability for windowpanes. However, this is not the only application for this technology. According to the research team, they can use this technology to create tunable optical filters for telescopes. This will not only help in astronomy, it will also make chemical sensors more sensitive. However, the team from Imperial College first wants to increase the response time of the nanoparticles.

The CHIP Computer Rivals the Raspberry Pi

Since the 2010s, there has been a new wave of single board computers smaller than the credit card able to perform like any major computer. Offering a range of tinkering and educational adventures, two of the most popular SBCs, the Raspberry Pi and the CHIP computer, are two unique products. While the Raspberry Pi or RBPi was the product of a UK nonprofit supporting children’s education, the Chip started as a successful Kickstarter project that raised more than two million dollars.

The RBPi family includes the RBPi 3 and the RBPi 2, the traditional models ranging in price from $20 to $40. Although simply affordable, the Chip, coming in at $9, is rather more affordable, provided you were buying them in batches for casual use or for instruction. However, the RBPi family boasts of the Raspberry Pi Zero or RBPiZ, which you can buy for $5, making it cheaper than the Chip, and the cheapest computer on the market.

However, both the RBPiZ and the Chip are bare computers in the sense that they do not have power adapters or cords. For connecting each device to a display, along with USB power adapters to power them up, you will need to spend some more. The RBPiZ needs an SD card, as it does not have on-board storage, and therefore, has a higher all-in cost compared to the Chip.

One of the most important features of these devices being connectivity, the Chip offers both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, making it easy to move around with the Chip when experimenting. The Chip also comes with a composite port for connecting screens physically, a mini USB port, and a standard USB port.

While USB 2 ports are available on most of the RBPi models, they vary from 1 port to 4 ports. Many of the RBPi models also have Ethernet connections, while the RBPiZW, another model of the family, has the wireless connectivity just as the Chip does. Both the SBCs can be upgraded with various boards to give them additional connectivity. That brings the HDMI and VGA connections for the Chip, and full USB connections for the RBPiZ.

While the Chip works with a 1 GHz R8 processor based on the ARM7 architecture, the RBPi family comes with a range of processors beginning with the ARM6 single core to ARM7 quad core, while the RBPiZ has an ARM11 core. Speeds of the processors also varies within the RBPi family, ranging from 700 MHz to 1 GHz. Likewise, the family also has varying RAM capacity, ranging from 256 MB to 1 GB. All the RBPis, except for the RBPiZ, come with a GPU, a multimedia processor of the dual core VideoCore IV family.

As the RBPi family has evolved over the years, the more expensive models of the family are generally superior in performance to the Chip. Although the latest RBPi3 could be several times more powerful than the Chip, it would only be fair to compare the Chip with the RBPiZ, its more direct competitor. The Chip comes with a 4 GB on-board flash memory, while the RBPi boards rely on the SD card to provide the storage.

Window Blinds Offer Shade and Electricity

Everyone is looking for clean energy, because awareness is growing of the problems the use of fossil fuels is creating. Although alternate forms of energy from wind and waves is viable now, solar energy is more accessible to all, since it needs only a solar cell placed in the sun to start generating energy. SolarGaps from Ukraine offers a new type of window blinds that do double duty. You can control the smart shades by an app on your smartphone, and while they screen your house from the fierce rays of the sun, they capture and store the energy falling on them. The smart shades use an in-built solar tracking technology that can reduce the amount of electricity you consume by an impressive 70%.

At SolarGaps, innovator Yevgen Erik and his team aim to change the way we consume energy in our homes. The designers claim their window blinds can generate power up to 100 Watts per ten square feet of window space. According to SolarGaps, this is enough energy to light up 30 LED bulbs or charge three MacBook simultaneously. It is very easy to setup on the window, since SolarGaps offers complete instructions to get everything up conveniently.

The smart shades begin harvesting energy from the sun almost as soon as they have been setup, and the user can power up a range of household gadgets. To catch the optimum amount of sunlight, SolarGaps offers an app for smartphones that has the option of adjusting the orientation of the window blinds. Along with controlling the orientation, the app also shows the amount of energy produced by the system. Therefore, the user only has to adjust the orientation until it produces the maximum energy.

If you have a battery storage system in your home, connect it to the smart shades to store the energy it produces. This can power up your emergency power supply when you need it, say at night, or when clouds cover the sun in the daytime. Therefore, with the smart window blinds from SolarGaps, you can generate your own electricity and save on your electricity bills. The smartphone app allows the user to monitor and adjust the smart blinds from anywhere in the world.

SolarGaps has fashioned their window blinds from Aluminum, with each blind covered with a set of high-efficiency solar cells from SunPower, a company based in California. The company claims their solar cells can last up to 25 years, and these window blinds are capable of operating in widely varying climates. For instance, the window blinds operate comfortably from -40°C to +80°C.

The company is making solar window blinds in different sizes for accommodating then on all types of windows. The smallest variety, XS, measures 32 inches x 36 inches or 810 mm x 910 mm and costs about $390. A wide range of sizes is available, including small, medium, large, extra-large, and extra-extra-large as well.

SolarGaps is currently targeting homeowners, and their solar window blinds is making green energy easily available to everybody.

What is an i-Robot?

The level of CO2 in our atmosphere is increasing at alarming levels, affecting all life on Earth either directly or indirectly. For instance, it is related to global warming risks, reducing the quantity of ice in the polar regions, which in turn changes the level of seas all around as the ice melts. This has significant consequences on several human activities such as fishing. It also affects the submarine environment adversely, together with the associated biological sphere. For long, scientists have been monitoring the marine environment and studying the status of the seas.

However, the harshness of the marine environment and/or the remoteness of the location preclude many explorations under the sear by vehicles driven by the mother ship. Scientists are of the view robots could effectively contribute to such challenging explorations. This view has led to the development of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles or AUVs.

One such AUV is the Semi-Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for Intervention Mission or SAUVIM, and is expected to address challenging tasks as above. The specialty of SAUVIM is its capability of autonomous manipulation underwater. As it has no human occupants and no physical links with its controller, SAUVIM can venture into dangerous regions such as classified areas, or retrieve hazardous objects from deep within the oceans.

This milestone is a technological challenge, as it gives the robotic system the capability to perform intervention tasks such as physical contact with unstructured environment but without a human supervisor constantly guiding it.

SAUVIM, being a semi-autonomous vehicle, integrates electronic circuitry capable of withstanding the enormous pressure deep ocean waters generate. In general, it can operate in the harsh environmental conditions—low temperatures of the deep oceans—in a reliable and safe manner. Ensuring the effectiveness of such robots requires a high level of design and accurate choice of components.

As SAUVIM operates semi-autonomously, it needs huge energy autonomy. For this, Steatite, Worcestershire, UK, has introduced a new solution in the form of long-life batteries, ones capable of operating in submarine environment. These Lithium-Sulfur (Li-S) battery packs, a result of the first phase of a 24-month project, improves the endurance and speed of autonomous underwater vehicles when deep diving.

Primary advantages that Li-S batteries offer are enhanced energy storage capability to provide improvements in operational duration, despite being constructed from low-cost building materials.

The National Oceanography Center in Southampton, UK, completed the first phase of the Li-S battery project, after repeatedly testing the cells at pressure and temperatures prevailing in undersea depths of 6 Kms. According to the tests, Li-S cells can deliver performances similar to those at ambient conditions, while their effective Neutral Buoyancy Energy Density or NBED is almost double that offered by Li-ion cells used as reference. Life tests, performed on a number of Li-S cells demonstrate they can reach over 60 cycles with slow discharge, and 80 cycles with fast discharges.

The energy within an AUV is limited, which also limits its endurance. Therefore, to conserve the available energy, speeds of AUV are usually kept low at 2-4 knots. Therefore, to enhance or expand this operational envelope, it is necessary to increase the energy available within the vehicle, and the Li-S batteries do just that to increase the vehicles range and speed.