Clean Air Zone: Algorithms to monitor and remove pollution using sound

Mike Fraser and Anne Roudaut

Arrays of ultrasound speakers can move particles around in air. This project will explore how to clean a volume of air by algorithmically controlling the speaker array. It will involve testing how different sizes, shapes and types of particle behave in the acoustic field, how changing the sound parameters such as frequency, amplitude, phase and speaker placement can be used to exclude or collect those particles, and what algorithms could best optimse the functionality. Applications which could use this approach include pollution filtering, medical sterilisation, and manufacturing of sensitive components.