Kevin Chiam Yong Sheng

2020 (Ongoing)
20 Weeks
Solo Project

Our battle with air pollution is not just above ground, it is also under. According to the Financial Times in 2019, pollution on the London Underground can be 20 times higher than roadside air. Particulate matter (PM) 2.5 and 10 circulate the air and these tiny particles can enter our body to cause damage. Inspired by how Nature uses rain to clean the air, Airtomo wearables and modules release dry, atomised water vapour to remove pollutants through a process called aggregation.

Airtomo Wearables.

Original images by Nike.

Original images by Adidas.

Scaling The Technology

Airtomo wearables provide a personal vapour cloud that actively cleans the air one breathes or reduces resuspension induced by foot motion. The same technology can be scaled up to purify air for large spaces.

The infrastructure system consists of scout and main modules. Vapour is released when motion is detected by a scout module, which then relays this information via Wi-Fi to the main module.

Airtomo Infrastructure System. Scout module (top) and main modules (bottom).

How Does Airtomo Work?

At the heart of the atomisation technology is an ultrasonic transducer disc. It vibrates at a high frequency and transfers that mechanical energy to the body of water in contact. As water exits the atomising surface, it is broken into fine vapour of uniform droplets.

Water droplets bind harmful particles, e.g. iron oxides, to form large, heavy aggregates which fall to the ground, thus removing PM from the air. They no longer resuspend, even after water has evaporated, and can subsequently be removed with a mop or broom.

Compared to the control experiment, 99% of the PM was removed within 3 minutes when the atomiser was switched on at the 20th minute. Experiment was performed in a 500 x 500 x 500mm chamber.

Getting It Right

Every atomiser cleans 167l of air every minute. This is 1.5 times more than the air exchanged by an average adult. Each unit also consumes nominal resources, 1.5W of power and just 23ml of water each hour.

To achieve this, various prototype configurations were tested based on context of usage. In addition, a Wi-Fi enabled, motion sensor prototype was developed to test the communication between the scout and main modules.

Test. Test. Eureka. Test.

A large part of experimentation was driven by approaches developed by Man. While some prove to be useful, the concepts were unnecessarily complex and challenging to implement. The eureka moment struck when the project deviated from the “artificial” and instead turned to Nature and how She leverages on rain to clean air. That step towards biomimicry made all the difference.

Future Wearable

Current Airtomo wearables are limited by technology, namely the size of the micro controllers. With that said, the possibility of customising a much smaller and more efficient circuit board promises flexibility in design.

Original images by Nike.

Original images by Adidas.

Special Thanks

Dr. Marcus Yio
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Imperial College London

Prof Robert Shorten
Cyber Physical Systems Design
Imperial College London

Mr. Andrew Cullen
ME Electronic & Computer Engineering
Imperial College London

Mr. Romain Lacombe
Founder, CEO
Plume Labs

Exhibitions

Global Grad Show 2020

RCA 2020 Show

Lighting the Way
Curated by Prof. Gerry McGovern
CCO, Land Rover

A curation by Samuel Ross
Curated by Mr. Samuel Ross
Founder, A-COLD-WALL* and SR_A

The Core . The Frontier
Curated by Prof. Miles Pennington
Director, DLX Design Lab and Design Stream

Future Continuous
Curated by Dr. Nick de Leon
Executive Education and Knowledge Exchange Lead, RCA

Awards

Shortlisted
Lexus Design Award, 2021

Best Innovation Prize
Innovation RCA, Launchpad 2020

Social Impact Prize, Third Place
Innovation RCA, Launchpad 2020

Honourable Mention, Product Category
Create The Future Contest, 2020

Honourable Mention, Product Category
Taiwan International Student Design Competition, 2020