Networked machines that communicate with one another. Robots that carry out repairs. Automated maintenance of machinery. The next industrial revolution – Industry 4.0 – is in full swing in our modern factories. It is largely based on comprehensive acquisition of large volumes of operating data by intelligent components and sensors. Edge-computing technologies filter and analyse the data in situ. The preprocessed data is then transferred to the Internet of Things, where analysis platforms can use it to generate a huge range of information for operating the factory or organising material flows.

Data as the basis for new services

Consolidation of data and the use of artificial intelligence are also opening up totally new services and business models. “Whether it is in automotive engineering, machinery manufacturing or electronics. Industry 4.0 is ensuring that traditional business models are being enhanced, optimised or even completely replaced by new technologies across all sectors”, says Achim Berg, President of the German association Bitkom. “Companies can supply their products in entirely new ways. This not only makes them more service-focused, it helps them to remain competitive internationally.”

Digitalisation makes new services involving maintenance and servicing of machines and plants possible. Manufacturers have access to the operating data acquired on their machine installed for a customer. By continuously evaluating this data, they can predict future issues in the production process and carry out maintenance and repairs in good time. The customer benefits from minimised downtimes and higher productivity. This service thus has a genuine value for which the customer pays. As a result, the manufacturer can earn money not only by selling their machine but also by providing a service.

What are pay-per-use models?

Going one step further, we have what are known as pay-per-use models (also known as equipment-as-a-service or machine-as-a-service). Here, the manufacturer does not actually sell their product, they provide an infrastructure, equipment or a machine as a service in return for a fee. This fee could be based on the number of products produced on the machine or the operating hours. When adopted correctly, this business model has advantages for both the customer and for the manufacturer.

Proven in practice

The British company Rolls-Royce has been supplying its aircraft engines under “power-by-the-hour” service contracts for more than 20 years now. Such pay-per-use fees are calculated based on the number of hours flown. Rolls-Royce is responsible for all the required maintenance work and provides preventive maintenance services. The engines are networked and send the machine data to four Rolls-Royce centres for monitoring. Rolls-Royce’s experiences with this model are remarkable. Thanks to the long service life of aircraft engines, revenues are around four times what would be earned from selling. In addition, as the machine manufacturer Rolls-Royce gets additional benefits from the service arrangement.

On the one hand, the company learns a great deal from inspecting the engines itself and continuously monitoring the condition of the engines. This gives them an ever-improving knowledge and understanding of their products and any weaknesses they have. As a result, the service life can be optimised, more efficient maintenance can be ensured and customer downtimes can be reduced.

Another example is Heidelberger Druckmaschinen. The company has implemented a business model under which they do not earn money by delivering machine components, as before. But based on the number of sheets of paper printed using their systems. This is done by acquiring and evaluating all the operating data in an analysis platform. Wear and required maintenance are identified ahead of time, allowing predictive service planning. They use not only the data from an individual machine installed for a customer. They can access a database for all machines connected to the system, including those operated by other customers. This results in greater precision in the analyses and ultimately in higher machine availability.

Booming market

Actually, the market for these kinds of pay-per-use models is still relatively small. According to a study by market analysts at IoT Analytics, it had a volume of 21.9 billion dollars in 2019. This means that just a small part of the global equipment market is being sold as a service. But the analysts are convinced that in the future companies will increasingly invest in results rather than in assets. The market is forecast to grow rapidly, to 131 billion dollars by 2025. “We can clearly see that the actual revolution in Industry 4.0 is not taking place in production alone, but also in the business models used”, says Bitkom President Berg. “Every company needs to review its business model from a digital perspective.”

Advantages of Pay-per-use models:

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There are several reasons to turn a home into a Smart Home. For most users, the added convenience and quality of life are the main criteria for living in an intelligent home. This was shown by a survey by the digital association Bitkom in 2019. More than half of those questioned wanted to make their four walls safer – either with intelligent alarm systems, smart smoke detectors or high-tech video surveillance. However, with all the current discussions about climate change it is becoming increasingly important for Smart Home technologies to be an important element of more energy efficient living: If the sun is shining the heating is turned down automatically, when all the occupants leave the house the system switches to energy-saving mode.

Smart Buildings offer Safe homes for older people

Living independently at home for longer. At present there are still relatively few people who cite this as a reason to use Smart Home technologies. But the significance of this issue is growing. “Smart Home applications are not just something for younger people. A Smart Building has many benefits for older people too. It also can help everyone to live in their own four walls for as long as possible”, says Dr. Sebastian Klöß, Bitkom spokesperson for consumer technology.

For example, sensor-controlled orientation lighting automatically detects when someone gets out of bed at night, for example to go to the toilet. This helps prevent falls in the dark. If a resident does fall and requires assistance, the Smart Building can notify relatives or the emergency services. Before a fire breaks out, an intelligent oven turns off the hob if it has been accidentally left on after cooking. Door sensors monitor whether someone has left the home at an unusual time. Or control the door opening times. “All these Smart Home functions help older people, but they also benefit single people, couples and families with children”, says Klöß.

Voice controlled domestic appliances

Voice control is increasingly being used to operate the Smart Building. According to a Bitkom survey in May 2020, around three quarters of users of Alexa, Siri etc. use the smart voice assistant. And use it to control devices in their homes, such as lighting, heating or household robots. “Intelligent voice assistants are developing rapidly and can be used in an increasing number of devices. From extractor hoods to cars”, says Bitcom expert Klöß. “In the future, controlling a device by voice will be just as natural as pushing a button or swiping a display.”

Saving energy, preventing emissions

Smart technologies are not only effective in Smart Homes. They can also considerably increase efficiency in commercial buildings. And make a significant contribution to conserving resources, as Abel Samaniego, Founder and CEO of Dabbel, explains: “Optimum control of building service systems is absolutely essential these days. As the building sector accounts for 40 per cent of energy consumption and 39 per cent of CO₂ emissions in Europe. More than 50 per cent of this energy is used inefficiently and more than 28 per cent can be attributed to human errors or incorrect control decisions.”

However, the company has developed an AI system that works alongside the existing building services. And it enables previously manually controlled resources such as power and heat to be managed much more efficiently. Thanks to autonomous control, energy consumption can be cut by 40 per cent. Human errors in operating the building services reduced by up to 80 per cent.

Smart office buildings

But intelligent systems can do so much more. For example, a cloud platform provided by Edge Technologies links all the technical systems at Unilever’s North American headquarters. The 325,000 square metre building in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, has undergone a complete modernisation of all its building systems. And has been fitted with Smart Building technologies. Thousands of sensors have been installed for the air-conditioning system, access control and the lifts. While state of the art LED lights with daylight and motion sensors have been installed. Internet of Things systems enable the building to learn from occupants’ behaviour and remember their preferences. This has enabled the building’s energy consumption to be cut by 50 per cent. The system gives the employees an opportunity to reserve workstations, locate one another and adjust air-conditioning. All by using a single app on their smartphone.

One of the most sustainable and smart buildings in the world is The Edge in Amsterdam. Here, occupancy, movements, lighting levels, humidity and temperature are continuously measured. Based on this data, the building systems, including LED lighting with Ethernet power supply, are adjusted to achieve maximum efficiency. To control the heating and air-conditioning, the building also detects the employees’ number plates as they drive into the parking area. When the employee arrives, the air-conditioning at their work station is started in line with their preferences. Even the canteen is benefiting from the Smart Building. Based on data recorded in the past and using traffic and weather information, the system predicts how busy the canteen will be. Thus preventing food from being wasted.

All in all, networked infrastructures in Smart Buildings and Individual Homes are making a significant contribution, not just to bringing about a successful change of energy policy, but also to more responsible use of resources in general.

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Cities cover just two percent of our earth’s land mass, but the majority of the world’s population and its economy are concentrated within them. And the tendency is increasing. According to forecasts by the World Bank, by 2050 70 per cent of the world’s population will live in cities. Cities need new solutions that will enable them to offer their citizens quality of life, sustainability and attractive economic infrastructure. The solution is the Smart City.

Shaping positive urbanisation with a Smart City

It is not a specific technology or concept, it is a fundamental idea. A Smart City is a city that makes its networks and services more efficient, supported by digitalisation and telecommunications. Thus contributing to a sustainable and climate-friendly future for citizens and businesses. The aim is to improve citizens’ quality of life and their social participation.

Another important objective is to reduce the use of finite resources and to establish renewable energies. But the Smart City also includes creating a transparent decision-making structure for municipal processes. Last but not least, the aim is to maintain or improve the long-term competitiveness of the city as a business location. However, the primary overriding objective is to strengthen the city’s ability to survive, its adaptability and its resilience by mitigating. Or avoiding the negative consequences of urbanisation.

A package of measures

The idea makes an impact on a large number of different fields where technological advancements can bring better services. This includes solutions for a wide variety of challenges, such as efficient transport, intelligent buildings and optimum energy use. For example, sensors in the asphalt record traffic volumes and algorithms trim the traffic flow to make it more efficient. Street lights switch to energy saving mode at night when there are no pedestrians or vehicles approaching.

According to the Smart City Index, published by the digital association Bitkom, Hamburg is the smartest city in Germany. It is taking action in many different areas to make the city smarter. Matthias Wieckman, head of digital strategies for the city of Hamburg says: “Anybody who is considering measures to create a Smart City should ideally start with a limited number of applications. So that they can be properly tested before they are rolled out to clarify their external impact and financing models. The city administration should initiate some small-scale solutions in the initial phase. So they help to smooth the way, rather than starting with a larger, more comprehensive solution.”

Around 60 projects are being implemented in the field of intelligent transport systems. Many of these services are intelligently linked using apps. Data from areas such as transport, environment, social services and the economy are linked in an “Urban Data Hub”. A data platform that is accessible online, allowing analysis in real time. And enabling innovative digital services to be designed for civil society, business and public administration. Networking is based on a 5G network, because of the high performance, capacity and rapid response time.

Connecting citizens, government and business within a Smart City

When developing a Smart City, cooperation between interest groups is absolutely crucial. Interest groups can consist of local government officials, citizens and third parties including businesses or other institutions. Therefore, the city Perth has created a platform that enables citizens and the different interest groups to share ideas and data. The aim is to improve quality of life, sustainability and working conditions of Perth. A series of smaller projects have been launched to develop and roll out new technologies. These include intelligent irrigation, video analysis of surveillance cameras to support decisions, a public LoRaWAN and a trial of smart street lights.

What does LoRaWAN stand for?

Lithuania is a pioneer in Europe when it comes to digitalisation and e-governance. Over 90 per cent of contacts with official authorities can be dealt with online and a company can be established in just three days. The Lithuanian Ambassador in Germany, Darius Jonas Semaška, explains: “These days, modern societies should no longer be scared of using the very latest technologies. For Lithuania, the development of digital solutions primarily means making daily life easier.”

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As smartphones are becoming increasingly widely used and Internet connectivity is advancing, the health system is changing. Mobile health technologies (mHealth) are gaining increased acceptance among doctors and patients alike. Particularly in remote patient care, wearables can acquire data in real time, improve accuracy and make it easier to make decisions.

One example is Probeat, a wearable, non-invasive glucose measuring device from Nemaura Medical. The device uses AI algorithms to give the user feedback, allowing them to actively influence their blood-sugar level. The app also enables data from wearable fitness devices from other manufacturers to be integrated, providing more accurate and more comprehensive acquisition of different relevant factors.

What makes the product Probeat?

But more consumer products such as wearables also feature progressively more physiological measuring technology. A study by Stanford University showed that a mobile app using the data of the heart rate and pulse sensor can reliably detect atrial fibrillation. “The results of the Apple Heart Study highlight the potential role that innovative digital technology can play in creating more predictive healthcare,” said Lloyd Minor, dean of the Stanford School of Medicine. “Atrial fibrillation is just the beginning, as this study opens the door to further research into wearable technologies.”

It’s not just people in wealthy industrialised countries who are benefiting from this development. “Almost everything that we do now is digital,” emphasised Dr. Deborah Maufi, project manager at the Health[e]Foundation. “Even in developing countries. You see the economy’s very low, but people still have access to smartphones.”

Maufi developed an app called MyHealth@Hand, which enables pregnant women in Africa to get in touch with medical professionals. “They can share health data and also the woman has access to health information about pregnancy and the newborn,” Dr. Maufi said. Pregnancy and childbirth exact a high toll in developing countries. Worldwide, almost 380,000 women die every year because of uncertainty and incorrect information about preventable causes relating to their pregnancy.

New opportunities from 5G

The new 5G mobile communications standard plays a significant role in digitalisation in healthcare. The real time capability of 5G and the associated minimal response times mean that video consultations and remote treatment are possible. In Finland, there have already been experiments involving outpatient stroke rehabilitation.

Another medical application that is only conceivable thanks to 5G is telesurgery. An estimated 143 million operations per year worldwide are not carried out because there are not sufficient experienced surgeons. As part of the “Remote Surgeon” pilot project from Vodafone, a specialist surgeon who is not physically present guides another surgeon through the procedure in real time. And he can be working in any operating theatre in the world.

No telehealth without cybersecurity

“New telemedical applications make so many things easier for patients. However, there are threats due to possible cyberattacks. And not just relating to data protection, as can be illustrated using the example of remote controlled infusion pumps”, warns Carlos Moreira, Founder and CEO of WISeKey. His company develops modules that provide effective cyber security in healthcare.

Cyber security begins with the mHealth device itself. If it’s equipped with a secure element, the data is protected at source. So it can be transmitted to a gateway via a wireless connection in encrypted form with a digital signature. The gateway is also equipped with a secure element, enabling secure transmission of data to the server via the 5G network. Here, the medical data is saved in encrypted form. If the data has to be continuously available, Blockchain technology can ensure a high level of security. But the first and last protective barrier is always the doctor, who knows best when something is not right.

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One of the major challenges we will face in the future is feeding a global population that continues to expand. Emissions of greenhouse gases from agriculture keep growing all the time. According to McKinsey, more than one fifth of all global emissions are currently generated by the agricultural sector. At the same time, fertile land for cultivation is becoming scarce. Although around 2,200 square metres of arable land per capita is currently available. Forecasts made by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) claim that this figure will be just 1,700 square metres in 2050. Moreover, overfertilisation and pesticides cast doubt over the sustainability of food production.

Yet modern technologies enable the efficiency of agriculture to be increased while simultaneously reducing emissions and the consumption of resources. Developments in agricultural robotics and industrial image-processing in particular will bring about a profound and far-reaching transformation in arable farming.

Precision robots working the fields

Autonomous, ultra-high-precision robots like the Small Robot Company’s “Tom” model can traverse fields autonomously. Basically, Tom loosening the soil and dealing with weeds. Because these robots are relatively small, lightweight and inexpensive, entire swarms of them may replace agricultural machinery in the future. Tom autonomously works through around 20 hectares in a day, gathering some six terabytes of data in the process. It can differentiate between plant details in a sub-millimetre resolution. This enables plant-specific handling, whereby individual useful plants can be precisely treated with the fertiliser they require. When compared to non-selective application, this reduces the use of agrochemicals by 90 per cent.

At present, this type of plant-specific cultivation only exists on a small scale in research institutes and trial operations. However, yield increases of 235 per cent over conventionally cultivated wheat have been achieved here, among other successes.

Industrial image-processing technology is frequently one of the key features of these robots. Complex systems identify useful plants, enabling appropriate, “smart” actions to be initiated for each individual plant. To this end, the image-processing systems are increasingly employing deep-learning algorithms. The performance of these algorithms continues to improve, and they already achieve a hit rate of 86.5 per cent today. AI-assisted image-processing technology has now become so advanced that it can even identify and locate fruit. And with a high success rate against complex and variable backgrounds.

So, as a result, robots can now even be used to harvest fruit. Nonetheless, the picking strategy of the robotic arm still poses a challenge in these applications. Although new types of end effector have since reduced the computational load. But, while humans can pick a strawberry in two to three seconds, current robot models require eight to ten. Yet they can compensate for this if they are equipped with multiple arms.

Vertical Farming is a hot topic

The agriculture of the future will no longer only take place in the traditional setting of a field, but also indoors in the very cities where the food will be consumed. “Vertical Farming” is the buzzword here. This refers to the cultivation of plants in indoor spaces under fully controlled ambient conditions. Here, the beds are arranged one on top of the other. And the plants grow under artificial LED lighting on a special substrate without any earth. Advanced lighting and automation technology enable the cultivation conditions to be fine-tuned to the plants’ requirements.

However, Vertical Farming can achieve greater yields than conventional methods. 365 days a year and without the use of pesticides. Not only that. It has the potential to slash the transport distances covered by food through production at the point of consumption. Because at present, fruits and vegetables often have to cover thousands of kilometres to reach consumers.

Today, anyone can see Vertical Farming on a small scale. German discount-supermarket chain Aldi started growing a variety of herbs on site in its stores this year. Thanks to a collaboration with Berlin-based company Infarm. The efficient vertical-growing technique used for the miniature allotments enables the herbs to be planted and harvested all year round.

In the controlled cultivation environment, each plant gets the precise dose of light, water and nutrients that it needs to grow. All Infarm farms are connected to a central, cloud-based platform. This platform is constantly learning and adapts to the herbs’ needs during the three-week growth phase. Growing herbs in the stores means that transport routes are 90 per cent shorter and that 95 per cent less water is used than in conventional production. Infarm completely eschews the use of chemical pesticides.

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According to market researchers at IDTechEx, there will be over 100 million plug-in electric vehicles on the world’s roads by 2030. Ongoing advancements – especially in terms of battery technology – promise incremental increases in vehicle range. Yet as the fleet of electric vehicles continues to grow, so too does the demand for charging stations. The 50-kilowatt rapid DC chargers used several years ago are already considered to be slow. High-power charging systems with an output of 350 kilowatts now enable a battery to be charged to 80 per cent within a matter of minutes.

What does micromobility mean?

The wave of electrification has also seen a huge range of micromobile manufacturers enter the fray. These products can take the form of e-bikes, e-scooters or entirely new concepts like e-floaters, for example.

So what does micromobility mean? Micromobiles are intended to fill the gap between public transport, cars, bicycles and walking. By 2030, McKinsey estimates that sales figures for micromobiles will amount to USD 150 billion in Europe alone. And with a figure of USD 500 billion for the world as a whole. “More than a quarter of the world’s population lives in cities with more than a million inhabitants,” says Florian Weig, Senior Partner at the Munich office of McKinsey and co-author of the study. Yet the average speed of travel through these cities is a measly 15 kilometres per hour. “Micromobility might be a solution to this problem – although not in every situation,” claims Weig.

Driving safely – even without a driver

Automated driving is another major mobility trend. In the future, the interconnection of smart technologies will ensure that the task of driving is assumed by vehicle electronics. Connectivity, specially developed algorithms and advanced sensors will all pave the way for fully automated driving. And it isn’t only the vehicles themselves that are getting smarter, but also infrastructure such as traffic lights and street lamps. For example, video and lidar sensors mounted on street lamps wirelessly transmit important information to vehicles in real time. So that these can quickly and reliably detect obstacles, whether these are other cars, cyclists or pedestrians.

Autonomous vehicles have long since moved from fantasy into reality. Indeed, driverless metro systems already operate in many cities around the world. And a new age of driverless road vehicles has also begun. For example, the city of Doha in Qatar will launch sustainably powered driving shuttles and bus lines for fare-paying passengers in 2022. They are all autonomous driven. 35 fully automated “I.D. Buzz AD” electric shuttles from Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (VWCV) will each transport up to four passengers. They will be joined by ten high-tech buses from Scania, which will accommodate larger groups.

Mansoor Al-Mahmoud, CEO of the Qatar Investment Authority, explains the venture: “We need a new wave of innovation to propel our cities into the future. AI-enabled, zero-emission transport technologies will mean a leap forward in urban mobility while simultaneously helping to reduce traffic jams and improve energy efficiency.”

New stimuli, new concepts

Autonomous, driverless and electric vehicle concepts make an entirely new type of mobility possible. As well as improving connections between multiple mobility solutions and modes of transportation. The “Snap” concept from visionary Swiss company Rinspeed is just one example. This consists of modular vehicles where the quickly ageing hardware and software are accommodated in driving platforms (“skateboards”). Those can be connected to a variety of transport units (“pods”). The system ensures that the costly, fully automated vehicles are utilised as efficiently as possible. And it satisfies transportation requirements for people and cargo as appropriate for the time of day. Additionally, specific needs at any given moment.

“Urban mobility needs further stimuli and models as incremental steps to tackle impending mobility problems as sustainably as possible. Here, sustainable crucially refers to being both eco-friendly and efficient,” says Rinspeed boss Frank M. Rinderknecht.

Instead of micromobility, mobility concepts in airspace

Other mobility concepts aim to use the airspace above street level to ease pressure on congested roads. Even at an early stage, Roland Berger estimates that almost 100,000 passenger drones could be operational worldwide by 2050. The first flying taxis are already taking to the skies today, albeit still in the form of prototypes.

The Lilium Jet is one of these. Driven by 36 fully electric motors, the five-seat aircraft generates zero emissions in operation. And demands less than 10 per cent of its maximum output of 2,000 hp in horizontal flight thanks to the additional lift from its dual wings. Lilium anticipates that commercial operations will begin in 2025. Daniel Wiegand, co-founder and CEO of Lilium, gives more details: “We are convinced that regional, airborne mobility can make a positive contribution to society by connecting cities of all sizes within a 300-kilometre radius. This will take place at high speeds and powered purely by electricity.”

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By 2040, global energy requirements are set to rise by around a third according to BP’s “Energy Outlook 2019”. Nonetheless, BP’s CEO Bernard Looney is sure that “Carbon-neutrality can be achieved by 2050. Appropriate CO₂-free energies and technologies already exist. The challenge is really deploying them on a large scale as soon as possible. I remain optimistic that we can make this happen.”

What is Energy Harvesting?

This has already started on a small scale. Energy Harvesting refers to the use of energy that already exists in the environment. Such as body movements, water currents, air flows or temperature differences. “Energy-Harvesting solutions are the key to supplying a multitude of batteryless IoT applications. That will make our lives easier in the future through digital transformation,” Dieter Bauernfeind from Elec-Con technology says confidently. The company is involved in a project to develop an energy-harvesting power supply for logistics applications. That generates electricity from a variety of movements. For example, this means that sensors can be supplied with power before wirelessly relaying the gathered data.

Yet energy-harvesting solutions can do much more than provide energy to IoT devices. They can also generate electricity on a large scale. Professor Zhong Lin Wang from the Georgia Institute of Technology in the USA is sure of that. He has developed triboelectrical nanogenerators that can produce electricity cheaply from slight mechanical motions. The operation of these nanogenerators is based on two material layers that are repeatedly joined and then separated again. In doing so, they build up electrical charges that can be used to generate power. Wang can even imagine using the oceans as a source of renewable energy. “A network of nanogenerators that converts the motion of waves into electrical energy could make a significant contribution,” he says.

Increased efficiency levels in photovoltaics

Nonetheless, traditional sources such as wind or solar energy still dominate the renewables sector. Here, the use of sunlight to generate power with photovoltaic solar modules is leading the charge. The crystalline silicon technology used in such solutions has a share of around 95 per cent in the global photovoltaics market. Nowadays, this technology offers a cell efficiency of up to 22 per cent.

Although new materials will enhance this even further. Organometallic perovskites, a new class of semiconductor, have already been used to achieve an efficiency of 24.3 per cent. What is more, they promise considerably cheaper and simpler manufacturing. Cells made from this material can also be used for direct, solar water-splitting for the purpose of creating hydrogen.

All hopes are pinned on hydrogen

In the future, hydrogen is expected to extensively replace fossil fuels. So, potential areas of application include the industrial sector. Not to mention load balancing and storage of electricity in conjunction with wind farms and solar power stations.

The eFarm project is the largest hydrogen mobility of project of its kind in Germany. There are five of the company H-Tec Systems’ electrolysers. Each with an output of 225 kilowatts, convert electricity from regional community wind farms into hydrogen. This is then supplied to public transport and private vehicles from two nearby filling stations. The waste heat from the electrolysis process is incorporated into the regional heating system. This holistic utilisation of the conversion process enables an optimum efficiency of up to 95 per cent.

“The use of alternative fuels like hydrogen is growing more and more important,” claims Deutz CEO Dr Frank Hiller. Deutz is collaborating with Munich-based company Keyou to build CO₂-free hydrogen engines for on- and off-road applications. Keyou is developing zero-emissions hydrogen engines based on conventional diesel or petrol engines. And featuring components specially adapted to hydrogen. Such as the ignition system or engine control unit.

The technology is much more cost-effective than that found in electric and fuel-cell vehicles. And hydrogen engines have no need of rare raw materials. “Manufacturers’ interest in hydrogen engines is extraordinarily high. We have even received enquiries from the rail and maritime sectors,” says Thomas Korn, CEO and co-founder of Keyou.

The sun is a shining example

Hydrogen also plays an essential role in a technology that promises to bring the biggest revolution to power supplies everywhere: fusion. A global population approaching ten billion will constantly require enormous amounts of energy. Such energy cannot be provided solely by fluctuating wind and solar power, nor with the associated storage technology.

In the fusion process, hydrogen atoms are fused to form helium at a temperature of over 100 million degrees Celsius. The energy given off by this can be used to generate electricity. Currently under construction in France as the result of a global collaboration is the international experimental reactor (ITER). Whose 500 megawatts of fusion power will demonstrate the feasibility of this concept.

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Work

Mobility

Nutrition

Communication

Home & Lifestyle

Healthcare

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The LED’s success story first gathered steam back in the 1960s. When the yield of light-emitting diodes was increased exponentially from less than one lumen per watt to more than 100 lumens. Initially, the only LEDs available emitted red or yellow light. However, the available spectrum has become much broader with the use of new semiconductor materials. First came green LEDs, then ultraviolet ones. Then, from the 1990s onwards, LEDs were developed that could efficiently generate light in the short-wavelength blue range. Nowadays, LEDs are available in practically all the colours of the rainbow. And that is not all: the luminous power of LED technology has dramatically improved since its infancy.

From garage door openers to driver monitoring

The scope of application for infrared LEDs (IR-LEDs) alone is impressive. They have long been used in remote controls for consumer electronics or in garage door openers, light barriers and motion detectors. In surveillance cameras, they enable razor-sharp image quality without the light emitted being perceptible to the human eye. Infrared LEDs in vehicles also help to promptly detect when drivers are nodding off, resulting in an extremely dangerous situation. Other vehicle applications for such high-performance IR-LEDs include seat occupancy sensors, night vision, close-range detection systems and blind-spot monitoring. And they are also used for communication. Using infrared light, data transfer rates of up to 12.5 Gbit/s can be transferred over short distances, with a rate of 1 Gbit possible at up to 30 metres.

Germs – illuminate to eliminate

There are also numerous applications for LEDs in the ultraviolet range at the “other end” of the visible spectrum. Compared to conventional UV light sources, UV-LEDs can be flexibly designed, consume little energy and boast impressively low manufacturing costs. UVA-LEDs emit light in a wavelength range of 315 to 400 nanometres. They are used to cure paints, coatings, varnishes and adhesives, for example.

UVB-LEDs emit light in a wavelength range of 280 to 315 nanometres. They are used for dermatological treatment of skin conditions or to promote plant development and increase crop yields.

The use of UVC-LEDs with their very high-energy radiation in a short-wavelength range of between 100 and 280 nanometres is a particularly hot topic just now.  They offer excellent bactericidal properties, enabling them to disrupt the DNA of micro-organisms. There are already solutions available on the market that use UVC-LEDs to eliminate any viruses and germs present on smartphones.

Yet the performance of the LEDs is now so high that even entire rooms can essentially be disinfected at the touch of a button. For example, manufacturer Binz will be launching the world’s first ambulance with a light-based disinfection solution in autumn 2020. In this setting, the UVC-LEDs are directly integrated into the modular, ceiling-mounted lighting panel inside the vehicle. This enables the entire cabin area of the ambulance to be disinfected very efficiently in as little as ten minutes. And during which both the surfaces and the air in the vehicle are treated.

Laser headlights

As the power of LEDs increased, they were increasingly used for applications requiring very bright light, such as car headlights. So the technology opens up new possibilities by enabling the light beam to be generated by an entire LED-matrix. Every LED in the matrix can be actuated individually based on the data supplied by a camera at the front of the vehicle. As soon as this detects other vehicles or road users, the control unit switches individual LEDs off or dims them. So they can avoid to dazzling other drivers, for example. The high beam remains simultaneously available in all other areas, improving visibility on the road. The latest development in this field involves replacing LEDs with laser diodes.

For instance, Audi has developed a headlight with blue laser diodes and a wavelength of 450 nanometres. They shine a beam onto a rapidly moving, three-millimetre micro-mirror based on silicon technology. This directs the laser beam onto a converter, which converts it to white light and projects it onto the road. The light can therefore be distributed precisely, while varying the dwell times in specific lighting zones enables variable brightness. Furthermore, the laser diodes can be switched on and off intelligently and in the blink of an eye as the mirror moves. This makes broadening or narrowing of the beam dynamic and highly variable. As a result, the road is always brightly lit without other road users being dazzled or blinded. The crucial difference is that the technology has even finer dynamic resolution and therefore an even higher degree of utilisation. Finally, this brings greater safety to road traffic.

The trend towards micro-LEDs

Alongside increasing power and an ever-growing range of available wavelengths, miniaturisation is the third significant trend for LED technology. Manufacturers of consumer electronics in particular are demanding LEDs that are not only suitable for use as backlights. But also for direct presentation of content in natural colours. This is especially the case for mobile devices. After all, LEDs have only really been able to be used as plain-white background lighting up until now. However, in order to display colours directly, three LEDs (red, green and blue) need to be grouped together to form each pixel in a colour display. Yet until recently, these LED groups were too large to be used in display screens.

New production processes now enable microscopically small LED arrays to be manufactured. Combining the necessary colours in a package just a few micrometres in size. These micro-LEDs have an edge length of less than 100 micrometres. Displays incorporating directly emitting micro-LED pixels are considered to be a disruptive development in the visual-display market. And they might even replace LCD or OLED technologies.

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Sensor technology and metrology play a key role in all current technological megatrends to do with digitalisation. “Digital innovations are penetrating almost every aspect of our lives, changing the way we work and communicate, and facilitating new products and services. One thing they all have in common is reliance on data gathered and evaluated by sensors,” says Dr Andreas Schütze, Professor for Measurement Science and Technology at Saarland University and foreman of the jury for the innovation award of the German AMA Association for Sensors and Measurement. And innovations keep propelling this sector onwards. More and more new companies are being founded, new materials researched, and new technologies used.

Miniaturisation, digitalisation and versatility – sensor technology

It is essentially possible to identify three key trends in this area. Miniaturisation is the first of these. In an increasingly interconnected world, almost every device is expected to gather information on its own surroundings and application. This requires sensors that deliver high performance while occupying minimal space in the respective device thanks to their tiny dimensions. All this while consuming as little power as possible.

The digitalisation of the sensors themselves is the second key trend. Increasingly smart sensors not only gather data. They also evaluate it instantly before sending only the results to superordinate systems or the cloud.

Sensor fusion is the third important trend. Smart objects in the Internet of Things require multi-sensors that can perform multiple types of measurement. And all of this at once while occupying the smallest possible amount of space.

Pooled data in metrology

Nowadays, there are a few examples of such multi-sensors, including Jumo’s plastoSENS variants. Here, sensor systems for a range of measured variables like temperature, moisture, pressure or force all fit into one plastic casing as a modular system. Through energy harvesting, the modules supply themselves with energy. The sensor signals are transmitted wirelessly through a Bluetooth interface. Sensors that gather and process data instantly and on-the-spot go one step further. Such systems are already in use today, especially in image sensors. Data are processed rapidly at their point of creation with only the strictly required information being extracted. In terms of using cloud services, this enables energy consumption, communication costs and latency times when transferring data to be reduced while also satisfying data-protection specifications.

Small and sensitive

MEMS in particular are synonymous with the miniaturisation of sensors. They have internal silicon structures, which are many times thinner than a human hair. So they can convert microscopically small movements into electrical signals, process these as information and then transmit them elsewhere. In a sense, this makes them the sensory organs of the technical world. They measure pressure, acceleration, rotation rates, moisture levels and much more besides.

Bosch expects that hundreds of billions of MEMS elements will be required in the future for all kinds of applications. Alongside the vast IoT domain, these also include automated driving, where MEMS sensors enable a vehicle to localise itself using only information on acceleration and rotation rates.

Such automated driving requires an especially large array of sensors. Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensors are an important building blocks in this set-up. They determine the distance from an object by measuring the time it takes for an emitted light signal to bounce back. Lidar systems operate in accordance with this principle. ToF solutions are now available as small, integrated modules. With a size of just eight cubic millimetres, they fit effortlessly into a smartphone. Where they make the phone camera’s auto-focus precisely adapt to the object or person being photographed. With a price tag of under three dollars, they also appeal to a number of other consumer applications. Such as rapid collision detection and avoidance in robotic vacuum cleaners or presence detection for notebook computers.

Pocket-sized spectroscopy

The latest technologies related to optical sensors are systems that measure the spectrum of an emitted and reflected ray of light. Previously, conducting this type of spectrographic analysis required a dedicated laboratory. Although corresponding solutions based on ultra-thin infrared chips with high detection capability are now available.

These include the Broadcom’s Qmini and Qwave series of compact spectrometers that combine state-of-the-art optical and electronic components to achieve very high performance spectroscopy measurements of ultraviolet (UV), visible (VIS), and near-infrared (NIR) light, covering ranges between 190 nm and 1100 nm in a small form factor. Based on the Czerny-Turner configuration do not require internal moving parts, avoiding any possibility of optical misalignment. This ensures reliable and stable long term performance.

Such affordable spectrometers are perfectly suitable for integrating into high-volume applications, and for various real-life applications such as process control and monitoring, biomedical applications, chemical research, environmental analysis, medical and pharma applications, forensic analysis, Raman spectroscopy, and many more.

There are also integrated spectral sensors offered by AMS and supported by EBV Elektronik. They enable new applications like color picking/matching, authentication, color and spectral analysis of materials and fluids detecting ingredients and compositions in industrial raw materials, agricultural products or foodstuffs for quality assurance “on the go”. High-level integration with advanced CMOS filter technology allows lifetime calibration accuracy and enables instrument makers to bring laboratory-grade precision to the field.

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