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To stay competitive, high-technology manufacturers not only frequently source new technologies from their suppliers, but also financially support the development of these new technologies into component products or production tools. We consider a manufacturer that can either source a new but immature technology from a financially constrained supplier, or source a mature technology from an existing supplier if and only if the development of the new technology fails. To support the new technology, the manufacturer can choose to inject capital in the form of an equity or loan. The investment strategy not only affects the new supplier’s development effort and the probability of technical success (PTS), but also affects the existing supplier’s effort to improve the mature technology, which presents the manufacturer with a trade-off. Following the debt financing literature, we find that a loan contract is associated with a cost-shifting effect and often leads to a higher PTS. However, because the manufacturer not only maintains an investment but also a procurement relationship with the new supplier, we find a profit-sharing effect associated with an equity investment, which does not exist in the traditional equity issuance literature. In particular, we show that the profit-sharing effect can dominate the cost-shifting effect and lead to a higher PTS when the new supplier’s technological capability is sufficiently high. Nonetheless, we also show that the strategy that derives a higher PTS does not necessarily generate a higher payoff for the manufacturer. On the one hand, a loan can be preferred even when it leads to a lower PTS because the cost-shifting effect allows the manufacturer to offer a sufficiently low procurement payment while maintaining a sufficiently high PTS. On the other hand, when the existing supplier is very capable of reducing its costs, a loan can over-incentivize the new supplier to exert excessive effort and backfire. This paper was accepted by Charles Corbett, operations management.

While hydrogen generation by alkaline water electrolysis is a well-established, mature technology and currently the lowest capital cost electrolyser option; polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysers (PEMWEs) have made major advances in terms of cost, efficiency, and durability, and the installed capacity is growing rapidly. This makes the technology a promising candidate for large-scale hydrogen production, and especially for energy storage in conjunction with renewable energy sources – an application for which PEMWEs offer inherent advantages over alkaline electrolysis. Improvements in PEMWE technology have led to increasingly high operational current densities, which requires adequate mass transport strategies to ensure sufficient supply of reactant and removal of products. This review discusses the current knowledge related to mass transport and its characterisation/diagnosis for PEMWEs, considering the flow channels, liquid-gas diffusion layer, and polymer electrolyte membrane in particular.

Wearable devices, one of the most innovative technological breakthroughs of the consumer electronics sector, promises to develop even more in the near future. Therefore, the research focus has shifted to developing corresponding robust energy storage sources for these devices, the seamless integration of these storage sources and their ability to perform well even under persistent dynamic mechanical stresses. The Li-ion rechargeable battery system has been the gold standard so far for energy storage, owing to its excellent energy and power densities and being an already mature technology. However, Li based devices have drawbacks also: toxicity, flammability, environmental issues, and limited natural abundance tend to offset the said advantages and so alternatives must be studied. It is here that non-Li chemistries, such as Na, K, Ca, Al, Mg, Zn-ion based battery systems can play a leading role due to their earth abundance, advantageous economics and low toxicity. This article, therefore, provides a strong rationale for the implementation of these non-Li systems for energy storage in flexible systems, also giving a brief techno-economic analysis. The manuscript also details the electrode and battery design state-of-the-art, followed by an in-depth review of the notable works for each of these systems, including the type of electrodes used and their novel synthesis procedure, electrochemical performances and other critical aspects regarding their optimization. A brief discussion at the end puts into perspective some of the critical areas needing further improvement.

The clathrate hydrate formation in pipelines and treatment systems of gas and natural gas liquid (NGL) is an undesirable operating phenomenon. It interrupts the gas flow continuity, reduces safety level, and imposes substantial costs on both gas and NGL processing plants. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent or at least postpone this undesired and high-risk phenomenon. The application of inhibitor agents to shift phase equilibrium of gas hydrate formation to lower temperatures and higher pressures is a mature technology. Methanol (MeOH) is a well-known thermodynamic agent in the hydrate inhibition process that cyclically injects to the gas phase and then recovers and reuses. Significant amounts of methanol vaporize/loss during its recovery in a three-phase separator. An accurate determination of this loss is necessary to estimate the amount of methanol make-up. Therefore, this study tries to determine the methanol loss using six intelligent connectionist approaches, i.e., least-squares support vector machines (LS-SVM), adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems, and artificial neural networks. The LS-SVM was finally detected as the most accurate paradigm for the considered purpose. Methanol loss estimation by the LS-SVM model is in excellent agreement with 196 real-field datasets in the literature, i.e., AARD = 0.295% and R2 = 0.9999. An economic study shows that methanol loss may impose more than 132 million US Dollars per year to a gas plant that processes 674 million standard cubic meters of gas per day.

Background Owing to the rapid growth of the world's population and the consequent effects on the consumption of natural resources, we are facing increasing shortages in availability of proteins with high biological value. Additionally, considerations relating to animal welfare and human health have promoted the development of plant protein meat alternatives. The market for plant-based meat alternatives is expanding rapidly to cater to growing consumer demand. Soy protein has been successfully utilized in the preparation of meat alternatives, due to its excellent gelation properties and potential to form fibrous structures, and has become the most widely known alternative to animal protein. Scope and approach In this review, the development history of soy protein-based meat alternatives is summarized briefly. Next, the research work on raw material composition and main processing strategies of soy protein meat alternatives is highlighted, including protein and non-protein ingredients and extrusion processing techniques. Lastly, research prospects and development trends of soy protein meat alternatives are also outlined. Key findings and conclusions High moisture extrusion is a relatively mature technology and is widely used for manufacturing soy protein meat alternatives with a similar fiber texture to meat. The main raw materials for preparing soy protein meat alternatives are soy protein and wheat gluten, although there are also studies on the use of vegetable proteins such as pea protein and peanut protein. Besides the main protein components, the addition of starch, fiber and other excipients also have an important impact on the development of fiber structure and nutrient richness of soy protein meat alternatives. In the process of extrusion, the interaction between these components causes a series of physical and chemical changes to occur, and anisotropic fiber structures to form. Further research needs to focus on optimizing technical parameters, improving nutrition and safety, and enriching product taste to meet consumer demands for product quality.

This paper introduces adsorption processes with scaled sizes for post-combustion carbon capture, pre-combustion carbon capture, and direct air capture (DAC). Technical characteristics, separation performances, and operating energy consumptions of adsorption-based pilot plants for carbon capture are analyzed. Opportunities and challenges of adsorption-based carbon capture processes in future development are illustrated. Adsorption-based post-combustion carbon capture is a relatively mature technology, which can be applied to retrofitted power plants. However, in order to commercialize this technology, quantities of research and development resources are still needed. Researches on adsorption-based post-combustion carbon capture should focus on the following three aspects: (1) Low-temperature adsorbents with excellent CO2 working capacities, kinetics, and stabilities, (2) low energy consumption cycles using steam purge, and (3) contactors with low gas-solid mass transfer resistances. The warm gas clean-up technology based on pressure swing adsorption (PSA) is a research hotspot for pre-combustion carbon capture. At present, many warm gas clean-up pilot plants are being built worldwide, and in the meantime, some bottlenecks appear. First, the CO2 working capacities of elevated temperature adsorbents are still lower than those of low temperature adsorbents. The recently reported molten salt-promoted magnesium oxide achieves a very high working capacity through the bulk phase chemical absorption, but a carbon capture prototype needs to be established to verify its cyclic stability. Achieving both high purity and high recovery of warm gas clean-up consumes a large amount of high temperature steam. Although multi-train PSA configuration can reduce the energy consumption, it also increases the operating complexity and equipment investment. In addition to CO2, the removal of other impurities such as H2S, COS, HCl, and heavy metals in syngas/reforming gas should be considered. The sorption enhanced reforming with oxy-fuel regeneration process based on high temperature adsorbents can achieve CO2 enrichment in the regeneration reactor. However, pilot plants for this technology are currently lacking, and so detailed techno-economic analysis is still needed to assess its capture cost. Although DAC is a relatively new concept and is still in the early stage for large-scale commercial application, the synergy between DAC and conventional carbon capture technologies can mitigate climate change effects in the long run. The development of DAC technologies needs to pay special attention to the pressure drop problems. Novel gas-solid contactors using structural adsorbents can effectively reduce the power consumption of the fan. Steam purge under subatomospheric pressures reduces the regeneration temperature of DAC, and thus makes the utilization of renewable energy and industrial waste heat for regeneration becoming possible. When steam purge is used, the cyclic stability of the adsorbents should be concerned. For instance, polyamine impregnated adsorbents are prone to amine leakage in the presence of steam. Therefore, the development of hydrothermally stable DAC adsorbents is significantly important.

White light emitting nanofibers (WLENFs) have emerged as fantastic luminescent materials with significant potentials due to their high specific surface area, light weight property, thinness, excellent flexibility and air permeability. Meanwhile, electrospinning is a mature technology for fabricating nanofibers, and has been widely applied to diverse disciplines. Preparing WLENFs by electrospinning undoubtedly creates unprecedented functional materials, and may also lead to great findings. This idea has been clearly justified by numerous studies in past years. In this review, the state-of-the-art advances of WLENFs constructed by electrospinning are systematically summarized, in which organic, inorganic, and organic/inorganic hybrid WLENFs are introduced in detail. Besides, the future perspectives for achieving high performance WLENFs are also discussed. This review article is expected to stimulate more unprecedented achievements derived from WLENFs, thus further promoting their practical applications.

Thin-film solar cells, due to their low material usage and flexible substrates compatibility, have the potential to fill market niches for photovoltaic (PV) technologies. Among them, the Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cell is a widely deployed mature technology. However, the usage of scarce material like Ga and In is considered a major hindrance for its further scaling up. The commercial opportunity of its promising counterpart Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) with a similar structure but low-cost potential, has not yet been fully recognized. In this paper, the bottom-up approach is used to build models of cost analysis for CZTS on the different substrates with their probability distribution simulated by the Monte Carlo method. The resulting production costs are $41–52 per m2, making them economically attractive. Prospective strategies for further cost reduction are also suggested. The fundamental technical features of CZTS are reviewed, identifying the large efficiency potential of this PV technology. Analysis of different market opportunities is performed to fit the market demands better. Moreover, possible constraints and promising pathways towards the commercialization of the emerging CZTS technology are proposed.

The burning of fossil fuels causes the average global surface temperature to rise every year by 0.6 to 0.9 K between 1906 and 2005 causing massive ecological imbalance and an increase in global warming as reported by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Biomass gasification is an enhanced and mature technology that has the capability of replacing fossil fuels. Despite the presence of vast literature, biomass technology still needs improvement. This paper discusses the critical overview of biomass gasification, the technologies embedded, and the deciding parameters for producing valuable products such as syngas, bio-fuels, bio-char, power, heat, and fertilizer, which can be further utilized in power generation units, and fuel-cell technologies. The paper assimilates the information available in past studies of biomass gasification and presents a comprehensive review of various gasifiers and gasifying mediums employed, followed by introducing supercritical water (SCW) gasification. Future directions for readers are also discussed.

Solar-PV is the most mature technology for the solar energy utilization. The design of such PV-based systems are done in terms of the rated power of the panels while the rating is determined at the standard test condition of a specified temperature, irradiance level and for the standard AM1.5G solar spectrum. However, such rated output is never achieved as the actual operating conditions vary widely from the standard one. Hence, it is critical to estimate the actual power output under certain operating conditions in a given location for a proper design. Here, we provide a comprehensive method for estimating the actual power output which is applied to a particular location (Kanpur, India). Three major factors are computed which cause deviation of the power output from the rated value: spectral factor, temperature factor and irradiance factor. The combined effect is expressed through power factor which is observed to be dominated by the irradiance factor. It is observed that the actual power is significantly less - from 40% to 75% of the rated value - for the whole year which needs to be accounted for during the sizing-decision. The current study applies the estimation method on five commonly used PV materials and identifies amorphous silicon panel to be best suited for Kanpur for the prevailing condition in spring and summer seasons because it provides the highest output for the same rated power. The case study of Kanpur clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of the present method and its usefulness in the design process.

The problem of climate change requires a transition to carbon–neutral energy. Given the variability of key renewable energy sources such as solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind, fully renewable electricity systems require some form of energy storage. But as described in this study, the economics of electrical energy storage are complex. Many reports on cost of electricity storage confuse the cost of charge/discharge power in kW with the cost of energy storage potential in kWh. These parameters vary greatly and create fundamentally different cost structures for different storage technologies. A case study from the island-nation of Mauritius demonstrates that simulation of a complete electricity system is needed to minimize cost of energy storage, and finds that reservoir-type storage such as pumped hydroelectric (PHES) is less expensive than using batteries for the storage requirements modeled. Large reductions in battery prices make them more competitive, but do not greatly reduce total costs. PHES is a fully mature technology, and is more widely available than may be assumed. Policy makers can thus be confident that commitments to deploy renewable energy do not depend on development of new storage technology or reduction of battery prices.

Grid-connected rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems are becoming very common in commercial as well as domestic settings due to a) lowering of PV system prices and b) increased emphasis on reducing CO2 emissions for electricity production. Polycrystalline-silicon (p-Si) modules are most commonly used for these PV systems due to mature technology and lower module costs. Newer thin-film module technologies such as amorphous Si (a-Si), Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) and Copper Indium Selenide (CIS) are also increasing their market share due to performance gains in high-temperature environments. This paper conducts a techno-economic analysis of p-Si and CIS systems under similar ratings and environmental settings (irradiance, temperature, rainfall, and dust). The case study simulates electricity production from two 42 kWp PV systems and compares the simulated results with one year measured data of the deployed systems at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore, Pakistan. Results show that CIS is a better choice from performance ratio perspective as its annual energy production is higher than p-Si. However, p-Si has a better levelized cost of electricity which makes this technology a more viable commercial solution in Pakistan. Furthermore, the area required to implement the p-Si system is significantly lower than the CIS based systems making it more attractive for areas with space constraints. The insights developed in this work can aid PV designers in the optimized selection of a rooftop PV system technology.

In the aspect of biomacromolecule imaging, high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM) has many wonderful characteristics, such as rapid imaging and real-time visualisation of the structure and dynamic behaviour of biological macromolecules, which is unparalleled by other technologies. In this review, state-of-the-art achievements on HS-AFM in molecular biology are summarised. Firstly, biomacromolecule characteristics determination and nanostructure recombination using HS-AFM are introduced, which confirm that HS-AFM is such a mature technology that realises high-speed imaging. Then, some improvements including the cantilever of HS-AFM, mechanical scanner, position sensor, and closed-loop control algorithm are reviewed to obtain higher resolution images. Finally, future development directions that could enhance the performance of HS-AFM are discussed.

Wireless sensors have become commonplace in our daily lives for such tasks as tracking temperature, measuring humidity, and sensing light and gas. Many technologies capable of relaying sensor information are continually being refined, but the search for a robust and customizable technology to satisfy the exponentially increasing demand for largescale and low-cost deployment of these wireless sensor nodes while minimizing power consumption has led to backscatter radio as a potential solution. Backscatter radio, first proposed in the 1940s as "communication by means of reflected power" [1], is a fairly mature technology that has been used in a variety of modern applications, especially those employing passive RFID technology in the ultrahigh-frequency band. The tags used in these applications are usually made up of just a transistor or switch and an antenna. These tags can be activated using only the RF power from an interrogating signal and, as a result, can be operated without any external energy source. Communication ranges of up to a few meters have been reported using this technology [2], [3].

The utilization of preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) has understandable intuitive appeal in reassuring the clinician that ‘everything possible’ has been done to assure the birth of a healthy baby. Whereas the development of the PGT-A technology is still in a relatively early stage, great strides have nevertheless been made in the understanding of the genetics of the preimplantation human embryo. The problem lies not in the progress that has been achieved, but rather, in the reality that PGT-A is being actively marketed as a mature technology. Those that market the technology overstate its benefits and underestimate the losses of potential implantations that are the consequence of the practice of PGT-A. The implication is that the PGT-A technology is accurate, has minimal errors and is ready to be applied to every case of IVF. This approach is not evidence-based. Substantial losses of potential implantations are even evident in the analysis of the numbers presented by marketing materials themselves. In order to provide accurate, evidence-based counseling for patients undergoing IVF, we need to apply an appropriate level of scientific scrutiny to the data that are available and apply PGT-A selectively to those cases in which the benefits clearly outweigh the costs.

Photonic integrated circuits have seen a dramatic increase in complexity over the past decades. This development has been spurred by recent applications in datacenter communications and enabled by the availability of standardized mature technology platforms. Mechanical movement of wave-guiding structures at the micro- and nanoscale provides unique opportunities to further enhance functionality and to reduce power consumption in photonic integrated circuits. We here demonstrate integration of MEMS-enabled components in a simplified silicon photonics process based on IMEC's Standard iSiPP50G Silicon Photonics Platform and a custom release process.

Rare earth permanent magnets constitute a mature technology, but the shock of the 2011 rare earth crisis led to the re-evaluation of many ideas from the 1980s and 1990s about possible new hard magnets containing little or no rare earth (or heavy rare earth). Nd–Fe–B magnets have been painstakingly and skillfully optimized for a wide range of applications in which high performance is required at reasonable cost. Sm–Co is the material of choice when high-temperature stability is required, and Sm–Fe–N magnets are making their way into some niche applications. The scope for improvement in these basic materials by substitution has been rather thoroughly explored, and the effects of processing techniques on the microstructure and hysteresis are largely understood. A big idea from a generation ago—which held real potential to raise the record energy product significantly—was the oriented exchange-spring hard/soft nanocomposite magnet; however, it has proved very difficult to realize. Nevertheless, the field has evolved, and innovation has flourished in other areas. For example, electrical personal transport has progressed from millions of electric bicycles to the point where cars and trucks with electrical drives are becoming mainstream, and looks ready to bring the dominance of the internal combustion engine to an end. As the limitations of particular permanent magnets become clearer, ingenuity and imagination are being used to design around them, and to exploit the available mix of rare earth resources most efficiently. Huge new markets in robotics beckon, and the opportunities offered by additive manufacturing are just beginning to be explored. New methods of increasing magnet stability at elevated temperature are being developed, and integrated multifunctionality of hard magnets with other useful properties is now envisaged. These themes are elaborated here, with various examples. Keywords: Rare earth magnets, Magnetic anisotropy, Coercivity, Energy product, Magnetic composites, Additive manufacturing

Internet of Things (IoT) is a widely distributed network which requires small amount of power supply having limited storage and processing capacity. On the other hand, Cloud computing has virtually unlimited storage and processing capabilities and is a much more mature technology. Therefore, combination of Cloud computing and IoT can provide the best performance for users. Cloud computing nowadays provides lifesaving healthcare application by collecting data from bedside devices, viewing patient information and diagnose in real time. There may some concerns about security and other issues of the patient’s data but utilization of IoT and Cloud technologies in healthcare industry would open a new era in the field of healthcare. To ensure basic healthcare needs of the people in the rural areas, we have proposed Cloud-IoT based smart healthcare system. In this system various types of sensors (Temperature, Heart bit, ECG, etc.) are equipped in the patient side to sense the patient’s physiological data. For securing data RSA based authentication algorithm and mitigation of several security threats have been used. The sensed data will process and store in the Cloud server. Stored data can be used by the authorized and/or concerned medical practitioner upon approved by the user for patient caring.

Nowadays, extensive electrification of maritime transportation, represented by the seaport microgrids and all-electric ships (AESs), has been viewed as a feasible route to enhance the overall system flexibility as well as to mitigate the resulted in growing environmental issues. However, with the trend of electrification, the connections between the seaport and ships are no longer limited in the logistic-side, but also expanded to the electric-side, which makes the future maritime transportation management as a complex transportation-power multi-microgrid coordination problem. In land-based applications, multi-microgrid coordination is a relatively mature technology and already brings enormous economic and environmental benefits, but there still exists some gaps before those land-based technologies being integrated into maritime applications. In this perspective, this overview study emphasizes the characteristic of seaport microgrid and AESs, then several emerging technical challenges and the future research prospects are raised after a comprehensive literature survey.

Sustainable production of N-fertilizers is essential to hold the increasing demand for food expected over the next decades. While reduced access to N-fertilizers causes food shortages in some regions of the world, incorrect management in other areas causes detrimental effects on the environment. An increase in the current agricultural exploitation of biological N2-fixation promises a great benefit on both the economic and environmental aspects. To that end, a variety of novel strategies have been proposed and were actively investigated and improved over the last decade. One such strategy consists in the production of biomass of N2-fixing cyanobacteria and its application as a fertilizer and soil conditioner. Separating biological fertilizer production under optimized conditions for that sole purpose from soil fertilization and crop cultivation might bypass the probabilities of the microorganisms’ adaptation to the agronomic conditions and facilitate the management of the fertilizer. Last decade’s advances in different fields of science and technology might lead to mature technology for this strategy to contribute an alternative source of N-fertilizer for sustainable agriculture. This review will compile the main recent advances in (1) massive cultivation of cyanobacteria, including the use and recycling of nutrients in domestic or industrial wastewater; (2) biomass mineralization in the soil; (3) cyanobacterial production of accessory bioactive compounds for stimulating plant growth and/or improving soil characteristics; (4) empirical evidence for efficient plant fertilization and soil conditioning; (5) genetic engineering tools for the optimization of selected traits in cyanobacteria for their use as organic fertilizer; and (6) multi-institutional projects, as well as the main present and future challenges toward the industrial application of this technology.

Through a comprehensive review of PetroChina overseas oil and gas exploration of more than 20 years, we systematically summarize the development history, development status and application results of the overseas oil and gas exploration theory and technology. Overseas oil and gas exploration has experienced four stages, exploratory exploration, progressive exploration, risk exploration and efficient exploration. The overseas exploration theory and technology have also gone through the initially direct borrow of domestic mature technology to the integrated application, and then to the research innovation based on overseas features. A series of overseas oil and gas exploration theories and technologies represented by theories and technologies for passive rift basins, salt basins and foreland basin slopes, and global oil and gas geology and resource evaluation have been established. On the basis of deep analysis of the future overseas exploration development demand for the technology, and combined with the domestic and overseas future development trend of theory and technology, this paper systematically discusses the overseas exploration difficulties, technical requirements and the main development directions and aims of exploration theory and technology in the future: (1) Develop conventional onshore oil and gas exploration techniques continuously for the overseas exploration and keep them at an internationally advanced level. (2) Develop the global oil and gas resources and assets integrated optimization evaluation technology and its information system construction project innovatively to reach the international leading level. (3) Develop the deep water exploration technology integratively and narrow the gap with the world's advanced level. Key words: PetroChina, overseas oil and gas exploration, passive rift basin, salt basin, foreland basin, global petroleum resource assessment, exploration theory

Over the last 15 years, urine treatment technologies have developed from lab studies of a few pioneers to an interesting innovation, attracting attention from a growing number of process engineers. In this broad review, we present literature from more than a decade on biological, physical-chemical and electrochemical urine treatment processes. Like in the first review on urine treatment from 2006, we categorize the technologies according to the following objectives: stabilization, volume reduction, targeted N-recovery, targeted P-recovery, nutrient removal, sanitization, and handling of organic micropollutants. We add energy recovery as a new objective, because extensive work has been done on electrochemical energy harvesting, especially with bio-electrochemical systems. Our review reveals that biological processes are a good choice for urine stabilization. They have the advantage of little demand for chemicals and energy. Due to instabilities, however, they are not suited for bathroom applications and they cannot provide the desired volume reduction on their own. A number of physical-chemical treatment technologies are applicable at bathroom scale and can provide the necessary volume reduction, but only with a steady supply of chemicals and often with high demand for energy and maintenance. Electrochemical processes is a recent, but rapidly growing field, which could give rise to exciting technologies at bathroom scale, although energy production might only be interesting for niche applications. The review includes a qualitative assessment of all unit processes. A quantitative comparison of treatment performance was not the goal of the study and could anyway only be done for complete treatment trains. An important next step in urine technology research and development will be the combination of unit processes to set up and test robust treatment trains. We hope that the present review will help guide these efforts to accelerate the development towards a mature technology with pilot scale and eventually full-scale implementations., Water Research X, 13, ISSN:2589-9147

Battery technology besides its importance and exceptional characteristics is not still a mature technology and there is a real need for research and innovation in their lifetime, charging rate, second use, etc. The dependency of our daily lives on batteries is irrefutable and they are becoming growingly ubiquitous in our daily lives. Battey performance is degrades with battery aging and therefore a battery diagnostics and prognostics tool to enhance the effective use of the battery system is necessary. This paper deals with some challenges that remain unsolved in battery diagnostic and prognostic techniques. A review of recent battery diagnostic approaches for battery state estimation is performed and their relative advantages and disadvantages are emphasized while comparing the available methods to predict the battery end of life (EOL) or remaining useful life (RUL) as a key tool in battery prognostics.

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry has rapidly evolved in the last decade and can be considered today as a mature technology, which incorporates computationally intensive and data-intensive tasks. In this paper, a perspective on the state-of-the-art of high performance computing (HPC) methodologies applied to spaceborne SAR interferometry (InSAR) is presented, and the different parallel algorithms for interferometric processing of SAR data are critically discussed at different levels. Emphasis is placed on the key processing steps, which typically occur in the interferometric techniques, categorized according to their computational relevance. Existing implementations of the different InSAR stages using diverse parallel strategies and architectures are examined and their performance discussed. Furthermore, some InSAR computational schemes selected in the literature are analyzed at the level of the entire processing chain, thus emphasizing their potentialities and limitations. Therefore, the survey focuses on the inherent computational approaches enabling large-scale interferometric SAR processing, thus offering insight into some open issues, and outlining future trends in the field.

The unprecedented development of perovskite-silicon (PSC-Si) tandem solar cells in the last five years has been hindered by several challenges towards industrialization, which require further research. The combination of the low cost of perovskite and legacy silicon solar cells serve as primary drivers for PSC-Si tandem solar cell improvement. For the perovskite top-cell, the utmost concern reported in the literature is perovskite instability. Hence, proposed physical loss mechanisms for intrinsic and extrinsic instability as triggering mechanisms for hysteresis, ion segregation, and trap states, along with the latest proposed mitigation strategies in terms of stability engineering, are discussed. The silicon bottom cell, being a mature technology, is currently facing bottleneck challenges to achieve power conversion efficiencies (PCE) greater than 26.7%, which requires more understanding in the context of light management and passivation technologies. Finally, for large-scale industrialization of the PSC-Si tandem solar cell, the promising silicon wafer thinning, and large-scale film deposition technologies could cause a shift and align with a more affordable and flexible roll-to-roll PSC-Si technology. Therefore, this review aims to provide deliberate guidance on critical fundamental issues and configuration factors in current PSC-Si tandem technologies towards large-scale industrialization. to meet the 2031 PSC-Si Tandem road maps market target.

After many decades of development, the hydropneumatic suspension today can be called a mature technology, which is proven by its successful application in many different areas. However the technical possibilities are far from being exhausted, many improvements are still possible and imaginable. Improvements on the component level as well as on the system level which provide – and this is extremely important – not only functional advancement but also a reasonable cost-benefit-ratio, making them favorable also from an economic point of view.

A few years have passed since the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology and its massification. Then, we saw the rise of Industry 4.0 and Agro 4.0, making the digitization of rural areas a hot topic, especially in Brazil where agribusiness is very important for the economy. Nowadays, IoT is already a mature technology, evidenced by cases of successful large-scale implementation of this technology in agricultural production. However, the combination of this technology with others still opens many opportunities, thereby further enhancing the chance to add value to the agricultural production chain. That is, the opportunities within IoT technology are in the aggregation and integration of a set of other disruptive technologies. This article presents a reference review with concepts of IoT, the updated status of this technology, foreseen opportunities, aggregated technologies, the future of IoT, and the vision of practical agricultural implementation in the field in Brazil. RESUMO Alguns anos se passaram desde o surgimento da tecnologia Internet of Things (IoT) e sua massificação. Depois vimos o surgimento da Indústria 4.0 e agora o Agro 4.0, tornando a digitalização de áreas rurais um tema relevante, especialmente no Brasil onde o agronegócio é muito importante para a economia. Hoje em dia, o IoT já é uma tecnologia madura, evidenciado por casos de sucesso de implementação em grande escala desta tecnologia na produção agrícola. No entanto, a combinação desta tecnologia com outras ainda abre muitas oportunidades, potencializando ainda mais as chances de agregar valor à cadeia de produção agrícola. Ou seja, as oportunidades dentro da tecnologia IoT estão na agregação e integração de um conjunto de outras tecnologias disruptivas. Este artigo apresenta uma revisão de literatura com os conceitos de IoT, o status atualizado dessa tecnologia, as oportunidades previstas, as tecnologias agregadas, o futuro do IoT, e a visão de implementação prática agrícola no campo no Brasil.

USB has become an industry standard, which is one of the main reasons it is used in educational applications, since it is a mature technology with extensive documentation and excellent support. This paper provides a study of USB interfaces, including details on latencies for certain devices, frequency attenuation, cable and connector architectures, functionality, and futures, with the aim of assisting decision-making process when choosing the best communication technologies for projects.

Electric vehicles are a more environment friendly technology than internal combustion engine vehicles. However, EVs are still less mature technology compared to ICE vehicles (higher cost, lower power density, lower range rating, and longer charging time, connection to the grid…). In order to commercialize more EVs in the near future to make another step for replacing ICE vehicles, many researches have been conducted. The main three fields of interest are: electric motors, energy storage, and power electronics. EVs are considered as complex systems and need to be addressed with modern methodologies and approaches. This paper presents a first step towards designing a power converter for electric traction system with onboard energy storage system (ESS), using model-based systems engineering (MBSE) and systems modelling language (SysML), by adapting CESAM Systems Architecting Method as framework. Using this approach an operational point of view architecture of the power converter is presented in this paper.

Force control is nowadays a mature technology and it is becoming more and more common in robotic applications. A specific and significant example are robotic devices for rehabilitation. Despite this, an effective standardized and comprehensive method to assess force control performance does not exist. Defining the performance of a force-controlled system is not a trivial task, and one of the reasons is that performance does not only depend on the dynamics of the robot, but also on the dynamics of the environment, which are usually uncertain and time-varying. Exerting a force on a soft environment is different from exerting a force on a rigid environment. Indeed, the same force-controlled robot can have different force responses in different environments. This paper proposes a methodology to standardize the benchmarking of force control algorithms applied to different actuation architectures and considering a wide set of possible environments and disturbances, defined by the application of interest.

Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology is a mature technology that contested other wireless technologies in the advent of the IoT but did not achieve the same levels of widespread adoption. In recent years, however, with its potential as a wireless ranging and localization solution, it has regained momentum. Within the robotics field, UWB positioning systems are being increasingly adopted for localizing autonomous ground or aerial robots. In the Industrial IoT (IIoT) domain, its potential for ad-hoc networking and simultaneous positioning is also being explored. This survey overviews the state-of-the-art in UWB networking and localization for robotic and autonomous systems. We also cover novel techniques focusing on more scalable systems, collaborative approaches to localization, ad-hoc networking, and solutions involving machine learning to improve accuracy. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first survey to put together the robotics and IIoT perspectives and to emphasize novel ranging and positioning modalities. We complete the survey with a discussion on current trends and open research problems., Comment: 2021 10th Mediterranean Conference on Embedded Computing, Track: CPS&IoT

Boosted by the demands of the rapidly growing wireless communication market, there is an increasing interest in the development of the radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). As highlighted by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) annually, interconnect has become one of the most critical factors affecting the performance of ICs (ITRS, 2008). Thereafter, incorporating interconnect effects into the RFIC design flow becomes increasingly essential. Because of the mature technology, low fabrication cost and high packing density, CMOS technology is deemed as a strong contender compared with other available technologies (Shi et al., 2005). Therefore, this chapter will mainly focus on the analysis of interconnects using conventional CMOS technology. Nevertheless, the authors would also like to shed some lights on some emerging interconnect concepts and technologies in the last part of the chapter.

In the field of pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR), the zero velocity update (ZUPT) method with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) is a mature technology to calibrate dead reckoning. However, due to the complex walking modes of different individuals, it is essential and challenging to determine the ZUPT conditions, which has a direct and significant influence on the tracking accuracy. In this research, we adopted an adaptive zero velocity update (AZUPT) method based on convolution neural networks to classify the ZUPT conditions. The AZUPT model was robust regardless of the different motion types of various individuals. AZUPT was then implemented on the Zynq-7000 SoC platform to work in real time to validate its computational efficiency and performance superiority. Extensive real-world experiments were conducted by 60 different individuals in three different scenarios. It was demonstrated that the proposed system could work equally well in different environments, making it portable for PDR to be widely performed in various real-world situations.

Compute-in-memory has received a lot of research interests recently to implement the data-intensive computation in deep neural networks. By performing the computing at the storage location, CIM avoids the excessive data transfer thus improving the energy efficiency. SRAM based CIM is one of the promising candidates for its mature technology availability at advanced technology node. To further speed up for CMOS circuits, cryogenic computing which operates at low temperatures has emerged as an attractive solution for highperformance computing at the data center. In this work, we modified NeuroSim, a device-to-system modelling framework with experimentally calibrated 28nm transistor parameters from room temperature to 4K Then we benchmark the performance of SRAM based CIM for ResNet-18 on ImagNet dataset. The energy-delay-product is compared across the temperature, revealing the performance and energy efficiency boost by cryogenic computing. When the cooling infrastructure cost is considered, the overall energy benefits are overshadowed though.

Purpose Internet of Things (IoT), a strategic emerging industry, has brought a new driving force to the global economic growth, as well as an effective solution to break the barrier of economic development. However, standards system of IoT is not yet mature, existing obvious overlapping and even conflicting standards, and enterprises lack mature technology standardization model, which severely restricts the structural upgrading and development of IoT. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach In this regard, this study combs the research context of the IoT, technology standardization and competition behavior, and analyze technology standardization models of IoT by combining theory with practice. Using game theory and profit function, this paper analyzes the selection mechanism of standardization model of IoT enterprises, and explores practical application of these models using competitive behavior theory. Findings First, in the process of standardization, technology standardization model n enterprises is not single, nor is it immutable. Second, the trend of internationalization of technical standards is becoming more and more obvious. Third, if LoT enterprises want to achieve their own technology standardization, the corresponding competitive behavior is essential. Fourth, with the change of innovation capability and market forces, the competitive behavior of enterprises should be improved accordingly to better adapt to the changes of internal and external environment and ensure the realization of the standardization of enterprises. Fifth, if IoT attempts to achieve the same globalization as the internet, there must be a set of support systems. Originality/value Finally, some suggestions are given for the future development in the field of IoT. This study will provide some theoretical support for promoting the development of standards and enhancing the competitiveness of IoT enterprises.

Pressure sensor used in marine hydrographic survey is an important device for the deep sea detection, the tsunami forecast and the marine engineering. Owing to its mature technology process and low...

Amine-based carbon dioxide capture is the most mature technology for reducing flue gas CO2 emissions. It has been postulated and observed during commercialisation of this technology that significant quantities of waste amines are produced. Further industrial implementation of this technology requires adequate disposal or valorisation options for this waste. This review presents an analysis of seven biological and chemical technologies for waste amine amelioration or valorisation. Of these, the biological treatments are identified as being more mature for industrial application with the capacity for marketable product generation. Slow speed is the main drawback of the biological processes but this does not hinder their commercial viability. Using waste amine for NOx reduction in power stations is a secondary option, where it seems probable that the amount of waste amine generated in the CO2 capture plant is sufficient to fulfil the DeNOx requirements of the flue gas. This route, however, requires investigation into the impact of waste amine impurities on the power station and the CO2 capture plant operations.

Gasification is currently recognized as a mature technology to convert biomass into useful and versatile product gas for further energy and fuel applications. However, there are some remaining problems relating to the process operation and process efficiency due to inherent properties of biomass feedstock such as high moisture content, low energy density and high oxygen content. Strategies to improve the efficiency of biomass gasification as well as the quality of product gas are thus required. For this purpose, a combined process of torrefaction, gasification, and carbon dioxide capture is developed and simulated in a commercial simulator to investigate the performance of a biomass gasification coupled with a pre-treatment and a post-treatment processes. The results show that the quality of product gas is enhanced when combining gasification with a torrefaction and a CO2 capture processes. The heating value of the product gas and the cold gas efficiency are both increased with additional torrefaction. The CO2 capture process using monoethanolamine offers a CO2 removal efficiency of about 83% and consequently increase the product gas heating value up to 27%.

Nowadays, more and more places need authentication. Face recognition is a mature technology for identity verification research. Recognition accuracy is an important indicator for evaluating authentication algorithms. In order to improve the accuracy of identity verification, advanced face is used. Feature recognition algorithm is an effective way, but it is also an effective algorithm to study the factors affecting facial features. Therefore, many researchers study the recognition results based on the poses of the face, light and other factors. This paper is also a study on the factors affecting face recognition, mainly by studying the influence of the age and gender factors on the identity verification results, and using the deep learning method to classify facial features. The simulation results show that the average recognition rate reaches 83.73%. At the same time, this paper analyzes the effect of age and gender on the classification results. The results show that the recognition effect of middle-aged men in male subjects is lower than that of youth and the elderly. Women have little difference in recognition effect with age. Males have higher recognition rates than women.

Considerable amount of energy is being consumed in the buildings worldwide. Space and water heating have big share in building energy consumption, account for 53.2% and 28.1% in Japanese residential and commercial buildings at 2015, respectively. Solar heating is a reliable and mature technology that experienced its remarkable success in Japan during late-1970s and early-1980s. However, during last 30 years, the number of installations in Japan is decreased, even after 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and energy challenge in Japan. This study is presenting a historical review on the solar heating market status, policy, and research trends in Japan with focus on the Japan’s glorious solar heating market at 1980’s. The reasons and barriers for further deployment of solar thermal technology are investigated and suggestions are presented.

Harm to civilians is an unacceptable consequence in the use of armaments and is a safety concern of potentially catastrophic severity. The current problem is that Cluster Munitions are known to pose a high unexploded ordnance (UXO) risk. In order to mitigate this threat, the U.S. Secretary of Defense mandates that all Cluster Munitions shall meet a requirement of less than 1% UXO. To achieve this goal, the Cluster Munitions Fuze has undergone a Design for Reliability (DfR) program. Objectives are to determine whether any of the concept designs are capable of meeting the derived reliability requirement, and uncover potential failure modes and mitigate them with design recommendations. This study utilizes DfR methods such as Probabilistic Design and Physics of Failure Analysis. Designs underwent iterations of reliability prediction. The safe & arm device, control electronics, and battery are identified as the reliability drivers of the fuze system. The completed analyses demonstrate that the selection of mature technology and increased redundancy of both the expulsion sensor and safe and arm device components are necessary to meeting the reliability goal of 0.9975 for the high-reliability Cluster Munitions Fuze Replacement.

The continuous increase of energy demand with the subsequent huge fossil fuel consumption is provoking dramatic environmental consequences. The main challenge of this century is to develop and promote alternative, more eco-friendly energy production routes. In this framework, Solid Oxide Cells (SOCs) are a quite attractive technology which could satisfy the users’ energy request working in reversible operation. Two operating modes are alternated: from “Gas to Power”, when SOCs work as fuel cells fed with hydrogen-rich mixture to provide both electricity and heat, to “Power to Gas”, when SOCs work as electrolysers and energy is supplied to produce hydrogen. If solid oxide fuel cells are an already mature technology with several stationary and mobile applications, the use of solid oxide electrolyser cells and even more reversible cells are still under investigation due to their insufficient lifetime. Aiming at providing a better understanding of this new technological approach, the study presents a detailed description of cell operation in terms of electrochemical behaviour and possible degradation, highlighting which are the most commonly used performance indicators. A thermodynamic analysis of system efficiency is proposed, followed by a comparison with other available electrochemical devices in order to underline specific solid oxide cell advantages and limitations.

Ponencia presentada en IFAC-PapersOnLine, Volume 53, Issue 2, 2020, Pages 14600-14607 Nowadays, most underwater intervention missions are developed through the well-known work-class ROVs (Remote Operated Vehicles), equipped with teleoperated arms under human supervision. Thus, despite the appearance on the market of the first prototypes of the so-called I-AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles for Intervention), the most mature technology associated with ROVs continues to be trusted. In order to fill the gap between ROVs and incipient I-AUVs technology, new research is under progress in our laboratory. In particular, new HRI (Human Robot Interaction) capabilities are being tested inside a three-year Spanish coordinated project focused on cooperative underwater intervention missions. In this work new results are presented concerning a new user interface which includes immersion capabilities through Virtual Reality (VR) technology. It is worth noting that a new HRI module has been demonstrated, through a pilot study, in which the users had to solve some specific tasks, with minimum guidance and instructions, following simple Problem Based Learning (PBL) scheme. Finally, it is noticeable that, although this is only a work in progress, the obtained results are promising concerning friendly and intuitive characteristics of the developed HRI module. Thus, some critical aspects, like complexity fall, training time and cognitive fatigue of the ROV pilot, seem more affordable now.

Road transportation is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gas emissions. The EU set the target to reduce overall transport emissions by 60% by 2050 compared to 1990. Electric mobility is considered a proper means to achieve this goal. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are a mature technology. The high investment costs, limited driving range and a charging infrastructure that is not extensive yet are currently the main challenges. This work analyses how policies affect the dissemination of BEVs in selected countries with remarkable market shares of BEVs. The core objective is to investigate how policies affect BEV economics compared to conventional car economics. Financial policies and their effects on BEVs for the major markets of China, the USA and Europe were analysed. To do so, the total cost of ownership (TCO) was calculated for each country. The major conclusions were: (i) The investment cost of a car had the most significant impact on the TCO; (ii) Low TCO as an incentive was not enough to ensure successful BEV dissemination; (iii) Non-monetary incentives such as access to certain zones and the usage of bus lanes for BEVs combined with registration taxes, low electricity prices and high fuel prices were very favourable conditions.