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Supplier Eye

Automotive

The Great Migration of Light-vehicle Production

For years, analysts have pondered the impact of the migration of North American light vehicle production from its original hub in the U.S. Midwest to locations in the Southeast and Mexico....

Articles

Mechanical & Fluid Systems

John Deere 3D-Prints Production Fuel Valves for Tractors

HP launched its new commercial Metal Jet S100 Solution in September 2022 and two months later showcased the 3D printer for the first time publicly at the Formnext exhibition in...

News

Unmanned Systems

Mercedes-Benz Architecting Its Own Operating System

Mercedes-Benz revealed in late February that it is developing its own computer operating system, dubbed MB.OS, which it said will be standardized across the company’s entire model...

Technology Report

Automotive

Elon Musk Discusses Tesla’s Future

Tesla’s 2023 Investor Day on March 1 at the company’s Austin, Texas, Gigafactory was short on new-product announcements but long on how the EV automaker will continue to refine its vehicles,...

Articles

Design

Volvo CE Previews ConExpo 2023 Display

Volvo CE previewed its display for ConExpo 2023 in Las Vegas with a teaser of the new DD25 electric compact double-drum asphalt compactor.

News

Automotive

Snapdragon Ride Flex Puts Safety, Infotainment onto Single Chip

One chip, multiple benefits. That’s the claim made by Qualcomm Technologies about its new, scalable system-on-a-chip product family.

Road Ready

Power

Toyota Stretches SUV Line-Up with World Debut of Grand Highlander

The new Grand Highlander is a three-row midsize SUV, just like Highlander. So it’s not surprising that the Toyota siblings share two powertrains.

Articles

Robotics, Automation & Control

Robotic Rotational Molding Creates New Opportunities for Military and Aerospace Applications

Innovative robotic rotational molding technology allows for the use of new materials in manufacturing parts and hard cases for military and aerospace applications.

Articles

Power

Rim-Driven Electric Aircraft Propulsion

Today, our aviation capability is built upon a carefully iterative evolution in technology over more than a century.

Articles

Imaging

High-Speed Midwave Infrared Cameras Enable Military Test Range Tracking System

Infrared thermography consists of three specific wavelengths, including short-wave infrared, midwave infrared, and long wavelength infrared.

Articles

Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Designing for 200 BMEP and 22,000 Rpm

Fire-bombing destroyed Japan’s 66 largest cities and their industry during World War II. After the war, over 200 makers of light motorbikes sprang into being because such transportation could be...

Articles

RF & Microwave Electronics

What Today’s Advances in Radar Technology Mean for Testing and Training

Technology advancements in RF, digital hardware, active electronically scanned arrays, synthetic aperture radar and cognitive electronic warfare have necessitated advances in test and training systems.

Articles

RF & Microwave Electronics

Tackling Ruggedization Challenges for RF Communications in Software Defined Radios

Software Defined Radios or SDRs are used in a wide variety of design requirements.

Articles

AR/AI

AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2023 The Blueprint for Autonomy

The Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International is bringing this year’s XPONENTIAL 2023 to the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, CO, from May 8 – 11.

Briefs

Sensors/Data Acquisition

Multi-Scale Structuring of the Polar Ionosphere

Ionospheric variability is a critical consideration for communication systems, GNSS, and space asset management.

Briefs

RF & Microwave Electronics

Stepped-Frequency Distributed Radar for Through-the-Wall Sensing

The authors are studying the application of distributed radar to through-the-wall sensing.

Articles

Unmanned Systems

Breathing Life into Artificial Intelligence and Next Generation Autonomous Aerospace Systems

When it comes to image recognition in today’s AI world, a human is required to initially train the underlying system to recognize an object.

Briefs

Test & Measurement

Drift Improvement with Reinforcement Training of Inertial Sensors

The main objective of the DIRT-I project is to extend the holdover time of inertial sensors in the absence of a Global Navigation Satellite System.

Briefs

Photonics/Optics

Overcoming Performance Limitations of Distributed Brillouin Fiber Laser Sensors

Distributed fiber sensors are a powerful tool for structural health monitoring and environmental sensing due to their ability to remotely monitor the strain at 1,000s of locations using low-cost optical fiber.

Briefs

Photonics/Optics

Electro-Optic Materials Research

Here, a summary of the main lines of effort for the Electro-Optics Materials Research program including its goals and major accomplishments of the past five years.

Application Briefs

Manned Systems

Army Common Tactical Truck

American Rheinmetall Vehicles and GM Defense LLC have won a contract for the first phase of the U.S. Army’s Common Tactical Truck Program.

Application Briefs

Aerospace

VISTA X-62

The Lockheed Martin VISTA X-62A training aircraft was flown by an AI agent for more than 17 hours during a recent demonstration, representing the first time AI engaged on a tactical aircraft.

Products

Electronics & Computers

New Products

See the new products for April 2023, including hybrid power drive modules, processor boards, a general-purpose microcontroller, and more.

Articles

Test & Measurement

Chamber Made to Protect EV Batteries

Ingress protection testing against solid particulates, such as dust, is a crucial part of battery manufacturing. If a battery is not designed to keep dust out, small particles can infiltrate and wreak...

News

Imaging

Autonomous Trucking Hits Rocky Road

Within a four-week stretch – from roughly mid-February to mid-March – a steady stream of autonomous-trucking news hit. A quick summary: As several startups in the autonomous-truck development space...

Articles

Software

Spelling Ford with an ‘E’

One year ago, Ford Motor Co. kicked off a new era in its long history when it bifurcated into two strategically interdependent auto businesses. Ford Blue, the “traditional” business, is responsible for the...

News

Energy

Medium-Duty Electric Trucks Multiply to Meet Demand

Several commercial truck OEMs revealed new medium-duty EVs at NTEA’s 2023 Work Truck Week (WTW) in Indianapolis, Indiana. Interest in Class 5, 6 and 7 EVs has ramped up rapidly in...

News

Connectivity

Rethinking the Grid for EVs

The clock is ticking for the automotive industry to meet looming “greener” energy deadlines, which will come into effect at the end of the decade. Achieving widescale adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and...

Q&A

Manned Systems

Making H2 Fuel Cells Happen

Over a 23-year career Rob Del Core has led more than 20 programs related to zero-emissions vehicles and subsystems, most of them related to developing hydrogen fuel-cell power, at companies including Hyzon...

News

Green Design & Manufacturing

Kubota Engine High on HVO, Hydrogen and Hybrids

As part of its path to carbon neutrality, Kubota Engine engineers have developed a new 3.8-liter hydrogen engine that was introduced at CONEXPO 2023 in Las Vegas. The 4-cylinder spark-ignited...

Articles

Software

Toyota’s Advanced R&D Puts Humans First

Gill Pratt has a gift for explaining complex topics in simple terms. And as Toyota Motor Co.’s chief scientist and CEO of the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), he also speaks frankly about the...

Editorial

Power

Sunset for the American V8

Technologies transition from dominance to nearly dead at different speeds and for various reasons. That’s particularly true for motive power. Pistons, cams and valves are giving way to anodes, cathodes and...

INSIDER

Unmanned Systems

Airbus Achieves Autonomous In-Flight Control of Drone From Tanker

Autonomous in-flight guidance and control of a drone using an A310 MRTT was achieved during a recent flight-test in Spain performed by Airbus Defense and Space and the...

INSIDER

Aerospace

Navy Selects Lockheed Martin and Raytheon to Develop Hypersonic Missile

The Navy issued two contracts on Mar. 27 valued at a total of $116 million to Raytheon Missiles and Defense and Lockheed Martin for the initial development for a...

INSIDER

Software

New Algorithm Developed by MIT Researchers Keeps Drones from Colliding in Midair

When multiple drones are working together in the same airspace, perhaps spraying pesticide over a field of corn, there’s a risk they might crash into each...

News

Power

Toyota Launches Longer-Range 2023 Prius Prime

Toyota’s rollout of the 2023 Prius is a two-phase affair. Although the company didn’t say it outright, the launch seems targeted to address two distinct Prius customers. Those who just want...

News

Energy

Decarbonizing the EV Battery Supply Chain

A report from consultants at McKinsey & Co. strikes an optimistic tone that major reductions in carbon emissions from the electric vehicle battery supply chain can be attained in the next five...

INSIDER

Aerospace

Navy Engineers Test Aging Equipment to Find a Cost-Saving Solution for MQ-25

Engineers at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) are testing the Navy’s current fleet of Aerial Refueling Store pods to support the...

INSIDER

Transportation

Army Green Lights Infantry Squad Vehicle Upgrade Production

The U.S. Army’s Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV) program was approved by the Program Executive Officer for Combat Support & Combat Service Support (PEO CS&CSS) to transition...

INSIDER

Electronics & Computers

Defense Leaders Receive First Intel SHIP Multi-Chip Prototype

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) last week celebrated a milestone achievement for the State-of-the-Art (SOTA) Heterogeneous Integrated Packaging (SHIP) Program with the...

INSIDER

Data Acquisition

AFRL Conducts First Flight Experiments for Communications in Terahertz Band

Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) researchers recently conducted flight experiments in Rome, New York to prove the viability of communications at radio...

INSIDER

Energy

Leonardo to Provide Electric Propulsion Components for Columbia-Class Submarine

Leonardo DRS, Inc. has been awarded contracts valued at over $1 billion to provide the integrated electric propulsion components for the U.S. Navy’s...

News

Unmanned Systems

Tomahawk to Develop Common Control System for U.K. Human Machine Teaming Project

Tomahawk Robotics is developing new universal command and control technology.

News

Transportation

Powertrain, Electronics Lead Tech-Paper Topics at SAE’s WCX 2023

With engineers converging in mid-April for the 2023 WCX conference in Detroit, technical-paper presentations continue as the backbone of SAE’s annual congress.

News

Software

Handicapping the ‘Race Toward Zero’

Kelly Senecal did not set out to champion the multi-modal approach to vehicle carbon reduction. He’s the CEO of Covergent Science, a company specializing in computational fluid dynamics. A...

News

Mechanical & Fluid Systems

WCX 2023: Biomimicry Inspires Product Development

Nature has always served as a giant classroom where problem-solving lessons are taught — a “storehouse of inspiration for new and different ideas,” noted Trisha Brown, co-director of...

INSIDER

Test & Measurement

Lockheed Martin CubeSats Demonstrate Essential Maneuvers for On-Orbit Servicing

Lockheed Martin’s In-space Upgrade Satellite System (LM LINUSS™) accomplished a successful on-orbit demonstration, proving how small satellites can serve an...

INSIDER

RF & Microwave Electronics

Air Force Forecasts 2040 Operating Environments in Global Futures Report

The Air Force published its Global Futures Report April 12, assessing four potential operating environments Airmen may have to navigate in before the turn of the...

INSIDER

Manufacturing & Prototyping

GAO Recommends Changes to Army's Future Vertical Lift Acquisition Process

The U.S. Army is developing several aircraft systems to supplement and replace its aging fleet of helicopters. Aircraft in this portfolio, known as Future Vertical...

News

Test & Measurement

WCX 2023: Can You Drive like SAE J3300

A valid driver’s license from any country put attendees in the driver’s seat at SAE WCX 2023, allowing them to test their driving skills using SAE J3300, the driving skills standard used to...

News

Design

WCX 2023: Software-Defined Vehicle Development an Ongoing Headache for Industry

An auto industry wedded to its ingrained methods needs to adapt its engineering processes to develop the software that is increasingly central to nearly every...

INSIDER

Propulsion

New Defense Department Contract to Expand Domestic Rocket Motor Manufacturing

The Department of Defense's (DoD) Office of Manufacturing Capability Expansion and Investment Prioritization (MCEIP) has entered into a $215.6 million agreement...

INSIDER

Manufacturing & Prototyping

Raytheon to Develop Counter UAS Sensors, Effectors for US Army

Raytheon Technologies was awarded a $237 million U.S. Army contract for Ku-band Radio Frequency Sensors (KuRFS) and Coyote® effectors to detect and defeat unmanned aircraft...

INSIDER

RF & Microwave Electronics

Tomahawk Robotics to Develop Flexible Cyber-Secure Radio Systems for US Navy

The U.S. Navy has awarded a $55 million full-rate production contract for its Flexible Cyber Secure Radio (FlexCSR) program to Tomahawk Robotics.

INSIDER

Weapons Systems

Embraer Launches A-29N Super Tucano in NATO Configuration

Embraer recently launched the A-29 Super Tucano aircraft in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) configuration with an initial focus on meeting the needs of nations in...

INSIDER

Design

DARPA Seeks New Antenna Designs From Nontraditional Defense Contractors

DARPA is soliciting disruptive ideas from small businesses and nontraditional defense contractors for novel antenna designs, materials, manufacturing, or processing as...

News

Unmanned Systems

WCX 2023: Making the ‘Smart Cockpit’ and UX Safer

The in-vehicle experience, also known as user experience (UX), is changing as technology evolves. “Everyone talks about AI for autonomy and ADAS, but I think it [artificial...

News

Power

Scaling the Solid-State Battery FEST

Start-up battery developer Factorial Energy’s workforce of engineers, chemists and other technology specialists has topped 100 with recent hirings in the Asia-Pacific region. A pilot manufacturing...