Magazine Articles - SAE Mobilus
Researchers have created a simulation model to analyze how coastal management activities meant to protect barrier islands from sea-level rise can disrupt the natural processes that are keeping barrier islands above water.
Raytheon East Hartford, CT corporatepr@rtx.com
Dangling from a weather balloon 80,000 feet above New Mexico, a pair of antennas sticks out from a Styrofoam cooler. From that height, the blackness of space presses against Earth’s blue skies. But the antennas are not captivated by the breathtaking view. Instead, they listen for signals that could make air travel safer.
Moog Inc. East Aurora, NY kgibas@moog.com
Komatsu has launched a new excavator, the PC220LCi-12, that features its latest intelligent machine control technology. IMC 3.0 incorporates automation enhancements and a reported “construction-industry first” technology - factory-integrated 3D boundary control - designed to boost operator productivity. The intelligent machine, displayed previously at Bauma 2025 in Munich, Germany, has many of the same features as the new PC220LC-12 excavator, including a cab that is 28% larger, with 30% more legroom and 50% improved visibility compared to the PC210LC-11 model. Other advantages the new machines offer are up to a 20% increase in fuel efficiency thanks to a new electrohydraulic system and 129-kW (173-hp) next-generation engine, and up to a 20% reduction in maintenance costs due to longer replacement intervals for hydraulic oil and oil filters and longer cleaning intervals for the particulate filter.
Custom electrohydraulic solutions can address unique demands not satisfied by standard components. As mobile equipment is pushed to perform in increasingly demanding and challenging environments - ranging from frozen construction sites to harsh marine applications - some OEMs are discovering that customized solutions can provide significant advantages. Standard electronic controls and hydraulic components are carefully engineered to meet the requirements of a broad range of typical applications. For many OEMs, these components provide a dependable and cost-effective foundation, especially in environments and duties that don't push operational boundaries.
As I'm wont to do come December, with work well underway on the first issue of the new year, I like to take stock of upcoming venues for innovative product reveals and thought-provoking presentations on emerging trends and technologies. Come the first week of January, that means CES in Las Vegas. Traditional equipment manufacturers have increasingly used the event to demonstrate to the broader public that they not only deal in metal but also the digital realm. For example, earlier this year at CES, John Deere revealed its second-generation tech stack featuring camera pods, Nvidia Orin purpose-built processors and Deere's VPUs (vision processing units), along with four new autonomous machines including the 9RX 640 tractor for open-field ag operations. The company is exhibiting again this coming year.
In the race toward practical quantum computers and networks, photons — fundamental particles of light — hold intriguing possibilities as fast carriers of information at room temperature. Photons are typically controlled and coaxed into quantum states via waveguides on extended microchips, or through bulky devices built from lenses, mirrors, and beam splitters. The photons become entangled — enabling them to encode and process quantum information in parallel — through complex networks of these optical components. But such systems are notoriously difficult to scale up due to the large numbers and imperfections of parts required to do any meaningful computation or networking.
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy represents a breakthrough in cancer treatment. By harnessing the body’s immune system, CAR T therapy provides a powerful, personalized treatment option that can be particularly effective for treating blood cancers like leukemia — potentially offering patients a second chance at life when other treatments have failed.
Leonardo DRS Arlington, VA mmount@drs.com
Researchers at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and Brazil’s Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA) will combine forces on one of the main challenges of electric aircraft — controlling the heat spikes they generate at takeoff.
PACCAR provided the executive leadership guiding this year's SAE COMVEC conference held in mid-September in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was fitting, then, that John Rich, senior vice president and chief technology officer at PACCAR, kicked off the event as the featured keynote speaker. His presentation centered around the event's theme: “Shaping the Future Together” by embracing advancement, empowerment and exploration in the commercial vehicle industry. He also answered a range of questions during a sit-down with Phil Stephenson, general manager of PACCAR Technical Center, who served as the COMVEC executive chair. Following are a few of the key insights Rich shared with attendees in the packed venue.
Thor Industries introduced what it claims is the world's first extended-range Class A motorhome. The company claims the Embark by Entegra Coach offers up to 450 miles (725 km) of real-world driving range thanks to an integrated range extender. “Electrification will play a central role in the future of mobility, including RVing,” said Thor Industries president and CEO Bob Martin. “This first-of-its-kind electric Class A motorhome reinforces Thor's innovation leadership and offers unparalleled product differentiation for the Entegra Coach brand.”
When manufacturers seek to leverage specialized expertise, advanced processing capabilities, or proprietary technologies without assuming the financial burden of acquiring and maintaining dedicated equipment or facilities, they often turn to toll processing.
In this Q&A, Audrey Turley, director of lab operations – biosafety at Nelson Laboratories, spoke with Medical Design Briefs about the critical importance of monitoring and managing material changes in medical devices. Even seemingly minor shifts — such as switching suppliers or altering processing steps — can introduce unknown additives or variations that impact biocompatibility and, ultimately, patient safety. Turley discusses how manufacturers can effectively document and justify changes, maintain regulatory compliance, and strengthen supplier relationships to ensure ongoing device safety. She also shares insights into trends shaping post-pandemic supply-chain strategies and the growing emphasis on proactive risk assessment and communication across the product lifecycle.
Automating harvesters started out as a necessary solution to a severe labor shortage in 1990, Trebro Manufacturing states on its website. The Billings, Montana-based manufacturer has been producing turf harvesting machines since 1999, and its automated sod harvesters and entire harvesting process feature self-driving, automated-control functions. The company's tag line, “The Future of Turf Harvesting,” refers to its position of being the first in the industry to offer automated turf harvesting products. Trebro's AutoStack 3 harvester is an automated combine for turf that steers itself while an operator monitors and performs quality control actions when needed. The harvesting process combines several automated control processes.
Stoneridge displayed its vision for the future of commercial vehicle technology on the SAE COMVEC 2025 exhibit floor. The Innovation Truck showcases the Tier 1 supplier's next-generation vision and driver-assistance technologies designed to enhance driver safety and fleet optimization. Mario Gafencu, product design and evaluation specialist at Stoneridge, gave Truck & Off-Highway Engineering a tech truck walkaround at the event. The first technology Gafencu detailed was the second-generation MirrorEye camera monitor system that's designed to replace the glass mirrors on the sides of a truck.
FEV has a solution to downsize and reduce the complexity of off-highway machines via its electrified planetary gearset architecture. IVT Expo 2025 in Chicago featured a summit where industry professionals presented and discussed the nuts and bolts of the technology that powers the off-highway vehicle industry. Electrification continues to be a centerpiece of these discussions, but OEMs and suppliers are beginning to supply answers to many of the questions that this challenge presents. During the expo, several presentations covered the integration of electric powertrains at the component and architecture level. One presented by Thomas Wellman, chief engineer, drivetrain systems, FEV North America, detailed an EPGS (electrified planetary gear-set) off-highway drivetrain architecture that is modular and scalable for a variety of powertrain configurations.
Combining simulation with probabilistic ML enables engineers to chart the full design landscape, quantify uncertainty and uncover viable options that intuition and brute force alone would miss. Components and systems are routinely designed and validated virtually through tools like CFD and FEA before any physical prototype is built. The benefits are obvious: faster iteration, reduced cost and better products. But simulation is not cheap. Each run can take hours, consume costly GPU/CPU resources and require highly skilled engineers who are already in short supply. Licenses and compute costs can easily reach tens of thousands of dollars per seat, and most teams can complete only a few runs per day.
For any supplier in the medical device manufacturing industry, sustainable success requires an ability and a willingness to bring customers’ ideas to reality. There are often innovative, potentially life-saving projects that are delayed or even abandoned due to limitations on the manufacturing end. However, many specifications that seem impossible to meet can be achieved with persistence, collaboration, and dedication to customers’ ideas.
As advanced technologies reshape the medical device landscape, the demands placed on contract manufacturers are evolving. Today’s partners are expected to do more than deliver components — they must anticipate disruptions, adapt quickly, and bring a level of technical and strategic depth that supports faster development without compromising quality.
In today’s medical equipment market, reliability is not a luxury — it is a necessity. Every adjustment, every movement, and every interaction with the equipment must be performed flawlessly to ensure patient safety, caregiver efficiency, and long-term service life. Behind this design and precision are highly engineered motion control components, such as gas springs, electric linear actuators, and dampers, that ensure safe, ergonomic operation of medical equipment across a wide range of healthcare applications.
NASA’s Glenn Research Center has developed a method of using entangled-photon pairs to produce highly secure mobile communications that require mere milliwatts of power. Conventional gas Argon-ion laser sources are too large, expensive, and power-intensive to use in portable applications. By contrast, Glenn’s patented optical quantum communication method produces entangled-photon pairs approximately a million times more efficiently than conventional sources, in a system that is small and light enough to be portable.
Helsing Munich, Germany communications@helsing.ai
Researchers from RMIT University have developed a wearable wound monitoring device with integrated sensors that could reduce infection risks by minimizing the need for frequent physical contact.
NASA has developed a novel approach for macroscale biomaterial production by combining synthetic biology with 3D printing. Cells are biologically engineered to deposit desired materials, such as proteins or metals, derived from locally available resources. The bioengineered cells build different materials in a specified 3D pattern to produce novel microstructures with precise molecular composition, thickness, print pattern, and shape. Scaffolds and reagents can be used for further control over material product. This innovation provides modern design and fabrication techniques for custom-designed organic or organic-inorganic composite biomaterials produced from limited resources.
NASA Johnson Space Center has developed the Micro-Organ Device (MOD) platform technology that serves as a drug screening system with human or animal cell micro-organs to supplement and reduce animal studies while potentially increasing the success of clinical trials. The technology was originally developed to evaluate pharmaceuticals in zero gravity to accelerate development and validation of countermeasures for humans in space as well as evaluate space and planetary stressors on a biological level.
Cornell researchers have developed a low-power microchip they call a “microwave brain,” the first processor to compute on both ultrafast data signals and wireless communication signals by harnessing the physics of microwaves.
Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a technology that can isolate a single direction of tensile strain in biaxially woven material. This is accomplished using traditional digital image correlation (DIC) techniques in combination with custom red-green-blue (RGB) color filtering software. DIC is a software-based method used to measure and characterize surface deformation and strain of an object. This technology was originally developed to enable the extraction of circumferential and longitudinal webbing strain information from material comprising the primary restraint layer that encompasses inflatable space structures.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has added a micro-vibration test instrument, developed by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), to its satellite testing facilities. NPL is the United Kingdom’s National Measurement Institute, developing and maintaining the national primary measurement standards. The instrument measures vibrations generated by satellite subsystems, to quantify their effects on images and measurements made from space. This facility is the result of five years of collaboration between NPL and ESA.
Whether it’s the meeting room of an office building, the exhibition room of a museum or the waiting area of a government office, many people gather in such places, and quickly the air becomes thick. This is partly due to the increased humidity. Ventilation systems are commonly used in office and administrative buildings to dehumidify rooms and ensure a comfortable atmosphere. Mechanical dehumidification works reliably, but it costs energy and — depending on the electricity used — has a negative climate impact.
Researchers have successfully demonstrated the U.K.’s first long-distance ultra-secure transfer of data over a quantum communications network, including the U.K.’s first long-distance quantum-secured video call.
As countries race to expand renewable energy infrastructure, balancing clean electricity production with land use for food remains a pressing challenge — especially in Japan, where mountainous terrain limits space. A recent study led by researchers from the University of Tokyo explores a promising solution: integrating solar panels with traditional rice farming in a practice known as agrivoltaics.
Planetary and lunar rover exploration missions can encounter environments that do not allow for navigation by typical, stereo camera-based systems. Stereo cameras meet difficulties in areas with low ambient light (even when lit by floodlights), direct sunlight, or washed-out environments. Improved sensors are required for safe and successful rover mobility in harsh conditions. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has developed a Space Qualified Rover LiDAR (SQRLi) system that will improve rover sensing capabilities in a small, lightweight package. The new SQRLi package is developed to survive the hazardous space environment and provide valuable image data during planetary and lunar rover exploration.
The global electronics supply chain has always run in cycles — tight supply followed by sudden gluts — but in recent years, the pace and scale of disruption have accelerated. From semiconductor shortages to shifting trade policies and pandemic-driven bottlenecks, OEMs across every sector have been forced to rethink how they source and secure critical components.
Elbit Systems Haifa, Isreal
Waiting for a wound to heal is incredibly frustrating. First, it must clot; then an immune system response is needed; followed by scabbing and scarring — and that’s not even getting into the pain part.
When Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (HPE) sent an unmodified high-performance computer to the International Space Station in 2017, no computer expert thought it would last a week. Over a year and a half later, Spaceborne Computer-1 returned home, having operated successfully for its entire mission.
Bruno Boutantin, Extrude Hone
Soft robots, medical devices and implants, and next-generation drug delivery methods could soon be guided with magnetism — thanks to a metal-free magnetic gel developed by researchers at the University of Michigan and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany.
A noninvasive imaging system combines two advanced techniques to examine both the structure and chemical composition of skin cancers. This approach could improve how doctors diagnose and classify skin cancer and how they monitor treatment responses.
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