Magazine Articles - SAE Mobilus
KPIT experts address challenges of maintaining legacy architectures while introducing centralized compute, OTA, new energy platforms and AI layers - driving integration complexity and validation effort. KPIT Technologies is providing the executive leadership for this year's SAE COMVEC, a forum for global leaders in trucking, construction equipment, agricultural machinery and defense vehicles to address the technologies, regulations and innovations impacting transportation today and in the coming years. The theme for COMVEC 2026 (www.sae.org/events/comvec), which takes place in Schaumburg, Illinois, from September 29 to October 1, is “Resolving Current Challenges While Reimagining the Future.” “For commercial and off-highway, this theme captures a structural contradiction the industry lives with every day: transform the entire product architecture while continuing to deliver near-zero downtime, tight margins and proven reliability,” Satish Kumar, senior VP at KPIT, said in a pre-event interview with Truck & Off-Highway Engineering.
Engineers designing pivot points for outdoor and heavy-duty equipment have long accepted the familiar routine: grease it, run it, regrease it and repeat. This approach may work well enough. But as equipment pushes into harsher environments and tighter service windows, “well enough” is no longer the standard. Maintenance-free pivots - pivots that run dry, resist corrosion and hold their tolerances through seasons of hard use - offer an increasingly compelling alternative. Designing one requires rethinking what a pivot point actually is, with most engineers focusing only on the bearing itself. While this instinct is understandable, it's also incomplete. A pivot consists of a bearing, shaft and housing working together, requiring a systems-level approach. Optimize only one element and you may still end up with a failure.
State and federal legislation has helped double the consumption of renewable and biodiesel in North America over the past half decade. But is policy alone enough to make them ready for prime time? As crude oil prices continue to fluctuate globally, creating budgeting and logistical headaches for fleets of all sizes, renewable diesel (RD) fuels have quietly gained ground in North America. According to Chevron, total biomass consumption of renewable fuels in the U.S. has grown exponentially over the past five years, from 2.7 million gallons in 2020 to 5.1 million gallons in 2024. While that represents a fragment of annual diesel consumption in the U.S., the environmental benefits and viability of renewable fuels are growing greater everyday thanks to legislative support and technological investment from various fuel producers.
It's near that time of year again when early-career and well-established engineers alike gather in Schaumburg, Illinois, for the annual SAE COMVEC conference (www.sae.org/events/comvec). From September 29 to October 1, attendees will listen to experts on a range of topics - from “Right Sizing Hybrid Powertrains” to “AI for Efficient Engineering Development” - walk the exhibit floor to witness the latest technologies and of course converse with one another over coffee or other beverages. KPIT Technologies is providing the executive leadership for this year's COMVEC and has a significant presence on the agenda, including the opening keynote by Omkar Panse, KPIT's chief technology officer (CTO). Panse and Satish Kumar, senior VP at KPIT, offered their insights on the engineering challenges and opportunities that next-generation commercial vehicles present in this issue's feature story on page 16.
At the ACT Expo in Las Vegas, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said that the coming R2 pickup would help pay for the company's massive R&D budget. He said that budget was the result of a conscious decision to design and build the majority of items for its trucks and SUVs in-house. Scaringe joined Erik Neandross, president of TRC's Clean Transportation Solutions Group, for a fireside chat reflecting on Rivian's journey and its future.
The trucking industry is dealing with a lot of uncertainty, and higher fuel and equipment costs are making it harder for companies to plan and buy new trucks. What can OEMs and fleet operators do to mitigate these challenges? Hybrid systems may be the answer. With internal combustion and electric power, hybrid systems reduce fuel consumption, improve transient performance, enable low-speed electric operation and create more flexible power management. Vehicles and equipment that could benefit from new or retrofit hybrid systems include refuse trucks, dump trucks, long-haul trucks, port equipment, excavators, terminal tractors and commercial delivery vehicles.
Mehdi Ferhan said optimizing existing technology was a challenge but ultimately the right solution for Volvo to satisfy new NOx regulations. And he says he has never been bored a single day in his career as an engineer. SAE Media senior editor Chris Clonts had an exclusive opportunity at ACT 2026 to sit down with Volvo Group's senior vice president of powertrain technology, Mehdi Ferhan. The talk of the day was EPA 2027 and its new NOx emission standard. Other topics in the free-ranging conversation included BEVs, hydrogen and current opportunities for engineers. The following was edited for length and clarity.
Wirtgen Group hosted select media at its training and technology center near Nashville to demonstrate the full road-building workflow - from milling and paving to compaction - and how connected machines, automation and real-time data are helping crews to work more efficiently. As part of John Deere's construction equipment portfolio, Wirtgen Group's specialized machinery combines with Deere's TechStack and digital fleet management technology to improve productivity, efficiency, safety and pavement quality. Wirtgen (rehabilitation), Vögele (paving) and Hamm (compaction) machines were in action for the roadbuilding demo. Other Group brands not demoed include Kleeman for crushers and screening plants for processing, and Benninghoven, which is not part of the portfolio in the U.S., for mixing and recycling plants.
In the conversation surrounding electrification, the vehicle itself typically dominates the headlines. But those operating on remote jobsites in the mining, construction and agriculture sectors know the machine is only half the equation. These industries prioritize reliability and uptime and require machines that can handle grueling shifts in demanding environments without compromise. Power providers in these heavy-duty, off-highway markets must move beyond the battery itself to explore a holistic approach to infrastructure when it comes to powering remote jobsites. The first step to success is understanding the fundamental differences between off-highway duty cycles and on-highway applications. While on-highway applications like long-hauling trucks benefit from steady-state operation and passive airflow for cooling, off-highway machines often operate at high torque for extended periods, with little to no forward movement. In these scenarios, there is no passive cooling to rely on or regular refueling stations at the next exit. Success, therefore, is defined by the engineering required to ensure that electric machines deliver the same productivity as diesel, even when operated at their limits in the most rugged, remote conditions.
Industrial powertrain suppliers are being asked to provide more solutions for a greater array of clients than ever before. Thanks to shifting regulations, new technological developments and customer demand for greater efficiency and power at lower cost, companies like FPT Industrial have a herculean task to engineer the next generation of ICE and electrified powertrains. Truck & Off-Highway Engineering interviewed Daniele Pozzo, head of marketing and product portfolio for FPT Industrial at CONEXPO 2026. Pozzo discussed FPT's current powertrain development strategy, what trends the company is seeing in the markets of both on- and off-highway clients and what solutions customers are demanding for the various industries FPT serves.
Breaking down the critical differences in fastener selection for EV platforms. Specifying fasteners for an electric vehicle is a fundamentally different exercise compared to an ICE vehicle. For ICE vehicles, the main challenges - heat, vibration, and torque repeatability - are well understood, and the industry has decades of established solutions to draw from. EVs introduce four additional constraints that change the equation entirely: high-voltage (isolation, low magnetic permeability, thermal-cycling resilience and gram-level weight targets. A mis-specified bolt at the battery, busbar, or inverter level can reduce efficiency, compromise safety or void certification. To get it right, there is a need to understand each constraint and the materials that can address it.
Led by Dr. Marina Freitag, a research group from the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences created dye-sensitized photovoltaic cells based on a copper (II/I) electrolyte, achieving an unprecedented power conversion efficiency of 38 percent and 1.0V open-circuit voltage at 1,000 lux (fluorescent lamp). The cells are non-toxic and environmentally friendly — setting a new standard for sustainable energy sources in ambient environments.
What if there were a fabric that, like Superman, could take a bullet and self-heal? Such a super-dynamic, action-powered polymer might actually help protect real-life flyers in space.
A team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) in Stuttgart developed a biohybrid micro swimmer covered with magnetic material, whose swimming ability is largely unaffected by the coating. The team from the Physical Intelligence Department at MPI-IS published their work in the journal Matter, which covers a wide range of materials science research.
In the race to combat climate change, scientists are developing technologies to turn carbon dioxide (CO2) into valuable fuels and chemicals. These innovations help curb greenhouse gases while providing a low-carbon fuel to power our future. As the U.S. shifts to a low-carbon economy, we need environmentally friendly fuels to power vehicles that are hard to electrify, like planes, ships and trains. Scientists are developing the technology to convert CO2 to fuel. However, this conversion requires a lot of energy and water.
Engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have recently shown that nearly any material can be turned into a device that continuously harvests electricity from humidity in the air, work that was published in the journal Advanced Materials. The secret is being able to pepper the material with nanopores less than 100 nanometers in diameter.
Computer vision, automated landing and embedded AI for tomorrow's cockpits. Airbus, Toulouse, France At the VivaTech forum in June, Airbus showcased a demonstration highlighting the use of computer vision to enhance automated landing procedures and operational efficiency. The “Vision Landing Application” utilizes artificial intelligence to analyze runway features in real-time using onboard cameras. The goal of this research is to create an additional and independent positioning source to guide pilots and/or their aircraft reliably, opening up the perspective of bringing autoland (fully automated landing procedure) capabilities to airports that lack advanced ground infrastructure. While the technology is still in the research phase and far from commercial certification, this technical exploration aligns directly with Airbus' global roadmap for Smart Automation. Airbus already has a head start, since it has already conducted numerous research projects during the last decade, which have led to the demonstrator at Airbus' stand at this year's show.
For decades, hydraulic systems have been relied upon to do all the heavy lifting in aerospace. They are powerful, reliable, and deeply embedded in how aircraft are designed, to the extent that - for many engineers - they are simply part of the landscape. Now, however, things are beginning to change. From advanced air mobility platforms now entering certification to next-generation commercial aircraft on 10-year horizons, electric and electro-hydraulic actuation is steadily replacing the heavy, centralized hydraulic architectures that have defined flight control for decades. Understanding why means stepping back from the actuator itself and looking at the aircraft as a whole system - and, increasingly, as an integrated motion control challenge.
New technologies, advanced materials, evolving mission profiles and fast-changing requirements are forcing the aerospace and defense (A&D) industry to dramatically increase the speed of engineering. Companies must design, validate and bring more complex products to market faster than ever, even as software, electronics and autonomy continue to reshape what aircraft, spacecraft and defense systems can do. At the same time, a growing production challenge is emerging. Workforce shortages, supply chain disruption and pressure to reduce cost and cycle time are converging with new demands for greater volume and flexibility. Defense programs are seeing increasing need for larger quantities of lower-cost systems such as drones, while commercial aerospace companies continue to work through backlogs and reinforce their fleets. To keep pace, the industry must accelerate innovation while also scaling production with greater speed, resilience and adaptability.
In military and aerospace systems, thin film patterned substrates literally serve as the foundation of some of the most critical electronic assemblies, including radio frequency (RF), microwave, millimeter wave, and high-speed digital circuits. These substrates are typically made by depositing extremely thin layers of conductive and dielectric materials on bases built from materials like alumina, aluminum nitride, quartz, or certain high-performance titanates with various dielectric constants up to a k of 4,000.
A machine-learning strategy has generated a new class of ultra-high strength and ductility steel for 3D printing that costs less, resists rust, and requires only a fraction of the usual processing time.
Penn Engineers have developed a novel design for solar-powered data centers that will orbit the Earth and could realistically scale to meet the growing demand for AI computing while reducing the environmental impact of data centers.
A research team led by Professor Lin Gui at the Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, reports the first fabrication of multi-layer flexible batteries using a combination of liquid metal microfluidic perfusion and plasma-based reversible bonding techniques.
Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center, in collaboration with innovators at American Oxygen, have developed a solid-state system and process that separates oxygen from ambient air and compresses the resulting purified oxygen — with a significant reduction in power consumption compared to prior state-of-the-art. It is based upon a proven solid oxide electrochemical oxygen separation and compression technique that derives purified oxygen from ambient air and compresses it using an electrochemical pumping method.
3D printing could change how we build parts for jet engines and power plants, but the process leaves microscopic holes that cause the materials to shatter. Published in International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing, Professor Fangyong Niu’s team in Dalian University of Technology have fixed the problem by doing something unconventional: They added a microwave.
Every kid who has read a comic book or watched a Spider-Man movie has tried to imagine what it would be like to shoot a web from their wrist, fly over streets, and pin down villains. Researchers at Tufts University took those imaginary scenes seriously and created the first web-slinging technology in which a fluid material can shoot from a needle, immediately solidify as a string, and adhere to and lift objects.
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center has developed a new small-scale metal extrusion tool, called a conventional friction stir extrusion (C-FSE) machine that may be attached or added-on to a conventional friction stir welding (C-FSW) system. The C-FSE machine uses the heat generation and plastic deformation processes underpinning C-FSW to perform metal extrusion instead of metal joining.
Engineers have found a way to eliminate the fluid flow “dead zones” that plague the types of electrodes used for battery-based seawater desalination. The new technique uses a physics-based tapered flow channel design within electrodes that moves fluids quickly and efficiently, potentially requiring less energy than reverse osmosis techniques currently require.
As recently as 2022, the production of construction materials accounted for . A good chunk of that can be solved by really thinking consciously about how we build a built environment, according to MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. student Zane Schemmer.
NASA Washington D.C.
Modern electric vehicles can go hundreds of miles without a recharge, but that long range can diminish faster if battery health isn’t properly tracked and managed. And to do that, you need some smart software — and some smarts from working with NASA.
Medical device manufacturing is undergoing a structural shift. As devices become smaller with broader functionality, traditional approaches to assembling electronics are no longer sufficient. Increasingly, performance, durability, and reliability are dictated not just by design, but by how that design is manufactured.
Physical AI refers to applications in which AI technologies are connected to hardware that sense and execute actions in the physical world, allowing systems to autonomously act and adapt in real time. It spans automotive, robotics, industrial automation, smart infrastructure, aerospace, healthcare devices, software-defined machines, and more. Regardless of application, they have one thing in common: they must operate safely, reliably, and predictably in real world environments. Unlike purely digital AI, these systems are constrained by embedded electronics, timing, power, safety, and system-level interactions that are difficult to validate early.
Labor shortages and supply chain volatility are putting additional pressure on warehouse operations to be faster and more adaptable. “In this environment, real-time visibility becomes foundational. Physical AI enables warehouses to operate with a continuously updated understanding of their environment, allowing them to respond quickly to disruptions and optimize performance,” Joseph Mirabile, Vice President of Operations at Gather AI, a Pittsburgh-based startup developing drone-powered inventory solutions.
Humanoid robots have long been the focus of science fiction, but today they are making their way into industrial environments thanks to the simultaneous maturing and convergence of multiple systems. Technology advances have driven the development of humanoid robots that have a wide range of movement and can perform demanding jobs around the clock without tiring. While currently representing a small share of all industrial robot deployments, the humanoid robot market is projected to grow rapidly over the next few years. In fact, estimates suggest the market could reach over $4 billion by 2030. This growth is being driven by factors such as labor shortages, falling costs, and the need for more flexible automation.
Spinoff is NASA’s annual publication featuring successfully commercialized NASA technology. This commercialization has contributed to the development of products and services in the fields of health and medicine, consumer goods, transportation, public safety, computer technology, and environmental resources.
Robotic manipulation remains one of the harder unsolved problems in automation engineering. Vision-based systems have matured considerably — object localization, pose estimation, and grasp planning from RGB-D data are now reliable enough for structured industrial environments. What vision cannot provide is contact information: whether a grasp is stable, whether a surface is beginning to slip, or how force is distributed across a fingertip during a hold. These signals are what close the control loop during manipulation, and without them, systems compensate through excessive grip force, conservative motion profiles, and large training datasets designed to paper over sensing uncertainty.
Humanoid robots are moving beyond hype-driven prototypes toward early commercial deployment, with automotive manufacturing emerging as the first scalable adoption market, according to IDTechX’s recent report Humanoid Robots 2026-2036: Technologies, Markets, and Opportunities.
Pharmaceutical and life sciences manufacturers are under growing pressure to compress development timelines, from discovery to commercialization, as demographic, technological and geopolitical trends increase the pace of innovation and disruption. In the face of these challenges, many pharmaceutical manufacturers are finding their traditional processes, which are often built on fragmented data and highly manual workflows, are insufficient.
Traditional industrial robotics has been built on traditional premises: define the task precisely, program the motion, and repeat it with minimal variation. This model has delivered reliability, speed, and scale across multiple application domains.
Automation has been a key part of manufacturing for over a century now, from the simple assembly lines of the past to the advanced, autonomous robotics of today. As the stresses placed on manufacturing systems continue to increase, however, the abilities of automated systems must increase as well. To meet the manufacturing demands of the 21st century, factory robotics must move beyond inflexible, hard-coded orders and gain the ability to quickly adapt to changing conditions — whether they be sudden business demands or new production requirements. This level of flexibility requires artificial intelligence (AI) certainly, but not just any AI; rather AI that can understand and interact with the real world. In other words, physical AI.
How to ensure off-highway combustion systems operate with sufficient control to meet tightening emissions standards and evolving fuel landscapes without sacrificing reliability. Off-highway equipment is being asked to do more with less. Less margin for emissions, less tolerance for downtime and less room for inefficiency, while operating under some of the most demanding duty cycles in the transport sector. Tier 4 and Tier 5 emissions standards have reshaped engine calibration strategies. Renewable diesel and biodiesel blends are entering worksites and farms at scale. At the same time, construction, mining and agricultural machines are expected to run for 20-25 years, often at sustained high load and far from service infrastructure. In this environment, combustion systems are far from being phased out.
Volvo Trucks' revised VNR brings updated safety tech, improved fuel economy and driver comfort features to the regional haul segment. Volvo Trucks has continued its rollout of new models for every sector of the commercial truck market. The redesigned VNR is the latest model to see the spotlight. The new VNR naturally carries all of Volvo's latest safety tech, but also prioritizes maneuverability, fuel efficiency and configurability for a wide variety of fleet uses. “The VNR is an incredibly versatile truck,” said Maddie Sullivan, product marketing manager. “There are so many different configurations to meet our customer's needs. We offer four different cab sizes, three different axle configurations and two different chassis configurations.”
OEMs, integrators and suppliers must continuously process, assess and identify platform vulnerabilities to prioritize and implement updates that protect systems from cyberattacks and data breaches. Security researchers have demonstrated that the control systems in vehicles and machines are open to attack. In 2010, researchers from the University of Washington and the University of California, San Diego demonstrated that by gaining physical access to a vehicle, they could manipulate critical systems like brakes and engines. Just a few years later, security researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek remotely compromised a vehicle over the internet, controlling steering, braking and acceleration, leading to a 1.4 million vehicle recall. In 2024, researchers at Colorado State University successfully demonstrated a wireless drive-by hack by exploiting vulnerabilities in common electronic logging devices (ELDs). In their proof-of-concept test, they achieved remote control over a truck by reflashing the ELD with malicious firmware, which allowed them to slow down a moving truck and show a design for a truck-to-truck worm virus that could theoretically spread through a fleet.
In the two months since Microvision bought Luminar and acquired key tech and talent, the sensor company has been busy. In that time, they've merged key lidar units from each company and created a perception software stack to run it in a convincing demo of its ADAS and autonomous capabilities. The company is also pushing innovative lidar tech into the defense drone and antidrone markets, already working with a German defense supplier that works with NATO member countries.
Precision agriculture, also known as smart farming, was once reserved for early adopters or large-scale operations, but is now an expectation within the farming industry. Across various regions and farm sizes, smart farming techniques are changing the way crops are planted as well as how they are monitored and harvested. However, farmers today are under increasing pressure to reduce labor, decrease chemical inputs, conserve water and operate in tighter windows. Couple this with factors such as narrow seasonal windows, productivity demands and safety considerations, and the need for smarter decisions becomes imperative. Going one step further, global food demands and environmental pressures are further increasing demand for precise, accurate and intelligent farming solutions.
Kenworth's new C580 vocational truck made its debut at CONEXPO 2026. The C580 is the replacement for the long-serving C500 and aims to build on that truck's legacy thanks to new tech, more muscle and improved interior amenities. According to Kenworth, the C580 rides on the C500 platform, but has been endowed with Kenworth's latest cab, which brings modern comfort and technology features. Truck & Off-Highway Engineering was in attendance for Kenworth's introductory press conference for the C580 in Las Vegas.
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