Research Articles

Robotaxis are nothing more than repurposed autonomous cars used for ride-hailing. Robot shuttles are the opposite - a totally new form of transport.

Starved of lithium-ion batteries and pumped storage sites, the stationary energy storage business is urgently looking for alternatives. See them in the new IDTechEx report, "Stationary Energy Storage Without Batteries: Grid, Microgrid, UPS, Trackside 2021-2041".

6G Communications needs graphene - making, manipulating and using the beams all potentially benefit from graphene.

The replacement of aircraft makers will be brutal - no not Airbus and Boeing, the other big names, starting with those making light aircraft, then those making regional aircraft. Stuck in the past, these cannot make what is now needed.

In Switzerland monster trucks carry ore down from mountainside quarries, the regenerative braking creating almost enough energy to get the empty truck back up again. The latest forestry example is carrying trees down from the mountains of Canada.

It is easy to make 1000-mile battery-electric vehicles, and the effect on market uptake will be profound.

While technologies are emerging for cities to be independent in food, water and energy, safe and pleasant, progress is mostly poor and global warming threatens migrants overwhelming cities. By all means, let us see the smart city advances take place that are in the IDTechEx report, "Smart Cities Market 2021-2041: Energy, Food, Water, Materials, Transportation Forecasts", but it would be prudent to try to reverse the move to cities that the UN and others see resulting in 70-80% of us in them by 2050.

Photovoltaics is now a key enabling technology for land vehicles and boats. The favorite type is single crystal silicon - it used to be protected by an acrylic sheet on either side, making it bendable when being fitted, but that has strength and weathering issues. Now, much stronger, long-life polycarbonate is taking over.

The IDTechEx report, "Robot Shuttles and Autonomous Buses 2020-2040," predicted second-generation robot shuttles, and here they come - vectored traction and steering, smart windows, robotic fast charging, and solar bodywork, so 10-40% less charging is needed.

6G Communications will become one of the largest technology investments. It is currently in the healthy first stage of promising everything to widely deploy some in 2030. Even at this early stage, some myths are emerging.

6G Communications is coming to your smartphone around 2030, according to Samsung and others, but it can only succeed if it deploys smart surfaces everywhere. Essential to this is printed electronics.

In February 2021, The US agency DARPA awarded contracts to Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation and Martin Defense Group (formerly Navatek) to build demonstration versions of the new Manta Ray unmanned underwater vehicle with an energy-harvesting system to power it indefinitely, allowing the robot submarine to carry out missions lasting months or years without returning to base or refueling.