TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
Technology Advances Shape the Nature of Systems
Technology advances enable new systems solutions while systems needs stimulate technology advancements.
Technology advancements and systems solutions are highly interdependent. Systems designs are predominantly based upon available technologies, but as technologies advance, new design solutions become possible, leading to increased value for the stakeholder. Engineers must continually assess technologies for potential application to designs that satisfy stakeholder needs. Technology developers are challenged to make their efforts relevant and address evolving systems needs and expectations. Application and demonstration of new technologies in systems can, in turn, validate the utility of technology advancements.
Advances in Materials & Manufacturing
Additive manufacturing of components will create game-changers for low-volume, highly customized applications, such as for mechanical assembly or specialized food production, and even permit the manufacturing of components not achievable with conventional methods.
Advanced Modeling & Simulation
Advanced artificial intelligence will provide the foundation for modeling early system concepts. The information representing system analysis and design solutions will be integrated into a digital twin for detail design, validation and manufacturing. Developing and testing of products will be accelerated, with lower cost and better quality.
Autonomy & Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Applications such as the operation of automobiles, trucks, buses, trains, ships, aircraft and satellites will heavily rely on autonomy. Cyber secure, safe and energy efficient integration of new technologies will create new capabilities for automated harbors and airports with highly developed robotic and remotely controlled servicing capabilities. AI with deep learning technologies, coupled with new computing capabilities such as quantum processors and “big data“ analytics, will enable complex system solutions which cannot readily be tackled today, for example, the governance of large-scale integrated mobility. AI will usher in new challenges for safety and for cyber-security as proprietary models and underlying data will be prevalent. Blockchain technology promises to provide the basis for secure, automated smart contracts and certification of digital product ownership.
Big Data & Analytics
The Internet of Things, enterprise digital transformations, supply-chain integration, geo-tagging, edge devices, mobile communication platforms, social media and environmental monitoring are some of the major contributors to this growth. Traditional software tools, such as relational data bases are not able to cope with the volume and diversity of these data. Successful enterprises will increasingly use these large data sets for decision making, as applied to system optimization, advertising, product ideation and enhancement, fraud mitigation, price optimization, climate modeling and many others. In order to gain insight from the data, analytical techniques are being employed that use semantic analysis, statistical analysis, bio-inspired algorithms, pattern analysis, text analysis, machine learning and natural language processing. Analysis algorithms, search mechanisms and specialized hardware processors will advance substantially over the next decade. Enterprise approaches to knowledge management will enhance organizational learning and will be a foundation for enterprise digital transformations.
Bio/Life Science & Nano Technologieson
In medicine, complex remotely controlled robotic nanobots, will diagnose or remove tissue anomalies and deliver medication with high precision to specific cells, instead of it being spread across large parts of the human body. Brain-computer interface technologies and human-machine fusion will advance prosthetics, not just for limbs, but for human senses, such as neuro-prosthetics that augment or restore vision. These technologies along with neuro-morphic computing which mimics the nervous system will revolutionize the human-computer interface with cognitive control of physical systems. In other domains, biobased technologies could replace non-renewable materials such as rare minerals, enabling different and quasi-infinitely reproducible machinery, building structures or mobility products. Biology based sensors emulating nature will refine human and machine operations providing valuable system health information.
Neuro-morphic technologies: THE MERGING OF HUMAN AND MACHINE.
TWO FRONTIERS OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES, CHUCK BROOKS, FORBES MAGAZINE, AUGUST 2020
Communications Technologies
Merging terrestrial and space-based solutions into omnipresent integrated networks will provide affordable human and machine interactions anytime and anywhere. These technologies will satisfy the growing needs for the “Internet of Things,” remote control of complex infrastructures (such as energy networks), remote maintenance of machinery, and telemedicine and tele-robotics.
Edge Computing
This computing architecture shift will take advantage of the growing general-purpose as well as highly specialized computational capabilities, in devices of all kinds, to bring computation closer to the sources generating the data. However, with this architecture comes centralized control of the software running in the edge devices, opening up the ability for enterprises to collect information on personal behaviors. It is estimated that by 2025, 75% of data will be processed outside the traditional data center or cloud(1) , and that by the year 2035, there will be a trillion edge devices(2).
Geospatial Technologies
These geocoding-based technologies have evolved from computerized mapping, geographic information systems and satellite imagery to widespread location tracking of individuals or machines as well as positional information with extreme precision. The technologies are being infused into a myriad of location-aware applications, based primarily on GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo, Sentinel, NavIC, and commercial satellites. But tracking the movement of individuals and personal property raises ethical, privacy and trust issues which are just beginning to be addressed by mobile and social media platform providers.
Power Generation, Storage, & Conversion
The trend toward increased use of renewable solar and wind sources will accelerate. Nuclear fusion is likely to become viable at small scales by 2035 and hydrogen-fuel derived energy for direct use as well as energy storage will become more commonplace. Crucial advances in batteries and other chemical, mechanical, and biological storage devices, along with sophisticated energy management approaches, will support the load-leveling necessary for integrating the energy sources, transforming society and industry away from fossil fuels. A distributed network of data, electrical, bio-, chemical and mechanical sensors will enable improved transparency and control of energy grids.
Quantum Information Science
Although quantum technologies have been with us for decades, the next generation of quantum devices will harness the power of superposition and entanglement to achieve significantly increased computational performance. In the case of quantum computing, the giant leap forward in speed can be applied to problems such as natural language processing, secure encryption and global climate modeling. But the processing applicable for improving security can also be used to crack existing encryption algorithms. Certification of post-quantum cryptography systems could well be a reality by 2035. A key challenge for the next generation of quantum technologies will be to scale experimental devices for mass production and non-laboratory environments.