We (well, in this case that is ISIS/University of Bremen as well as colleagues from the Universities of Paderborn and Hannover) believe that engineering systems will be endowed with increasing levels of intelligence, facilitating autonomous action in fields ranging e.g. from sensor networks in general to structural monitoring and control, robotics, production, etc. logistics - furthermore, we believe that a) this topic is highly interdisciplinary (from computer science, materials and MEMS to the applications named) and b) it deserves being discussed across the borders of technology areas and application fields.
We'd value your comments on this, and we'd appreciate seeing you at the SysInt 2014 Conference dedicated to this field and held in Bremen, Germany, from July 2nd-4th, 2014. Call for Papers is open until November 2014, publication in Procedia Technology (planned) and in a special issue of "Mechatronics" (confirmed). For details, see www.sysint-conference.org.
Special topic from my side will be Sensorial Materials as described in the attachment, and described there basically as a descriptive term for material-integrated intelligent systems.
Conference Paper An Introduction to Sensorial Materials
To answer your question: yes we can profit from interdisciplinary research and development. I'd even go beyond the field of engineering.
For example: is there something to be learned from biology and medicine that could be applied to structural health monitoring? How do the social-sciences model and analyze emergent behaviour? Could we use these models to describe emergent behaviour in complex technical systems?
The conference you're planning is going to be an interesting one.
Some of the topics you're mentioning might be interesting for the members of the "Gesellschaft für Systems-Engineering" (GfSE: http://www.gfse.de; the German chapter of INCOSE). Have you been in contact with them?
Best regards,
Marc
This is indeed very interesting question. Presently only few physical principles are available in microsensors: electrical conductivity, electromagnetic response, optical phenomena and mechanical response/resonance. At the same time, in our present world we see the increasing demand for sensing of many many physical, chemical and in some cases even social parameters. Sensing fusion and smart materials approach can be the way to cover these needs. You are organizing a very interesting event. Thanks for sharing.
Dear Marc,
indeed you are right, the topic is even broader than I implied - actually this is why for the conference we try to focus it by suggesting some embedded symposia dedicated to application scenarios such as structural health monitoring. With respect to the GFSE, no, so far I haven't been directly in touch with them, though colleagues from system engineering here in Bremen are involved in ISIS, which is again behind the conference. Thanks a lot for your hint, I'll see whether I can contact them and maybe even get them involved.
Best regards,
Dirk Lehmhus
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