The large scale application of hydrogen fuel cells can ultimately replace combustion type power generation, reduce greenhouse gasses, and provide South Africa with sustainable supply of energy. The first step of this vision was taken when... (more)

Big data is for many people a buzzword, just like "in the cloud" was not so long ago. Dr. Quentin Williams, strategic research manager at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research's Meraka Institute believes big data is an important research and development area... (more)

It is believed that the automation cells and production lines of the future will see symmetry in interaction between robots and humans. The Ping-Pong robot has shown the first fruits of efforts to meet this collaborative challenge... (more)

The adoption of general purpose robotic arms that are flexible and programmable was a significant step in reducing the complexity and cost, as compared to custom fixture based manufacturing lines. However, traditionally these industrial robots have... (more)

Before the introduction of the electronic load cell, mechanical lever scales were widely used in many industrial and commercial applications. The accuracy of these mechanical scales depends on the scale calibration and maintenance... (more)

Object detection, distance measurement, 2-D-surface monitoring and cable-free real-time data transfer - intralogistics has successfully established itself as a driver of innovation in automated material flow and storage systems... (more)

Process analysis technology is an essential prerequisite for the management and control of processes which is optimal both technically and economically. Optical spectroscopy is a well-established method for quantifying compositions... (more)

Chokeless CAN transceivers allow system designers to reduce size, cost, and complexity of CAN bus implementations while meeting stringent automotive EMC requirements. With the density of electronics in automobiles increasing each year... (more)

Let's do a comparison of electromagnetic interference (EMI) design and signal integrity. EMI focuses on the associated specifications and testing requirements and interference between neighbouring equipment. Signal integrity addresses the degradation of signal quality... (more)

Before TCP/IP and Ethernet became the standard technologies used worldwide for communications, other technologies such as serial communication were used. These technologies were very simple and straightforward to setup, and although a few... (more)