Road transport is one of the most important factors for the national economy due to its universality and comprehensive possibilities of transporting people and goods. Unfortunately, from the energy point of view, it is also the most cost-intensive and has a negative influence on the natural environment. For these reasons, issues related to limiting the use of conventional fuels are very important, which results in reducing emissions from this sector, as well as reducing transport costs. This article presents currently used energy sources for propulsion of road vehicles, including fossil and alternative fuels, gaseous fuels and other energy sources such as fuel cells. The following section presents technologies that allow to recover some of the energy lost in motor vehicles and internal combustion engines used for their propulsion. The principle of operation of these solutions, their structure and their main features are presented. The last part focuses on discussing and identifying the most universal technologies for energy harvesting in vehicles and showing further directions of energy development in the automotive sector.

The leading thought of the present text is that the internal combustion engine noise - regardless of all possible inconveniences - is a good information carrier that allows for the explicit diagnostics of such subtle defect as the valve face decrement which is so small that it is in practice ‘unnoticeable’ by the standard diagnostic-controlling system of a passenger car. However, such defect at its further propagation can be much more dangerous. Thus, diagnosing its initial state is worth trying. This study is a continuation of investigations where efforts were undertaken to perform the efficient diagnostics on the bases of observations and analyses of mechanical vibrations of the engine head.

The start-up is a transient state of operation of an internal combustion engine during which many negative phenomena occur that affect the technical condition of the engine, its electrical equipment and the natural environment. The start-up process of an internal combustion engine is influenced...

The idea of the application for the preclinical diagnosis of breathing disorders during sleeping, on the basis of acoustic signal recording, is presented in the hereby paper. Research on the algorithm allowing to draw conclusions concerning breathing disorders was preceded by the experiment, of recording acoustic signals of the representative group of patients during their pharmacological sleep. Combining sound signals properties with knowledge of the experienced medical practitioner, supported by the results of the advanced medical diagnosis, should made possible the development of the tool for assessing breathing disorders (especially sleep apneas) on the basis of sound signals of patients having breathing disorders. This paper is focused on problems related to the main activities leading to the development of the efficient algorithm of assessing patient’s condition: experimental recording and methods of acoustic signals analysis. Further research stages will contain the implementation of the obtained results for the needs of the mobile application development.