The advent of three-dimensional (3D) printing has found a unique and prominent role in Industry 4.0 and is rapidly gaining popularity in the manufacturing industry. 3D printing offers many advantages over conventional manufacturing methods, making it an attractive alternative that is more cost-effective and efficient than conventional manufacturing methods. With the Internet of Things (IoT) at the heart of this new movement, control over manufacturing methods now enters the cyber domain, offering endless possibilities in manufacturing automation and optimization. However, as disruptive and innovative as this may seem, there is grave concern about the cyber-security risks involved. These security aspects are often overlooked, particularly by promising new start-ups and parties that are not too familiar with the risks involved in not having proper cyber-security measures in place. This paper explores some of the cyber-security risks involved in the bridge between industrial manufacturing and Industry 4.0, as well as the associated countermeasures already deployed or currently under development. These aspects are then contextualized in terms of Industry 4.0 in order to serve as a basis for and assist with future development in this field.

The increasing popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) has been attributed to their low-carbon and environmentally friendly attributes. Extensive research has been undertaken in view of the depletion of fossil fuels, changes in climatic conditions due to air pollution, and the goal of developing EVs capable of matching or exceeding the performance of today’s internal combustion engines (ICEs). The transition from ICE vehicles to EVs can reduce greenhouse gases significantly over a vehicle’s lifetime. Across the different types of EVs, the widespread usage of batteries is due to their high power density and steady output voltage, making them an excellent energy storage device (ESD). The current downsides of battery-powered electric vehicles include long recharge times, the impact of additional strain on the grid, poor societal acceptance due to high initial costs, and a lack of adequate charging infrastructure. Even more problematic is their short driving range when compared to standard ICE and fuel cell EVs. Battery degradation occurs when the capacity of a battery degrades, resulting in a reduction in travel range. This review article includes a description of battery degradation, degradation mechanisms, and types of degradation. A detailed investigation of the methods used to address and reduce battery degeneration is presented. Finally, some future orientation in terms of EV research is offered as vital guidance for academic and industrial partners.

Over the last decade, manufacturing processes have undergone significant change. Most factory activities have been transformed through a set of features built into a smart manufacturing framework. The tools brought to bear by the fourth industrial revolution are critical enablers of such change and progress. This review article describes the series of industrial revolutions and explores traditional manufacturing before presenting various enabling technologies. Insights are offered regarding traditional manufacturing lines where some enabling technologies have been included. The manufacturing supply chain is envisaged as enhancing the enabling technologies of Industry 4.0 through their integration. A systematic literature review is undertaken to evaluate each enabling technology and the manufacturing supply chain and to provide some theoretical synthesis. Similarly, obstacles are listed that must be overcome before a complete shift to smart manufacturing is possible. A brief discussion maps out how the fourth industrial revolution has led to novel manufacturing technologies. Likewise, a review of the fifth industrial revolution is given, and the justification for this development is presented.

The electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) is emerging as a sixth battlespace domain in military applications and is essential for wireless communications and remote sensing. Due to the demand for EMS, it is increasingly contested, congested, constrained, and shared. Evolving threats, doctrine, and tactics drive significant advancements in the battlespace. Electronic Warfare (EW) or Electromagnetic Warfare products need to keep pace by leveraging advances in technology driven by Industry 4.0, artificial intelligence (AI), direct radio frequency (RF) sampling, RF System on Chip (RFSoC), and ultrawideband antenna arrays. These trends drive a need for technology-intensive innovation in EW products underpinned by a coherent business-product-technology strategy. This article reviews advancements in Electronic Warfare against radar systems using a novel approach that integrates quantitative bibliometric and patentometric analyses with a qualitative assessment of EW architectures, Electronic Attack (EA) algorithms, and Electronic Support (ES) algorithms. This article marks the first instance of such a methodology being applied to systematically assess the landscape of research publications and technological innovations in the field of EW against radar systems. A taxonomy of EW System Types by military domain against radar and their role in the modern battlefield is presented together with their typical role and real-world examples. The quantitative and qualitative insights are synthesized to outline a notional next-generation EW architecture and a technology roadmap for its realization that researchers can use to guide the development of innovative EW technologies and methodologies and by EW practitioners to inform system design, operational deployment, and capability enhancements.

This paper reviews the state of emerging transistor technologies capable of terahertz amplification, as well as the state of transistor modeling as required in terahertz electronic circuit research. Commercial terahertz radar sensors of today are being built using bulky and expensive technologies such as Schottky diode detectors and lasers, as well as using some emerging detection methods. Meanwhile, a considerable amount of research effort has recently been invested in process development and modeling of transistor technologies capable of amplifying in the terahertz band. Indium phosphide (InP) transistors have been able to reach maximum oscillation frequency (f_max) values of over 1 THz for around a decade already, while silicon-germanium bipolar complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (BiCMOS) compatible heterojunction bipolar transistors have only recently crossed the f_max = 0.7 THz mark. While it seems that the InP technology could be the ultimate terahertz technology, according to the f_max and related metrics, the BiCMOS technology has the added advantage of lower cost and supporting a wider set of integrated component types. BiCMOS can thus be seen as an enabling factor for re-engineering of complete terahertz radar systems, for the first time fabricated as miniaturized monolithic integrated circuits. Rapid commercial deployment of monolithic terahertz radar chips, furthermore, depends on the accuracy of transistor modeling at these frequencies. Considerations such as fabrication and modeling of passives and antennas, as well as packaging of complete systems, are closely related to the two main contributions of this paper and are also reviewed here. Finally, this paper probes active terahertz circuits that have already been reported and that have the potential to be deployed in a re-engineered terahertz radar sensor system and attempts to predict future directions in re-engineering of monolithic radar sensors.

This paper presents the design and development of an intelligent voice recognition chat bot. The paper presents a technology demonstrator to verify a proposed framework required to support such a bot (a Web service). While a black box approach is used, by controlling the communication structure, to and from the Web-service, the Web-service allows all types of clients to communicate to the server from any platform. The service provided is accessible through a generated interface which allows for seamless XML processing; whereby the extensibility improves the lifespan of such a service. By introducing an artificial brain, the Web-based bot generates customized user responses, aligned to the desired character. Questions asked to the bot, which is not understood is further processed using a third-party expert system (an online intelligent research assistant), and the response is archived, improving the artificial brain capabilities for future generation of responses.