Module 1 : Engineering Trends

Incorporar aquests documents a la Col·lecció del Centre de Recerca i Estudis pel Desenvolupament Organitzatiu. Considerar que el registre té més d'un arxiu, ja que s'incorpora traduït a diversos idiomes

Advances in Mechanical Systems Dynamics 2020

The fundamentals of mechanical system dynamics were established before the beginning of the industrial era. The 18th century was a very important time for science and was characterized by the development of classical mechanics. This development progressed in the 19th century, and new, important applications related to industrialization were found and studied. The development of computers in the 20th century revolutionized mechanical system dynamics owing to the development of numerical simulation. We are now in the presence of the fourth industrial revolution. Mechanical systems are increasingly integrated with electrical, fluidic, and electronic systems, and the industrial environment has become characterized by the cyber-physical systems of industry 4.0. Within this framework, the status-of-the-art has become represented by integrated mechanical systems and supported by accurate dynamic models able to predict their dynamic behavior. Therefore, mechanical systems dynamics will play a central role in forthcoming years. This Special Issue aims to disseminate the latest research findings and ideas in the field of mechanical systems dynamics, with particular emphasis on novel trends and applications

Towards Sustainability in the Automotive Industry – Circular Economic Practices of the Audi Group

Circular Economy is an economic concept that aims to maximise resource efficiency and minimise waste generation by recycling, reusing, remanufacturing, and repairing products to extend their lifespan and extract maximum value from them. Historically, the automotive industry has not focused on sustainable practices. In the last decade, automotive manufacturers have increasingly adopted circular economy practices driven by a combination of environmental concerns, resource scarcity, regulatory pressures, consumer demand, and the pursuit of new business opportunities. By embracing circularity, the industry aims to reduce its environmental impact, optimise resource use, and build a more sustainable and resilient future. The paper provides a review to present the concept of circular economy and to evaluate its current state in the automotive industry. The case study aims to provide a glimpse into the initiatives and strategies being made by the Audi Group to become circular. The research is descriptive and includes mainly qualitative methods using a content analysis of corporate sustainability reports, websites, and interviews to gather data

The Critical Role of Public Charging Infrastructure

Editors: Peter Fox-Penner, PhD, Z. Justin Ren, PhD, David O. JermainA decade after the launch of the contemporary global electric vehicle (EV) market, most cities face a major challenge preparing for rising EV demand. Some cities, and the leaders who shape them, are meeting and even leading demand for EV infrastructure. This book aggregates deep, groundbreaking research in the areas of urban EV deployment for city managers, private developers, urban planners, and utilities who want to understand and lead change

Crashworthy Code

Code crashes. Yet for decades, software failures have escaped scrutiny for tort liability. Those halcyon days are numbered: self-driving cars, delivery drones, networked medical devices, and other cyber-physical systems have rekindled interest in understanding how tort law will apply when software errors lead to loss of life or limb. Even after all this time, however, no consensus has emerged. Many feel strongly that victims should not bear financial responsibility for decisions that are entirely automated, while others fear that cyber-physical manufacturers must be shielded from crushing legal costs if we want such companies to exist at all. Some insist the existing liability regime needs no modernist cure, and that the answer for all new technologies is patience. This Article observes that no consensus is imminent as long as liability is pegged to a standard of “crashproof” code. The added prospect of cyber-physical injury has not changed the underlying complexities of software development. Imposing damages based on failure to prevent code crashes will not improve software quality, but will impede the rollout of cyber-physical systems. This Article offers two lessons from the “crashworthy” doctrine, a novel tort theory pioneered in the late 1960s in response to a rising epidemic of automobile accidents, which held automakers accountable for unsafe designs that injured occupants during car crashes. The first is that tort liability can be metered on the basis of mitigation, not just prevention. When code crashes are statistically inevitable, cyber-physical manufacturers may be held to have a duty to provide for safer code crashes, rather than no code crashes at all. Second, the crashworthy framework teaches courts to segment their evaluation of code, and make narrower findings of liability based solely on whether cyber-physical manufacturers have incorporated adequate software fault tolerance into their designs. Requiring all code to be perfect is impossible, but expecting code to be crashworthy is reasonable

Open innovation and crowdsourcing in the automotive industry. The BMW case

The thesis describes and analyses benefits and issues of open innivation and crowdsourcing in the aumotive industry. Moreover, it focuses on the co-creation aproach used by BMW to broaden the technology base, using people as a strategical external source