Special Issue of Sensors and Actuators A: Physical

From embedded sensor to sensorial material - Special issue of Sensors and Actuators A: Physical

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In November 2011 a special issue of Sensors and Actuators A: Physical was published, gathering contributions presented at the symposium A “From Embedded Sensors to Sensorial Materials”, which was organised by EPoSS member ISIS within the framework of the E-MRS Spring Meeting 2010.

Sensors and Actuators A: Physical is a leading scientific journal in a central thematic area of ISIS, the development, layout, characterization and integration of sensors. Guest editors of the publication are Prof. Sybrand van der Zwaag (Technical University Delft), Prof. Robert Dorey (Cranfield University) and for ISIS Prof. Dr.-Ing. Walter Lang (IMSAS) and Dr.-Ing. Dirk Lehmhus.

The group of guest editors are also responsible for a preface [1], in which the concept of sensorial materials is explained and further research efforts are motivated: Sensorial materials and the associated technologies can form, as specific examples of so-called cyber-physical systems, the basis of an ubiquitous ambient intelligence able to support human beings in multiple ways. The spectrum of application scenarios ranges from classic fields like structural health monitoring via ambient assisted living to contributions to realizing the factories of the future – a framework in which increasingly autonomous systems monitor and control production processes on the basis of increasingly comprehensive sensor data: This, then, would be the recently much publicized 4th industrial revolution. In a further introductory review paper, member of the ISIS board of directors Prof. Lang presents challenges sensor technology is faced with in the context of implementing sensorial materials [2].

The symposium on which the special issue is based formed part of the Spring Meeting 2010 of the European Materials Research Society (E-MRS). From June 8th to 10th, scientists from 26 (!) met in Strasbourg to present and discuss their research. Altogether 34 speaker took part in dedicated sessions on sensor integration, optical components, nanosystems, materials and technologies and flexible materials as well as biological and chemical sensing, presenting their latest research. As invited contributors from industry, representatives of Phillips (Netherlands) and Meggitt Sensing Systems (Denmark) could be won, while from the academic world Georgia Tech, the University of Freiburg’s Microsystems technology institute IMTEK and the Collaborative Research Centre CRC 653 on “gentelligent materials”, located at the University of Hannover, helped to complete the picture.

The special issue including the contributions from Bremen is available via the web site of the journal --> Click Here

References

[1]  Lang, W., Lehmhus, D., van der Zwaag, S., Dorey, R.: Sensorial materials—A vision about where progress in sensor integration may lead to. Sensors and Actuators A 171 (2011) 1-2.

[2]  Lang, W., Jakobs, F., Tolstosheeva, E., Sturm, H., Ibragimov, A., Kesel, A., Lehmhus, D., Dicke, U.: From embedded sensors to sensorial materials—The road to function scale integration. Sensors and Actuators A 171 (2011) 3-11.