Electronic engineers rely upon numerous technologies to support and develop their innovations. Over the past decade, technology has advanced at a rapid speed, delivering a huge range of opportunities for engineers to improve existing products and processes, as well as develop new ones.
Here, we’ll look at just 4 top technologies that help electronics engineers to perceive the future.
- Robot dexterity
Robot technologies have been in development for decades. While some fear that robots will take over our jobs and ultimately take over the world, the truth is existing models are slow, inflexible and clumsy. However, advancements are being made within the technology in order to improve their dexterity.
The Dactyl robot developed in San Francisco has taught itself to flip over a block using its fingers. Using reinforcement learning, the robot first learns how to grasp the block via software, before trying it out. It’s an exciting development which is highlighting the capabilities of robots, and what they can potentially do in the future.
- High-frequency power supplies
Power supplies are required in numerous industries such as communications, healthcare, and manufacturing. Over the years, electronic engineers have managed to significantly improve existing power supplies, with the most significant improvement being high frequency power supply.
High-frequency power supplies are smaller in weight and size, they have much higher efficiency, they come with faster response time and they don’t store as much energy as standard power supplies.
- 5G technology
One of the most exciting and important technologies currently being developed is 5G. Expected to be rolled out worldwide by 2020, this cutting-edge technology is going to prove crucial for the growth of the world’s economy. 5G networks will help to power the Internet of Things technologies while boosting network speeds dramatically.
- Microscale 3D printing
3D printing caused a lot of excitement when it was first introduced onto the market. However, existing systems are expensive and have a lot of limitations. For this reason, electronic engineers are working on microscale 3D printing, developing new 3D printer inks. As new inks are developed, it will give 3D printers a lot more functionality, enabling them to create a lot of new things, including artificial organs.
These are just 4 of the top technologies that are helping electronic engineers to perceive the future. The technology we have today we couldn’t have possibly dreamt of decades ago. So, it will be exciting to see just how much technology advances over the next decade. The technologies above reveal the kind of thing we can at least expect from advancements being made in the coming years.