Smart motors show some good sense

A European project is developing motors that can interact with each other while also acting as eyes for the whole production line. Professor Matthias Nienhaus, a drive systems specialist at Saarland University in Germany, and his colleagues are developing smart motors that do not need external sensors. The motors are also capable of communicating and interacting with each other. In this way they could be used to form a network of smart motors, linked by an operating system, and capable of monitoring the entire production line. The researchers hope to make manufacturing more cost-effective and flexible by allowing production components to continuously monitor themselves for faults and signs of wear in this way.