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NXP® Semiconductors has announced that it will showcase new safety scenarios enabled by vehicle-to-vehicle communication (Vehicle-to-X or V2X) as part of this year’s ITS World Congress in Hamburg. NXP will work together with partners such as premium manufacturer Riese & Müller, to highlight better protection for vulnerable road users, new V2X application scenarios designed to help prevent traffic accidents and e-bike safety demonstrations. NXP’s V2X technology is based on 802.11p, a communication standard also known as DSRC (Dedicated Short-Range Communication). Optimised for automobiles, 802.11p allows vehicles, road infrastructure and other road users to exchange information in real time.

Every year, more than 1.3 million people are killed in road accidents across the world and more than 50 percent of the fatalities are cyclists, pedestrians and motorcyclists. Technologies such as V2X and driver assistance systems can make a significant contribution to help reduce these numbers and are already in standard use in selected passenger car models today.

To demonstrate how the safety of road users can be enhanced, NXP and Riese & Müller have built a smart electric bicycle prototype. The demonstration combines NXP’s RoadLINK ® automotive-qualified DSRC modem and Hardware Secure Element IC for V2X applications, with the Cohda Wireless’ On–Board Unit. The configuration enables the e-bike to transmit data on its position, speed and direction of travel to other V2X-enabled vehicles in the vicinity that could pose a potential danger to the cyclist. The module calculates the distances between road users and position changes within seconds. In the event of a dangerous situation, both the cyclist and a car’s driver, would receive a timely collision warning.

“Everyone on the road deserves to be safe, from the student on a bike to the road worker and  those in premium vehicles. The quest starts with allowing vehicles and road users to communicate in real time and V2X meets this need by linking infrastructure and road users,” said Huanyu Gu, Senior Product Marketing Manager ADAS at NXP. “V2X can connect and inform a vast web of e-bikes, e-scooters, breakdown assist vehicles and even construction site lighting to create a web of safety for all who share the roads.”

Additional V2X Product News

To drive the expansion of the V2X ecosystem, NXP has also announced the next step in innovation – the launch of the new i.MX 8XLite applications processor. The product is targeted at secure V2X as well as IIoT applications and is capable of simultaneously handling highly complex cryptography and telematics data. More information on this announcement can be found here.

NXP at ITS World Congress in Hamburg October 11-15 Hall B5, Booth B5302:

Interactive Demonstrations

● V2X: e-Bicycle with V2X and Radar (SmartMicro), VOI e-Scooter, ADAC Light Bar

● RFID-based Automated Payment with Shell and Omega

● SigFox Low Cost Smart Asset Tracker

● Plus, explore our interactive technology showroom of more than 40+ application-based demos

City of Hamburg Showcases that feature NXP’s V2X include:

● Ford of Europe, Kopernikus, Continental, Cohda Wireless and NXP showcase the future of automated valet parking at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. NXP V2X technology inside the car and in parking garage infrastructure enables the Ford electric vehicle to park itself and charge – no human involved

● BiDiMoVe (Bidirectional multimodal network): demand-based prioritisation of public traffic at traffic lights including new hazard warning system

● Green4transPORT: dynamic traffic management including intelligent traffic lights control to reduce carbon emissions

NXP V2X technology in action:

● Green4Transport

● Volkswagen and NXP Deliver Safety to European Roads with World’s Largest Rollout of Communicating Car Technology

● NXP, Volkswagen and Partners Continue to Accelerate the V2X Rollout

● Voi presents e-scooter prototype with collision detection and traffic light phase optimization

Digi-Key Electronics, will hold their highly anticipated annual Back2School Prize Draw sweepstakes, which gives college students an opportunity to win prizes while using real-world tools and resources to learn about the field of engineering.

The 2021 #DKBack2School Prize Draw runs Aug. 25 to Nov. 11, 2021, with winners announced soon after the Nov. 11 submission deadline.

As part of the Back2School Prize Draw, students are invited to design and submit sketch concepts that improve on the student life, using electronic components and other products found on Digi-Key’s website. With some college campuses reopening this fall, students can envision products or projects intended to help smooth out the return to in-person education. Students can also develop and implement a design and provide a video or photo of the design to qualify for the grand prize category.

One grand prize winner will receive an InstaLab kit they can use to build prototypes of their concepts. The InstaLab is the turn-key kit for setting up a private lab, with all the key pieces of hardware included. The kit includes an oscilloscope, function generator, bench power supply, digital multimeter, 120 V soldering station, lead-free Solder, wire strippers and more.

The runner-up prize is a Lulzbot 3D printer and next tier winners will receive a Back to School kit that includes a Fume Extractor, an Adafruit Parts Pal, Seeed Grove Arduino Kit, a Sparkfun Deluxe tool kit, a Benchtop Power Supply, and an Analog Discovery 2.

Additionally, all participants can enter their name and contact information to be eligible to win a PyGamer, an entry-level handheld for DIY gaming. The content of the prize kits may vary depending on the applicant’s region, but the prize will be of equivalent value.

“We’re thrilled to announce the return of our Back2School Prize Draw, which inspires students to build products that solve real-world problems through hardware engineering and automation,” said YC Wang, global academic program director at Digi-Key. “Giving them the components they need offers an excellent way to advance their skills and promote their long-term interest in engineering.”

“At Digi-Key, we’re eager to empower the next generation of innovators,” said David Sandys, director of technical marketing at Digi-Key. “We’re proud to promote and host educational competitions such as this one that spark ideas for future engineers.”

The sweepstakes is open to any student with a university or college email address. To learn more or enter the Back2School Prize Draw, visit Digi-Key’s website here. Submissions are open from August 25^th through November 11^th, 2021, and winners will be announced shortly after the November 11^th deadline.

Nanolike is pleased to introduce a new digitised silo fill level monitoring solution for the livestock industry. The goal is to simplify the inventory and order management processes of pig, poultry and cattle farmers, as well as to optimise the supply chain processes of the animal feed producers and suppliers who replenish the silos. This not only saves costs but also reduces the environmental impact as it enables route optimisation. What makes the new digitised silo fill level monitoring solution stand out is the highly efficient sensor and cloud connectivity technology, using the Sigfox 0G wireless network. Requiring zero maintenance for years, the solution needs neither an external power supply nor a data line, which saves costs and ensures that the digitisation investment is amortised very quickly. This makes Nanolike technology highly disruptive, as it can replace any alternative sensor technology used exclusively to manage replenishment management.

Users of Nanolike’s digitised silo fill level monitoring solution are found in all sub-sectors of livestock farming, from pig, poultry and cattle rearing to dairy and egg production and fish farming. However, Nanolike’s digitised silo fill level monitoring solution isn’t just for livestock farmers and agricultural cooperatives in their role as silo operators; it also targets silo manufacturers who aspire to include this technology in their portfolios and, above all, animal feed producers and suppliers aiming to offer their customers automatic replenishment, vendor-managed inventory (VMI) or similar solutions as part of their digitisation strategies.

Quickly and easily mounted on the exterior base of the silo, the Nanolike sensors give users 24/7 access to information on fill levels and demand forecasts in real-time. This digital solution makes it much easier to monitor the silo fill levels and greatly reduces users’ workload as they no longer have to climb to the top of silos at different locations to check the fill levels. Instead, all required inventory management tasks can be done in less time from the safety of the office. An integrated early warning system alerts the silo operator to potential bottlenecks, which helps to prevent feed shortages.

Based on real-time data, the mobile application also facilitates the automation of purchase processes as silo operators can choose to place orders directly from their smartphones. Such an integrated solution, which can be implemented with just a few clicks, greatly simplifies communication between livestock farmers and their suppliers. What is more, it makes it possible to optimise the supply to distributed silos at a higher level, leading to overall savings in transport logistics, which ultimately also improves the long-term CO2 balance. The data from the Nanolike sensors are consolidated in a central cloud from where they can be imported into existing software systems and customer clouds, or retrieved via smartphone app at any time.

The digitised fill level monitoring solution from Nanolike is extremely easy to implement, as it is self-calibrating, does not require active calibration, and filters out undesirable environmental influences. Before filling a silo, the user sets the sensor to zero via the mobile phone app and manually enters the fill load once in the software. From thereon, the changing fill level is calculated in the cloud, based on a comparison of sensor data recorded before and after filling. The solution is extremely scalable and can be extended from a simple cloud app for a batch size of 1 to fleets with thousands of silos. For the latter, Nanolike also offers a convenient data interface for the connection of external IT solutions.

The digitised fill level monitoring solution from Nanolike is available for order now from batch size 1. Larger-scale silo operators and their suppliers may request a free demo installation. Cooperatives, animal feed producers, and suppliers of silo technology are also invited to get in touch to evaluate the potential for developing collaborative solutions to digitise their fill level sensor technology.

About Nanolike

Nanolike is an international company specialising in innovative digital measurement technologies for supply chain optimisation. The company’s digitised fill level monitoring solutions enable the automation of supply chains for gaseous, liquid or free-flowing materials that are transported or stored in IBCs, silos or tanks. The team is made up of mechanical sensor technology experts as well as software and artificial intelligence (AI) developers, who are supported by an experienced management team. Since its foundation in 2012, Nanolike has been expanding rapidly and today has projects in Europe, North America and Asia. Prime target markets are food, agricultural and chemical industries. Nanolike has won several innovation awards, is an active member of the IoT Valley in Labège (France), and was granted 2 million euros by the European Innovation Council in 2019.