Powered by mere vibrations or the movement of magnets, novel sensors and transmitters developed by a small company in Vermont are changing the way engineers are looking at fatigue.

Communicating wirelessly via the Internet to engineers halfway across the world, the embedded sensors developed by MicroStrain–a small business based in Williston, Vt., and supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF)–are revealing how objects as diverse as the Liberty Bell, enormous mining trucks and even human knees respond to daily use.

By monitoring strain levels and tracking the cumulative effects of fatigue, the researchers’ ultimate goal is to supplant the nearly universal system of “replace by this date” with a smarter approach of replacing components based upon the actual operating loads components experience.

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Advanced Linear Devices has announced the industry’s first energy harvesting modules designed specifically to capture, accumulate and store power from a variety of energy harvesting sources and supply it to wireless sensor networks, remote controls, and many other applications. The modules’ outstanding energy efficiency is designed to make energy harvesting a reliable and long-lasting source of power and free many applications from the constraints of battery or AC power sources.

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