Development of new Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) for the aerospace industry is critical to enhance the manufacture and assembly of aerospace products. These novel AMTs require high development cost, specialist resource capabilities, have long development periods, high technological risks and lengthy payback durations. This forms an industry reluctance to fund the initial AMT development stages, impacting on their success within an ever increasingly competitive environment. Selection of suitable AMTs for development is typically performed by managers who make little reference to estimating the non-recurring development effort in resources and hardware cost. In addition, the performance at the conceptual stage is predicted using expert opinion, consisting of subjective and inaccurate outputs. AMTs selected are then submerged into development research and heavily invested in, with incorrect selections having a detrimental impact on the business. A detailed study of the UK aerospace manufacturing industry corroborated these findings and revealed a requirement for a new process map to resolve the problem of managing AMT developments at the conceptual stages. This process map defined the final research protocol, forming the requirement for a Cost-Benefit Forecasting Framework. The framework improves the decision making process to select the most suitable AMTs for development, from concept to full scale demonstration. Cost is the first element and is capable of estimating the AMT development effort in person-hours and cost of hardware using two parametric cost models. Benefit is the second element and forecasts the AMT tangible and intangible performance. The framework plots these quantified cost-benefit parameters and is capable of presenting development value advice for a diverse range of AMTs with varied applications. A detailed case study is presented evaluating a total of 23 novel aerospace AMTs verifying the capability and high accuracy of the framework within a large aerospace manufacturing organisation. Further validation is provided by quantifying the responses from 10 AMT development experts, after utilising the methodology within an industrial setting. The results show that quantifying the cost-benefit parameters provides manufacturing research and technology with the ability to select AMTs that provide the best value to a business.

The impact of gravity on organic material such as the human body has been a growing research field ever since the dawn of space flight. The Random Positioning Machine (RPM) is used to simulate microgravity on organisms without the use of real microgravity that is both expensive and scarcely available. This enables in-depth studies on the effect of weightlessness on organic materials in a controlled environment with relatively small means. The RPM has not yet been commercialized to a broader market but the most recent improvements to the machine creates possibilities for a start-up business revolving around the RPM. A method including both qualitative and quantitative models based on a case study were used to capture both aspects and to understand both how far in development the technologies were and the potential in the different market segments. The TRL for the different UVP’s of the RPM were generally ranked high except for the modularity and the market segment ranking shows that, from the four chosen segments, the food fermentation and fat crystallization segments have the most potential. The watch industry showed a minimal amount of potential. The SWOT-analysis on the two segments shows that the biggest weakness is the inexperience with start-ups but that is countered by the possibility for support by the university. For the food fermentation, there is an opportunity for a partnership where the company Swiss Culture Collection has shown interest in cooperation but there is also the threat of end customers equating organisms produced in microgravity with GMO, and by that having a negative impact. For fat crystallization, there is an opportunity with improving the process for producing low-fat products if research shows that microgravity can affect the density of the product. On the other hand, there is a lot of research that needs to be done to get the results.

The U.S Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration continue to face common challenges in the development and acquisition of their space systems. In particular, space programs repeatedly experience significant schedule slippages, and spacecraft are often delivered on-orbit several months, sometimes years, after the initially planned delivery date. The repeated pattern of these schedule slippages suggests deep-seated flaws in managing spacecraft delivery and schedule risk, and an inadequate understanding of the drivers of schedule slippages. Furthermore, due to their long development time and physical inaccessibility after launch, space systems are exposed to a particular and acute risk of obsolescence, resulting in loss of value or competitive advantage over time. The perception of this particular risk has driven some government agencies to promote design choices that may ultimately be contributing to these schedule slippages, and jeopardizing what is increasingly recognized as critical, namely space responsiveness. The overall research objective of this work is twofold: (1) to identify and develop a thorough understanding of the fundamental causes of the risk of schedule slippage and obsolescence of space systems; and in so doing, (2) to guide spacecraft design choices that would result in better control of spacecraft delivery schedule and mitigate the impact of these "temporal risks" (schedule and obsolescence risks). To lay the groundwork for this thesis, first, the levers of responsiveness, or means to influence schedule slippage and impact space responsiveness are identified and analyzed, including design, organizational, and launch levers. Second, a multidisciplinary review of obsolescence is conducted, and main drivers of system obsolescence are identified. This thesis then adapts the concept of a technology portfolio from the macro- or company level to the micro-level of a single complex engineering system, and it analyzes a space system as a portfolio of technologies and instruments, each technology with its distinct stochastic maturation path and exposure to obsolescence. The selection of the spacecraft portfolio is captured by parameters such as the number of instruments, the initial technology maturity of each technology/instrument, the resulting heterogeneity of the technology maturity of the whole system, and the spacecraft design lifetime. Building on the abstraction of a spacecraft as a portfolio of technologies, this thesis then develops a stochastic framework that provides a powerful capability to simultaneously explore the impact of design decisions on spacecraft schedule, on-orbit obsolescence, and cumulative utility delivered by the spacecraft. Specifically, this thesis shows how the choice of the portfolio size and the instruments Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) impact the Mean-Time-To-Delivery (MTTD) of the spacecraft and mitigate (or exacerbate) schedule risk. This work also demonstrates that specific combinations/choices of the spacecraft design lifetime and the TRLs can reduce the risk of on-orbit obsolescence. This thesis then advocates for a paradigm shift towards a calendar-based design mindset, in which the delivery time of the spacecraft is accounted for, as opposed to the traditional clock-based design mindset. The calendar-based paradigm is shown to lead to different design choices, which are more likely to prevent schedule slippage and/or enhance responsiveness and ultimately result in a larger cumulative utility delivered. Finally, missions scenarios are presented to illustrate how the framework and analyses here proposed can help identify system design choices that satisfy various mission objectives and constraints (temporal as well as utility-based).

Development of new Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) for the aerospace industry is critical to enhance the manufacture and assembly of aerospace products. These novel AMTs require high development cost, specialist resource capabilities, have long development periods, high technological risks and lengthy payback durations. This forms an industry reluctance to fund the initial AMT development stages, impacting on their success within an ever increasingly competitive environment. Selection of suitable AMTs for development is typically performed by managers who make little reference to estimating the non-recurring development effort in resources and hardware cost. In addition, the performance at the conceptual stage is predicted using expert opinion, consisting of subjective and inaccurate outputs. AMTs selected are then submerged into development research and heavily invested in, with incorrect selections having a detrimental impact on the business. A detailed study of the UK aerospace manufacturing industry corroborated these findings and revealed a requirement for a new process map to resolve the problem of managing AMT developments at the conceptual stages. This process map defined the final research protocol, forming the requirement for a Cost-Benefit Forecasting Framework. The framework improves the decision making process to select the most suitable AMTs for development, from concept to full scale demonstration. Cost is the first element and is capable of estimating the AMT development effort in person-hours and cost of hardware using two parametric cost models. Benefit is the second element and forecasts the AMT tangible and intangible performance. The framework plots these quantified cost-benefit parameters and is capable of presenting development value advice for a diverse range of AMTs with varied applications. A detailed case study is presented evaluating a total of 23 novel aerospace AMTs verifying the capability and high accuracy of the framework within a large aerospace manufacturing organisation. Further validation is provided by quantifying the responses from 10 AMT development experts, after utilising the methodology within an industrial setting. The results show that quantifying the cost-benefit parameters provides manufacturing research and technology with the ability to select AMTs that provide the best value to a business.

Management of water resources are the cornerstones of environmental protection. There willbe an increase in demand for water in the coming years and it is our responsibility to reserveour resources whether it is salt or fresh water. While analysing the paths of water being utilized,major amount is getting wasted through toilet flush. An average amount of water used in asingle toilet flush is about 9 litres and an individual will be using the toilet on an average of 5times a day which will be huge gallons of water in a minute around the world. In order to savethe ecosystem and to become sustainable waterless toilet systems are the optimum solution. Inthis thesis, waterless toilet technologies marketed by different manufacturers are deeplyanalysed and scaled the maturity level of technologies using the technology readiness level. Atechnology-market portfolio is created which helps to provide the current status of the waterlesstoilet technology systems in the international market. The pandemic created due to the coronavirus have led this paper to identify the opportunities that waterless toilets can have in the futurewith the help of innovations like smart toilet and artificial intelligence.

Abstract The transportation sector has a vital role in today’s society and accounts for 20 % of our global total energy consumption. It is also one of the most greenhouse gas emission intensive sectors as almost 95 % of its energy originates from petroleum-based fuels. Due to the possible harmful nature of greenhouse gases, there is a need for a transition to more sustainable transportation alternatives. A possible alternative to the conventional petroleum-based road transportation is, implementation of Electric Road Systems (ERS) in combination with electric vehicles (Evs). There are currently three proven ERS technologies, namely, conductive power transfer through overhead lines, conductive power transfer from rails in the road and inductive power transfer through the road. The wireless charging or inductive charging electric vehicles (EV) are a type of EVs with a battery which is charged from a charging infrastructure and using the wireless power transfer technology. The wireless charging EVs are classified as stationary or dynamic charging EVs. The stationary charging EVs charge wirelessly when they are parked as well as dynamic charging EVs can charge while they are in motion. Number of studies have reported that, one of the main benefits of dynamic charging is, it allows smaller as well as lighter batteries to be used due to the frequent charging using in the charging infrastructure embedded under roads. The purpose of this thesis is to understand the recent developments of technologies in wireless charging system globally and find out the best effective method which can use for fuelling all Electric vehicles. The findings show that not all countries are viable for ERS from an economic standpoint, however, a large number of countries in the world do have good prospects for ERS implementation. Findings further indicated that small and developed countries are best suited for ERS implementation. From a technological and Business perspective, the wireless charging system in road was found to be the most attractive ERS technology followed by overhead conductive road ERS technologies.

Voting and general elections serves as a cornerstone of modern democracies as it is through this process that the public makes their political positions heard and collectively elect leaders. While many parts of governments across the world are focusing heavily on digitization, voting is one area that remains offline and analog in many developed countries. Current voting systems continue to be scrutinized, most notably in the US after the 2016 presidential election where integrity of votes was put into question. This calls for innovation in the area of voting and blockchain has proven to be a disruptive technology in other areas to introduce transparency and integrity with an immutable and append-only ledger to store information. While the basic characteristics of blockchain may be desirable for a voting system, there has not yet been an implementation of Blockchain Enabled Voting (BEV). In this thesis, we assess current proposals of BEV in the context of the nine-degree Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale to get an overview of how mature the technology is in its current state and what needs to be done to reach further maturity. We do this by consolidating necessary requirements to fulfill for a voting system, based on literature review along with guidelines from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). We follow this up with translating the TRL scale to suit BEV, as the scale was originally designed for technology used by NASA, and then we review design artifacts of BEV in light of this scale. This enables us to make an informed argument about the current state of the technology as well as what is needed to advance the technology for further maturity. Based on the review of current proposals, flight-readiness of BEV in its current state is still immature. Our analysis shows that there are two emerging design principles, complete decentralization, and partial decentralization, where the former is structured similarly to the cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum, who considers all nodes as equals and only has governance through engineering. The partially decentralized approach on the other hand is built on permissioned blockchain with some centralized authority and considers the blockchain as a ballot box, or storage of votes. The results show that both design principles are far from flight-ready as they either do not meet the basic requirements of a voting system or make assumptions about the holistic voting systems, especially in areas of establishing voter eligibility, ease of use as well as scalability and robustness. Further research of both approaches is necessary to establish systems that are more defined and are ready for experimental testing.

In most cases new technology emergence does not guarantee overnight success nor is it developed overnight, rather it is a result of industry expertise spanning over several fields of research. 3D bioprinting is an industry that promises revolutionary implications for healthcare and scholars are discussing application areas such as tissue for oncology research, tissue for patient specific drug development and lastly complex organs for implantation. The promises and strides of the industry pose new prospects in healthcare, for instance printing new skin for burn victims & drug development all while being patient specific. The promises of bioprinting are practices that will lead to improved quality of life whether it be in the form of medicine or a new organ. The industry is characterized by fast pace and rapid technological advancements, research has explored these technological advancements and explained them in detail, but information on the market remains scarce. To contribute to filling this gap the thesis explores what the state of the market currently is and what the stage of market development is.  In order to explore how the market has developed and the current state of it a longitudinal case study, in Sweden which is one of the most innovative countries in the world was conducted. Newspaper articles from three news outlets were collected, two of which are Swedens most reputable publishers regarding new technology and business and economic development, the third is an industry specific outlet to biotechnology advancement. This resulted in finding that while the dialog of bioprinting is promising, the degree of readiness remains the same, furthermore it shows that the industry is heavily dependent on external actors to further develop the market and technology. It was also found that there is no shortage in actors spanning across various industries that collaborate with bioprinting firms since not all industries need the full capacity of the technology that is necessary to print complex organ structures. It can be stated that while the bioprinting market is evolving the development of it is in early stages and is far from being established.

I takt med att samhället har digitaliserats har detaljhandeln utsatts för betydande förändring. I Sverige har de obemannade butikerna ökat och spås bli fler framöver. Framväxten av tekniker som digitala betalnings- och identifieringsmetoder ligger till grund för detta. Samtidigt har totala antalet butiker minskat i gles- och landsbygdsområden. Ett sätt att bryta denna trend är genom obemannade butiker. En framgångsrik etablering av obemannade butiker på marknaden beror på hur konsumenterna mottar affärsmodellen. Forskning i området har funnit ett flertal faktorer som påverkar konsumenternas inställning. Däremot saknas djupgående inblick i konsumenters motivationer och perspektiv. Syftet med denna studie är att bidra till en djupare förståelse av konsumenters inställning vilket kan ge värdefulla insikter kring obemannade butikers för- och nackdelar samt identifiera eventuella förbättringsområden. Studien har utfört sex semistrukturerade intervjuer vars intervjufrågor förankrats i Technology Acceptance Model(TAM) och Technology Readiness (TR). Det empiriska materialet analyserades tematiskt enligt en teoretisk top-down strategi. Den valda teoretiska utgångspunkten var Mick & Fournier (1998) åtta centrala teknologiska paradoxer. Under analysen identifierades fyra paradoxer i respondenternas inställningar: kompetens/inkompetens, effektivitet/ineffektivitet, skapa/uppfylla nya behov och assimilering/isolering. Studiens resultat kan användas för att skapa en bättre kundupplevelse samt integrera tekniken på ett sätt som motsvarar konsumentens förväntningar. Samtidigt står framtidens obemannade butiker inför flera utmaningar, däribland att lösa den upplevda bristen på hjälp och avsaknaden av interaktion.

Humanity faces challenge to satisfy its growing energy demand while simultaneously transitioning into a sustainable society. Reducing carbon emissions from the industrial and transportation sector are met with difficulties. To help decarbonisation efforts EU members like Sweden have recognised the use of hydrogen as a viable solution. In 2021, Sweden laid out its national hydrogen strategy, containing desires to out-phase fossil-based hydrogen production with new sustainably alternatives. The question is whether Sweden has any prospect of domestically producing hydrogen in the future.  The purpose of the thesis is to lay out what hydrogen producing techniques could have a future prospect in Sweden, basing their performance on the amount of carbon emitted and energy consumption in a lifecycle perspective. To fulfil the thesis’ purpose, a literature review, and a comparative lifecycle assessment study that covers cradle-to-gate was conducted.  The literature study indicates that several mature options for producing hydrogen exists today and several upcoming techniques could be available in the future. Techniques recognised as mature today covers several process categories: steam reforming, gasifier, electrolyser, biolysis, and thermochemical hybrid.  Techniques that progressed to the LCA study were thermochemical techniques SMR (steam methane reforming) and CG (coal gasification), and electrolysers ALK (alkaline), PEM (proton exchange membrane), and SOEC (solid-oxide electrolyser cell). The techniques’ performance were tested in four scenarios: one in the present and three in the future. The Present scenario indicates that electrolysers were more benign towards global warming impact category than the thermochemical tehcniques’. The future scenario indicates that depending on the scenarios, electrolysers performed either better or worse regarding global warming impact category compared to SMR and SMR with CCS. Regardless of scenario, the LCA study indicates that a shift in burden from climate change to other impact categories could occur by replacing thermochemical techniques with electrolysers.  In conclusion, with the condition set for this thesis, Sweden has a future prospect for domestic hydrogen production, where more environmental benign techniques like electrolysers are possible. It is up to relevant stakeholders to decide whether possible shift in burden is acceptable. / Mänskligheten står inför behovet av att behöva tillgodose sitt växande energibehov samtidigt som transaktionen till ett hållbart samhälle pågår. Minskandet av koldioxidutsläpp från industri- och transportsektorn har mötts med svårigheter. För att minska koldioxidutsläppen har EU medlemmar däribland Sverige accepterat användandet av vätgas som en lösning. 2021 lade Sverige fram sin nationella vätgasstrategi vars innehåll indikerar på en önskan att ersätta nuvarande fossilbaserad vätgasproduktion med hållbara alternativ. Frågan blir ifall Sverige har förutsättningar för inhemsk vätgasproduktion i framtiden.  Syftet med examensarbetet är att presentera vilka vätgasproducerande tekniker som har framtida förutsättningar i Sverige, baserat på deras prestanda gentemot koldioxidutsläpp samt energikonsumtion i ett livscykelperspektiv. För att uppnå syftet med examensarbetet har en litteratur- och komparativ LCA studie som täcker vagga-till-port utförts.  Litteraturstudien indikerar att ett flertal mogna tekniker för att producera vätgas existerar redan idag och att ett flertal tekniker kan komma att vara tillgängliga i framtiden. Tekniker som anses vara mogna idag tillhör flera processkategorier: ångreformering, förgasning, elektrolys, biolys samt termokemisk hybrid.  Tekniker som fortsatte vidare till LCA studien var termokemiska tekniker som SMR och CG, samt elektrolysörer ALK, PEM, och SOEC. Teknikernas förmågor testades i fyra scenarion: en i nutiden och tre i framtiden. Den nutida scenariot indikerar att elektrolysörerna är mer gynnsam mot klimatförändring jämfört med termokemiska tekniker. De framtida scenarion indikerar att beroende på elmix kan elektrolysörerna vara antingen gynnsamma eller missgynnande gentemot global uppvärmning. Oavsett scenario indikerar LCA studien potential till skifte i börda från global uppvärmning kategorin till andra kategorier om ersättandet av terkmokemiska tekniker med elektrolysörer sker.  Sammanfattningsvis, med de inställningar som examensarbetet utgick ifrån har Sverige förutsättningar för inhemsk vätgasproduktion, varav hållbara alternativ som elektrolysörer är möjliga. Det är upp till relevanta aktörer att bedöma utifall skiftandet i börda är acceptabla.