From KNOW-HOW to WOW

"BREEAAAAK!" the bike screams - figuratively speaking. With B2X, or bike-to-anything communication, bikes can be aware of other vehicles on the road that are out of the rider's view. And vice versa: car drivers can be warned about bikes they did not notice. Melena gets a demo of this technology, which is ready for use on bikes, cars, and beyond. Bosch eBike Systems team leader Christian Cosyns exp...

In this more in-depth examination of the previous "From KNOW-HOW to WOW" episode, everything revolves around the efficiency of PEM electrolysis (PEM = Proton Exchange Membrane). What role does iridium play as a catalyst? How do you ensure that oxygen bubbles do not hinder the electrochemical reaction? How can stacks and power electronics be coupled in the best possible way? Our Bosch expert Annika...

"I'm the lightest element you'll ever find - but don't be fooled, I'm not to be undermined." Geoff's voice avatar speaks in riddles as Melena and Shuko try to solve a puzzle: the mystery of how to produce green hydrogen. Electrolyzers are the main component for turning renewable energy into hydrogen, and at their core is a stack of PEM (proton exchange membrane) electrolysis cells. Bosch's Annika...

If you want to build an app for a software-driven vehicle, how can it access car data? The open-source middleware KUKSA acts as a data broker. It can answer queries, e.g. for the current vehicle speed, and pass commands, e.g. to open the trunk, to the car. KUKSA developer Sebastian Schildt from the Bosch subsidiary ETAS explains how to safely and securely integrate a modern open-source software st...

Free cheesecake for everyone! Wait, we misunderstood. Shuko and Geoff talk to Ansgar Lindwedel of Bosch subsidiary ETAS. He is working to establish standards for software in cars, helping the highly proprietary field make the transition to open source. Many other projects have demonstrated the benefits of sharing knowledge and code. One of Wikipedia's most prominent editors shares some of their ex...

When electric vehicle batteries reach their end-of-life, each of them is unique and has its own history. Recycling these batteries means that every single one requires a slightly different treatment. While Geoff and Melena discussed the difficulty of discharging these batteries in the previous episode, here’s a closer look at the dismantling process. A digital twin and a worker guidance system dev...

Battery level: 300%! Get ready for an extra charge of From Know-How to Wow: our show now has three hosts as Melena returns from maternity leave. However, sometimes a charged battery can be a problem. To recycle batteries from electric cars, they need to be completely discharged. Surprisingly, this is easier said than done. A deep discharge can take 24 hours and more. But Sebastian Krieger of Bosch...

How do you teach an AI the difference between a PET bottle and an HDPE bottle? The Bosch team around Sidharta Andalam combined several sources of information to increase the accuracy of their system. Camera images and terahertz sensor signals are combined to decide if an item should get picked out of a waste stream. To get the necessary labeled training data, the engineers used the experience of t...

An X-ray-like machine, but for waste. That’s what Sidharta Andalam and his team at Bosch Research in Singapore have developed. Instead of X-rays, it uses harmless terahertz waves to identify recyclable materials, help make recycling more profitable, and, in turn, divert recyclables like plastic bottles from landfills. Based on the terahertz images, an AI separates different types of plastic. In ad...

RideCare companion is more than what’s in the box. With two pieces of hardware, live emergency assistance, a driver app and online data storage, the RideCare ecosystem is steered by a cloud service. Geoff’s voice avatar and Sarah Uttendorf dive into the engineering challenge of making a safety critical mobile device as reliable as possible and keeping the system in sync. More Bosch podcasts: Beyon...

On the road with the Ridecare companion Buckle up, listeners! In the latest episode of our “FROM KNOW-HOW to WOW” podcast, Geoff hits the road with test driver Matt Gutie to learn how our RideCare companion is improving ridesharing safety. Bosch engineer Sarah Uttendorf is one of the developers of the new system. She tells us how the product came to life. Equipped with a connected camera that reco...

Want to get to the bottom of how a magnetic field quantum sensor works? Learn more in this deep dive episode. Geoff’s voice avatar picks the brain of Bosch physicist Riccardo Cipolletti to uncover some of the key principles of the new technology. It relies on the Zeeman effect, a Nobel-prize worthy discovery on the effect of magnetic fields on the energy levels of electrons. Warning: This episode...

A quantum leap in the history of From Know-How to Wow! Shuko and Geoff hear from Riccardo Cipolletti, a physicist at Bosch Quantum Sensing. The team he’s a part of is developing magnetic field quantum sensors that are 1,000 times more sensitive than today’s MEMS sensors. They can, for instance, easily measure the tiniest magnetic fields inside our own bodies like those caused by neuron activity. N...

Geoff’s voice avatar has some trouble wrapping his head around the sensor fusion algorithms in head-tracking devices - in part because as a voice avatar by nature he neither has a head, nor a body. Fortunately, Bosch expert Ye Lu is excellent in explaining how different sensors can help correct each other’s errors and why school mathematics has its limits when you want to accurately determine rota...

Woooosh! Sounds are all around us, but when we wear headphones we are no longer moving through a soundscape, but carry the sounds with us, in our head. Head-tracking technology changes that and has a lot more interesting applications. Ye Lu aka “Kimmi” has developed the head-tracking feature in Bosch’s BHI 360 sensor. She takes us on a journey of challenges, successes and new challenges. Constanti...

Kaching! Your car just earned its own gas money. In the Economy of Things, cars and other machines and devices can become independent economic actors. As they interact and do business, they need to trust each other’s identities and that contracts between machines are executed as agreed upon. Web3 technology can enable these scenarios. Bosch researcher Dr. Nik Scharmann and our virtual host, Geoff’...

Cryptocurrencies are becoming more and more relevant, but they’re only a small part of what is called Web3, a decentralized Internet, based on distributed ledger technology. The idea behind Web3 is that in a highly connected world, the key to be successful is to find the right balance between cooperation and competition, a so-called “copetition”. At Bosch Connected World in Berlin, Shuko and Geoff...

This is a first! Starting with this episode, we’ll bring you a monthly shortcast in addition to our regular episodes. Nerd alert: here’s your chance to dive deeper into one specific aspect of the previous episode. This time, we’re back at Bosch Connected World in Berlin to learn more about software-defined vehicles. A whole hackathon was organized around SDV with teams using open-source tools to d...

What are the benefits of “software-defined vehicles”? Find out in this special episode, which took place LIVE at the Bosch Connected World event on November 9. Our hosts were joined on stage by experts Christian Uebber and Christian Heissenberger, who work at ETAS, the Bosch subsidiary for automotive operating systems and software development kits. During this special episode they talked about the...

Throwing and catching are human skills that we not only use in sports, but also as a shortcut - saving time compared to walking a few steps. What if robots could do the same? Bosch Research engineer Timm Linder helps explore this in an EU-funded project called DARKO. In collaboration with research labs across Europe, he and his team are developing a robot that will toss items into bins at a wareho...

How to develop self-driving cars? Automated cars become more and more advanced. But this shift toward vehicles that will eventually be autonomous means major architectural changes in how cars are developed. In this episode, Shuko and Geoff are joined by Axel Schwarz, Director for Engineering of L4 Sensors, and Kay Stepper, Senior Vice President for Automated at Driving Bosch North America. Both ex...

What’s the future of more sustainable truck driving? Hydrogen! In this episode, Bosch engineer Michael Marino explains how he and his team develop fuel cell stacks that convert hydrogen into electricity. Each fuel cell produces less than 1 Volt, but hundreds of fuel cells stacked on top of each other can power long-haul trucks. For example, Nikola Motor Company have trucks with Bosch fuel-cell tec...

Not to scare anyone, but this episode contains - cold showers!!! Keeping the chills away is Bosch product manager Christoph Bauerdick’s mission. With Bosch’s HomeCom Pro solution, he helps installers keep tabs on the heat pumps, boilers and other heating systems they have installed and ideally fix issues before they lead to cold showers, or worse: no heating at all. HomeCom Pro uses data that appl...

Imagine being able to remove odors and bacteria easily and on the go, without needing to wash your clothes. In the latest episode of our "From KNOW-HOW to WOW" podcast, we talk about how our FreshUp device uses plasma technology to remove odors from fabrics simply by brushing over them. Plasma occurs naturally in the universe. During the show, Tobias Wende, a Bosch electronic system engineer, talk...

What do the components of a car have in common with a jazz band? Getting them to play together in unison can be pretty challenging. This is something that car manufacturers know well. For future electric vehicles, a cross-divisional team around Bosch system engineers Erik Goerres and Dieter Schwarzmann want to make manufacturers’ lives easier. To understand the challenges and to improve component...