A stark reminder of our country’s outdated infrastructure is the sight of uniformed utility company personnel canvassing neighborhoods to read electric and gas meters in homes and businesses. For many residents, this means having to arrange access for meter readers. I have circumvented this issue by doing my own readings and telephoning them into the utility company, but this process adds a couple of steps on my end.

President Obama is trying to change the long-outdated meter reading process as part of the economic stimulus program. Earlier this week, the Obama Administration announced 100 grants, totaling $3.4 billion, to install smart electric meters in several American cities, including Houston. The intelligent meters would monitor electric usage in real time, making it possible for customers to more easily gauge utility usage and take corrective action, saving energy.

Smart meters have been talked about for several years, but only now is implementation is starting to occur in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. The benefits go far beyond not having to perform manual meter readings. Armed with real-time data on utility usage, individuals and businesses can more readily adjust their consumption patterns to take advantage of varying utility rates during peak and slack demand periods. Smart metering could also enable utility companies to allocate electricity resources more effectively during periods of high consumption, and more accurately record instances of outages.

The path to widespread smart meter usage won’t be easy, however. There’s the ever-present concern over security and other network interruptions that could potentially throw the system into chaos. In New York City where I live, the process of implementing smart meters would require a massive, time-consuming effort to replace hundreds of thousands of meters, many of them decades old. The local utility companies would need to invest huge sums of time and money to upgrade the hardware and software infrastructure to support smart meters.

There’s no indication that the raw demand for electricity will decrease anytime soon, given society’s ever-increasing reliance on electrical power. While nations search for ways to generate additional electricity, anything to improve utilization of the existing electrical grid is welcome. Smart meters are the way to go.

Like other sectors, the market for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) stagnated during the economic downturn. According to a report by market research organization Yole Developpement titled “State of the MEMS Industry 2009 Report,” sales of MEMS-based products are slated to reach $6.9 billion in 2009, barely up from $6.8 billion in 2008. The flat market was attributed to a drop in automotive-based MEMS products, offset by a spike in consumer-based MEMS.

The good news, according to the report, is that the MEMS market is expected to take off again. Although the MEMS production equipment market is projected to remain flat until 2011, MEMS foundries are expected to exhibit more than 25% compound annual growth starting next year. MEMS foundries are expected to benefit from system manufacturers outsourcing MEMS manufacturing, with semiconductor foundries such as TSMC, UMC, and others jumping into the fray.

“The MEMS industry remains highly diverse and as such, the impact of the financial collapse and economic recession has been varied,” said Jean-Christophe Eloy, President and CEO of Yole Developpement. “While established applications have struggled, new ways to package and integrate MEMS devices in systems buttressed the industry. New MEMS devices are indeed growing very fast – two-axis gyros, MEMS IMU, and MEMS oscillators,  to name a few.”

The study noted that the nature of MEMS innovations is changing, with most new applications linked to new usage of existing devices. With packaging averaging more than 40% of the cost of a MEMS device, strong efforts are being put to adapting the packaging to drive out cost and enable new applications.

The days of human beings sweeping floors, guarding plants, and doing other mundane or hazardous tasks could someday become a thing of the past. Service robots are increasingly being called on to perform these tasks, according to a new study from industry intelligence organization The Robot Report.

According to the report, service robots generated $11 billion in sales in 2008, trailing industrial robots whose sales reached $19 billion. But service robots have a brighter future, the report noted, because the largest group of industrial robot users – car makers – will not return to high purchase volumes as in the past. Robot makers will increasingly seek to deploy their machines in public buildings, oceans, space, cow barns, and fields.

There have been a number of reports on robots being developed to clean rooms, help perform surgical tasks, explore the ocean floor, and search hazardous areas for objects or materials. I can certainly welcome these developments from the standpoint of freeing humans from performing risky or unwelcome tasks. But that begs the question of how far robots will go in replacing humans in the workplace and other aspects of daily life.

We recently posed that question to our readers in our INSIDER Question of the Week . More than a third of our respondents thought robots would replace humans in day-to-day tasks. What do you think? Feel free to give your thoughts.

Although this is the last entry for my Design & Manufacturing Midwest show blog, I want to encourage all of you to keep innovating, and to let me know what new products and technologies you’re working on that may be inspiring to someone at next year’s show.

Here are the last couple of products I wanted to let you know about:

Alicona showcased its InfiniteFocus optical 3D surface measurement device that combines an optical profiler and a micro-coordinate measurement device in one system. It allows the measurement of form and roughness, as well as a range of surface characterization in one measurement. The system also provides wear analysis and the measurement of form deviation to reference geometry or a CAD data set.

TUV Rheinland offers certification and testing services worldwide, including ISO standard certification for environmental management systems, quality management systems, and automotive quality management systems. The company also provides AS9100B certification for aerospace quality management.

Next year’s D&M Midwest show will take place September 28-30 at the Donald Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL. Attendee registration is not open yet, but if you go to the Web site and click on the red button at the bottom of the page, you can request to be notified immediately via e-mail when the Attendee Internet registration site opens.

Thanks to Autodesk for sponsoring my show blog.

As my post-show coverage of Design & Manufacturing Midwest winds down, the focus is on quality. A number of products were on display that promise to help engineers make the right design decisions, and then ensure that their products are top-notch.

Autodesk showcased its Digital Prototyping solutions, including Moldflow Adviser and Moldflow Insight software. Moldflow Adviser simulates and optimizes part, mold, and tool designs by simulating the injection molding process using a digital prototype. Moldflow Insight software provides plastics engineering simulation tools for use on digital prototypes. It lets users simulate the filling and packing phases of the injection molding process to predict flow behavior of plastic melts.

Gradient Lens Corporation offers the Hawkeye Pro MicroFlex borescope that lets manufacturers of machined or molded medical parts and components inspect for burrs, surface finish, and other defects inside even the smallest medical components. The scope produces high-quality images via a high-resolution fiber-optic image bundle. The fibers also provide the scope’s semi-rigid flexibility, allowing them to reach into narrow, twisting paths.

Thermal Spray Technologies provides a variety of coatings for medical applications, including bio-compatible coatings for implant prosthetics, metallic coatings for EMI/RFI shielding, electrically conductive coatings, and wear-resistant coatings to protect against abrasion, erosion, and corrosion. The types of materials that can be used in the coatings, and the materials onto which the coatings can be applied, are wide in variety. If it melts, it can be sprayed.

Tomorrow, we wrap up our post-show coverage.