This article is a summary of a paper named Next Wave of Technology produced by D. Tesar. The urgent need is to create a balance of all supporting technologies required in electro-mechanical systems, especially those of high economic magnitude. The desired tech base is described in terms of 10 major topics that have been summarized here to indicate its relevance to meeting the needs of mankind, to its potential to reinforce our national security, and to augment our consumer product competitive position. All future machine systems will increasingly be highly nonlinear, reconfigurable to meet changing needs, and architecturally a mixture of serial/parallel control structures. This means that the influence of any one-control input (an actuator) faces an ever changeable physical plant. This complexity can now be addressed by using very low-cost/distributed sensors providing operational data to a criteria-based decision structure with a full evaluation of the system in 5 to 10 milli-sec. A computational revolution for decision-making is now feasible because of accelerating computer technology. This revolution will be based on the geometry of the decision process.

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