New Directions of Sensor Research and Technologies

Sensors and sensing technologies have a main impact in current society and this aspect will continue into the future because of evolving and improving performance characteristics and capabili-ties. Sensors are general purpose technologies that interact with other technologies with relation-ships of parasitism, mutualism and symbiosis according to theory of technological parasitism. Sensors are supporting new radical technologies such as the ‘Internet of Things’, robotics, etc. The purpose of this study is to show new directions of sensors considering an empirical analyses based on a large dataset of publications covering a 30-year period. Results show that co-evolutionary pathways of sensors within their scientific ecosystem are generating both general and specialized sensing devices such as wireless sensors, sensor network, biosensors, optoelectronic sensors, etc. These results show new trajectories of sensors technologies that can revolutionize products, pro-cesses and services having applications in manifold industries, such as health diagnostics, sporting products, monitoring water, air and soil, automotive, aviation, marine, etc. Sensor research has a broad span that includes different topics evolving rapidly and their investigation can support ap-propriate decisions of management of technologies and innovations directed to a positive industrial and social change