Resumo:
The Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) methodology, originated within the aerospace sector,
has been used in highly complex technological projects, mainly in contexts where the domain
of technology is still incipient. It has technological level scales ranging from 1 to 9, where the
lowest levels are linked to basic technology research and the highest levels are linked to the
development of systems and subsystems, with a view to launching the product or technology.
Thus, this research aimed to analyze the implementation of the TRL methodology to assess the
level of technological maturity of the various stages that make up an innovative Research and
Development (R&D) project based on its application in a company in the industrial automation
area. The research method adopted to obtain the intended results was the Action-Research,
which sought to identify the TRLs of each subset evaluated of a technological development
project of an industrial ultrasonic sensor from two iterative cycles. The tool needed to assess
technological maturity levels was an IMATEC calculator. One of the reasons for selecting this
calculator was because it is available for general use, being accessed on the website of the
Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), linked to the Brazilian federal government. As results obtained
from both iterative cycles, we have (a) obtaining the levels of technological readiness in each
of the stages under analysis and its evolution within the time window studied; (b) what are the
technologies that make up the development of an industrial ultrasonic sensor. The analyzes
made it possible to validate the proposed study through the application and verification of the
results in a real R&D project. Thus, the presentation of possibilities for new applications for
the TRL methodology and the proposal of a new process integrated to the management
methodology of the company object of study from the implementation of the TRL, which can be
extrapolated to other projects, are important contributions of this research.
