Nissan has unveiled a bumble bee-inspired robot heralding a future generation of auto crash avoidance systems at a technology show in Japan.
Go deeper with GlobalData
The biomimetic car robot drive, or BR23C, was first shown publicly today (30 September) at CEATEC Japan (Cutting-edge IT & Electronics Comprehensive Exhibition) and is a robotic micro-car that recreates bee characteristics with the goal of producing a system that prevents collisions altogether.
It is one of many new safety technologies the automaker is working on as part of its ‘safety shield’ concept – an advanced, proactive approach to safety issues based on the idea that cars should help protect people.
The approach classifies driving risks and accidents into six stages. Nissan aims to halve the number of vehicle accident fatalities or serious injuries involving its vehicles by 2015 compared to 1995.
“The BR23C robotic car is positioned as the inner-most layer of this shield. We are expecting that this robotic car will support the development of future collision-avoidance technologies,” said Mitsuhiko Yamashita, Nissan’s executive vice president in charge of research and development.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataIn flight, each bee creates its own oval-shaped personal space which closely resembles the safety shield concept, Nissan said.
The bee’s compound eyes, capable of seeing more than 300 degrees, allow it to fly uninterrupted inside its personal space. In order to recreate the function of a compound eye, engineers developed a laser range finder (LRF) which detects obstacles up to two metres away within a 180 degree radius in front of the BR23C, calculates the distance to them, and sends a signal to an on-board microprocessor, which is instantly translated into collision avoidance.
“The split second it detects an obstacle, the car robot will mimic the movements of a bee and instantly change direction by turning its wheels at right angles or greater to avoid a collision,” said Toshiyuki Andou, who manages Nissan’s mobility laboratory and is principal engineer of the robot car project.
“The biggest difference to any current system is that the avoidance manoeuvre is totally instinctive. If that was not so, then the car robot would not be able to react fast enough to avoid obstacles,” Andou said.
“It must react instinctively and instantly because this technology corresponds to the most vulnerable and inner-most layer of our safety shield, a layer in which a crash is currently considered unavoidable,” he added. “The whole process must mirror what a bee does to avoid other bees. It must happen within the blink of an eye.”
But unlike a bee, it cannot deviate upwards or downwards or diagonally, only in two dimensions and only in the direction that the wheels can turn.
“So in place of the infinite number of ways a bumblebee can avoid other bees, we have employed a rotation function, in addition to acceleration and deceleration as our car robot’s means of collision avoidance,” Andou said.
Andou said the robot’s instincts are intelligent, not its ability to process or even store data.
“This device only needs to process inputs every few seconds, and act on that,” he said. “It does not require a huge central processing unit to run complicated programs or a large memory to store enormous data from previous manoeuvres. It can operate continuously using an extremely simple microprocessor.”
Though the research has just begun, Nissan said the bee-inspired technology “has taken the next big step in creating technologies that may help one day lead to a collision-free future”.
Nissan also unveiled a claimed world first – a mobile phone with built-in intelligent key co-developed with Japanese cellphone company NTT Docomo and consumer electronics maker Sharp.
The incorporates Nissan’s intelligent key keyless entry system already used in various vehicles including the Europe entry-level Micra model. The phone/key is scheduled for sale early in fiscal year 2009.
