Robot cars to mimic shoals of fish- A technology based on fish behaviour is being developed to help prevent car accidents.
- With humans having been industrialised for only a short time it's hardly surprising that nature has better solutions to many problems than we currently have. Nissan is testing that theory, looking at the behaviour of fish with its EPORO (EPisode O (Zero) Robot) robot car. It's not the first time Nissan has turned to Mother Nature for inspiration either, with its 2008 Bomimetic Car Robot Drive BR23C Concept inspired by the flight of the bumblebee. This year Nissan is looking at the behaviour of schooling fish with its EPORO; specifically the ability of shoaling fish to move as one without colliding into each other, regardless of the environment.
- The EPORO is being shown at the CREATEC in Japan, an annual exhibition showcasing cutting-edge electronic and information technologies. There Nissan will demonstrate its shoaling behaviour with six EPOROs navigating instinctively though a course and without colliding. Like fish, their behaviour follows a few basic rules of 'collision avoidance', 'travelling side-by-side' and 'approaching'. To do so fish use sight and a lateral line sense, whereas the EPORO uses a laser range finder as the lateral sensor and ultra wide band radio communication for sight.
- "We, in a motorized world, have a lot to learn from the behaviour of a school of fish in terms of each fish's degree of freedom and safety within a school and high migration efficiency of a school itself. In EPORO, we recreated the behaviour of a school of fish making full use of cutting-edge electronic technologies," said Toshiyuki Andou, Manager of Nissan's Mobility Laboratory and principal engineer of the robot car project. "By sharing the surrounding information received within the group via communication, the group of EPOROs can travel safely, changing its shape as needed."
- While it all might sound a bit fishy, Nissan's research could see a future where traffic flows more freely and accidents are a thing of the past.
By www.superstarrajni.com
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