a bit sad that our previous project proposal was denied.
Mr Zeng is right. Sensors are widely used on automotive and now we try to design some thing using a big size and costy mechanical device to do the same thing as a small and cheap sensor?
Fine, we leave it.
However, i just got a new idea came to my mind this evening after i watch the famous TV show, TOP GEAR. The drivers in the program have very nice skills that they can drive a car so fast and even the car is losing control, they can save it. However, come back to real world, not every driver have skills what those top drivers have. In a case of losing control, some people will just lost his mind and doing nothing. And some people may turn the steering wheel subconsciously. To stop the car losing control completely, the steering action is vital. It has timing, angle and speed involved.
I had my own experience with my 03 Subaru Impreza in pukekohe race track. I was driving down the track at 120km/h before entering the straight line. That conner was bumpy and the car suddenly become unstable. I feel the rear of my car is so light and my rear tires starts to slide. My tail started to swing after my quickly contersteering and finally hit on the fence. My mate told me i may save the crash if i countersteer bit less. The initial slide is esier to be eliminated, but the heavy swing by oversteering afterwards was hard to control. However, that didnt help me with a $3000 collision repair.
Anyway, the automatic steering system (ASS) will have (not limited to) following features.
ASS will work with ABS, traction control and other driving aids to perform a safer driving.
ASS will take the control only when a certain lose of traction is detected.
ASS will not engage with steering wheel when act, so the driver will not be injuried. For example, hands or arms may trapped inside the steering wheel.
I had looked up on the internet and find that there are automatic steering systems designed and even producted. However, their design are mostly for farming, where heavy and low speed vehicles are used. GPS is involved to give the path, which means the vehicle is designed to operate by itself without manual control. ANd our concept is total different with theirs. We aim to give a vehicle helpful steering when it has a sign of losing control. Which means, the already invented ones are designed to save labour for people. And our planned ones are designed to reduce the chance or accident.
Also, heaps computer, steering, speed, centrol of gravity and other automotive principles applied. We will have heaps to work on. I m sure we can learn a lot from this project.
Hey this sounds like a great idea, this would almost take over people from driving, which in turn is not a bad idea as human error is mostly the cause of major crashes, so designing a system that would counter act if you lost traction under heavy load, I like the idea of the steering wheel not engaging when this loss of traction happens, maybe we can use a permanent magnetic type clutch to disengage and engage the steering wheel when the driver goes wild and loses traction so he/she doesn't get there hands caught up in the steering wheel if the system acted violently. lots of calculations will have to be taken into account, 180 degree angles of tilt ? , inclination angles up to 50 degrees and declining angles also, the front wheels of the car sliding out along with the rear will also have to be calculated to correct the angle to slide out easily. Anyway we run it by the teachers sounds good :) hopefully this ASS doesn't stink.
ReplyDeletecool. find me a good name for it. ASS indeed doesnt sound good. Fill the report and let's hand it in new wednesday.cheers
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