Helmet head-up displays, air-conditioned pit crew suits, electric rear passenger car brakes, stability control for buses - all some of the fantastic technology innovations that we've come across recently.
BMW F1 Head-Up Display
The BMW Technology Office has taken the wraps off an innovative Formula One product. A miniature 6x8 millimetre head-up display system integrated in Ralf Schumacher's helmet will enable a wide range of information and messages to be relayed to the driver. With this "visual information window" racing drivers can register visual information while still paying full attention to their driving. Aided by this innovative technology, the driver can be alerted, for example, to an accident on a certain stretch of the track or a patch of oil on a particular turn.
"With this device, BMW has taken a further important step forward on the safety front," says Ralf Schumacher of the BMW WilliamsF1 Team.
The display system was devised by the BMW Technology Office based in Silicon Valley's Palo Alto in collaboration with a local partner company specialising in electronics and with the German helmet manufacturer Schuberth.
This pioneering technology opens up an entirely new channel of communication between the pits and the driver. A module integrated in the helmet stores various messages and images in a data set which can be called up from the pits and displayed to the driver. The mini head-up display projects the relevant "transparent" image through the visor on a level with the front of the car. The driver registers the information without being distracted from what is happening on the track.
The BMW mini head-up display has a high-resolution true colour display based on active matrix liquid crystal display (AMLCD) technology. The key function of the display is found in a unique lens element known as a free form prism (FFP). Thus the driver is able to see the picture pin sharp.
The mini head-up display enables the projection of any number of optical messages into the driver's direct field of vision. For Formula One testing, the miniature display was integrated into the chin cup of a modified Schuberth RF-1 racing helmet. Additional walls and padding were used in accordance with guidelines from the SNELL Foundation (the helmet safety organization). The system is located in the peripheral vision field of the driver's dominant eye. Thanks to the unique design of the system, the information is projected into the driver's field of vision without his having to actually look at the display.
"The eye very quickly gets used to this small spot and ignores it as if it were a tiny insect on the windscreen," explains Jürgen Brügl, project engineer at the BMW office in Palo Alto.
With the help of the miniature display, the F1 driver is fed a wide range of information on the race and on safety precautions straight from the pits. It means the driver is permanently informed of his position in the race, can receive instructions from the pits during the race and training, such as "go faster", "come into the box" or "oil in turn 2", and is kept up to date on flag signals and emergency procedures by means of messages such as "pit traffic" or "oil pump". It also allows the instructor in the pits to send the driver an SMS through bi-directional telemetry. This information is relayed straight to the display. Similarly, information on the engine management (e.g. "oil pressure low") can be sent directly to the driver without having to go through the pits. It all helps to save precious time.
Electric Rear Brakes
US components supplier, Delphi Corp, is developing an advanced, new hybrid braking system.
Hybrid braking utilizes a "smart" rear electric caliper with integral brake control function to control the braking force at the rear wheels. The conventional hydraulic front brakes, master cylinder, booster and ABS front modulator are combined with the rear electric brake calipers. As a driver brakes, intent is measured by a set of sensors, converted to a rear caliper apply command and then communicated to the electric calipers. The front-to-rear brake balance is under software control and can be optimized for most effective braking force distribution.
"We believe, from an actuator standpoint, hybrid braking is the next logical step toward a pure brake-by-wire system," said Mark DePoyster, chief engineer, Delphi Dynamics Center, "Plus hybrid introduces the automaker and consumer to a 'by-wire' system through the two rear electric calipers."
Hybrid braking also includes the use of an integrated electric park brake that eliminates components and allows automakers to "plug-and-bolt" the rear brake corner during the assembly process, without having to connect hydraulic pipes, hoses and parking brake cables. This also frees up space in the vehicle with the elimination of the parking brake lever or pedal in the passenger compartment.
The benefits of hybrid braking include improved base brake response (the calipers react more quickly), good pedal feel, reduced brake pad drag, and the ability to tune and independently control the rear calipers to improve front-to-rear brake balance. In addition, during assembly there is the elimination of rear pipes, hoses and park brake mechanisms. Hybrid braking also brings new functionality including a push button park brake, brake pad wear detection through the use of an integrated sensor in the electric calipers, and a hill-holder function.
McLaren Pit Crew Space Technology
The McLaren Formula 1 team has received a special boost from space technology: their mechanics' suits feature a cooling system, specially developed from the astronauts' suits by the Technology Transfer Programme of the European Space Agency.
The McLaren mechanics' suits are the unique product of a team grouping together the ESA Technology Transfer Programme (TTP), the Italian fashion manufacturer Karada and the designer Hugo Boss. The challenge was to produce a thermo-regulating garment, offering fire protection and a comfortable working temperature for the whole team servicing the car. The ESA TTP offered the solution: 50 metres of plastic tubing, 2mm wide, developed for an astronaut's suit by the Canadian company Med-Eng, and installed by Karada in 55 overalls. The result is a miniaturised air conditioning system, offering maximum comfort when working under extreme heat.
The idea dates back to early 2001, when Karada spun off a company - Grado Zero Espace - to investigate the use of engineering, chemistry and mechanics for innovative garments. Lead by Mauro Taliani, designer for Hugo Boss, the team first conceived a cooling jacket where plastic tubing was used, completing an internal cooling circuit controlled by a mini refrigerator. In late 2001 the crucial impulse came from the technology broker D'Appolonia, member of the TTP network, who mediated the know-how of European space experts and identified the space industry with the right product.
Stability Control for Commercial Vehicles
DaimlerChrysler has become the first bus and coach manufacturer in the world to offer customers buying coaches two new electronic safety assistance systems - Brake Assist and Dynamic Handling Control.
Dynamic Handling Control is an active system for boosting handling safety and directional stability. It noticeably reduces the risk of skidding during cornering or evasive manoeuvres. To do this, the braking force at each individual wheel is adjusted precisely in critical handling situations, which occur for example when a bus or coach is driven at its handling limits while cornering. At the same time, engine output is reduced.
If the vehicle threatens to swerve out of control in long, sweeping bends (at motorway exits for example) or when switching lanes too quickly, the vehicle's speed will be reduced automatically by as much and for as long as is necessary to restore directional stability. The Dynamic Handling Control is comparable to the ESP system fitted in passenger cars, but with extended functions tailored to bus and coach operation. These functions include the permanent monitoring of the data made available by the Dynamic Handling Control and the Electronic Bus Braking System (EBS) in order to maintain the vehicle's directional stability.
DaimlerChrysler has also become the first bus and coach manufacturer to integrate another auxiliary function into the electronically controlled brake system that helps to ensure maximum brake pressure build-up and therefore shorten stopping distances in emergency situations. The Brake Assist is equivalent to the Brake Assist System which has already proven its worth many times over in Mercedes-Benz passenger cars. Its electronics are capable of detecting an emergency stop situation. When this happens, the electronic Brake Assist automatically builds up the maximum brake force boost within a few fractions of a second with virtually no jerking, thereby shortening the vehicle's stopping distance considerably.
BMW's Active Steering
To be debuted on future BMW models, ActiveSteering is a unique new system. It provides graduated steering assistance and intervention, dependent on road speed, which can reduce the number of turns of the steering wheel on a 5 Series from three turns lock to lock to just under two. The result is go kart steering response and directness with none of the jittery over-sensitivity of a race car steering set up. In fact, BMW ActiveSteering combines that direct response with perfect high-speed tracking.
BMW's ActiveSteering still incorporates a mechanical steering column permanently connecting the steering wheel with the front wheels of the car. This not only guarantees full maintenance of all steering functions even if one of the assistance systems is not operating properly or breaks down altogether, but - according to BMW - is also the prerequisite for the authentic steering 'feel'. By contrast, a steer-by-wire system alone is unable to simulate such realistic feedback to the driver.
The core element of the revolutionary ActiveSteering system is the steering override function provided by a planetary gearbox integrated in the split steering column. Acting through a self-inhibiting gear wheel, an electric motor intervenes as required in this planetary gearbox, either increasing or taking back the steering angle of the front wheels. A further component is the individually controlled power steering (similar to BMW Servotronic) controlling steering forces as required. These two components adjust the steering angle of the front wheels and the steering forces on the steering wheel to the respective situation on the road and the driver's requirements.
Under normal driving conditions, ActiveSteering varies the steering transmission particularly at low and medium speeds, making the car more agile and nimble in its behaviour. In critical situations ActiveSteering serves to change the steering angles of the wheels, thus stabilising the car faster and more efficiently than the driver would be able to. This response offers dynamic driving advantages.
When driving at very low speeds, for example when parking in town, the driver only has to turn the steering wheel twice thanks to a direct steering ratio in order to manoeuvre the car into the most confined parking space.
At higher speeds, for example on the Autobahn, the steering transmission ratio becomes increasingly indirect up to the level of conventional steering (or even beyond). The level of steering forces increases at the same time, preventing any undesired and unwanted movement of the steering.
Whenever driving stability is limited, for example on wet or slippery roads or in crosswinds, ActiveSteering quickly intervenes and improves driving stability so significantly that BMW's DSC Dynamic Stability Control only has to intervene where really necessary. This is also the case when applying the brakes on surfaces varying in grip (for example with the right-hand wheels running on dry asphalt offering good and secure grip, while the wheels on the left are running on a loose embankment or road shoulder) or when suddenly changing direction, for example to steer clear of an animal or an obstacle.
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