Accident prevention inspired by the flight of the bee

Joint research by Nissan and the University of Tokyo led to the development of an innovative system to prevent road accidents, inspired by the flight of the bee. The joint project led to the development of a robotic micro-car, imitating the flight characteristics of the bee, with the aim of creating a system that prevents collisions - the RB23C car robot.

The car robot is part of an overall system of the safety shield concept, a proactive approach, based on the understanding that the car must protect the people inside and outside. The BR23C forms the innermost part of the shield.

In flight, each bee creates an oval-shaped personal space, and with the help of its complex eye structure, which has a vision range of up to 300 degrees, the bee can move without interruption within that oval-shaped personal space. In order to mimic the functionality of the bee's eye, engineers developed the Laser Range Finder (LRF).

The LRF detects objects up to two meters away, in a 180 degree radius from the front of the robot, calculates the distance from them and sends a signal to the microprocessor. It immediately translates the signal to change the direction of travel, in order to avoid a collision. The significant difference from other prevention systems is the almost instantaneous change. The whole process simulates the activity of the bee to prevent collision with another bee. Unlike the flight of the bee, the travel change is limited to the plane on the one hand and the maximum turning angle of the wheel on the other hand.

The system must process data every few seconds, and act according to the received data. There is no need for a bulky central data processing system, running complex algorithms, or storing a large amount of data from past operations. The system can work continuously using a very simple microprocessor.
Although the research is only in its infancy, the technology inspired by the flight of the bee adds another important layer, in an effort to develop a collision-free movement system.

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