Volvo Cars showcases virtual tech for making safer cars

-


I sat in on one of Volvo Cars's Studio Talks yesterday which turned out to be one of the most slick and well-managed of recent 'remote' launch and automotive information events, writes Brian Byrne.

It was based around how the Swedish carmaker is using technology developed for gaming to provide state of the art simulated driving and allied events such as sudden braking and automated motoring. I have been to many such events 'live' over the years, but it was really pleasant — and arguably no less informative — sitting at it from the comfort of my own home and winter fire.

The 'ultimate simulator' live stream centred around technology that included a mixed reality headset from specialist Varjo that allows a seamless mix of virtual and real world 3D imagery.

A full-body 'haptic suit' from Teslasuit allows testers to physically feel small reproductions of the forces one would experience in a crash, while experiencing no actual risk. The suit also enables Volvo’s engineers to test reactions by studying how muscles, stress levels, and heart rate react under stress.

Virtual environments and objects can be created using simulation engines from Unity, one of the world's biggest developers of gaming technology.

How Volvo's own engineers are combining such technologies in their efforts to build safer cars — and safer drivers — filled a fascinating 45 minutes. That I didn't need to ask any questions at the end is an indication of how well the remote demonstrations worked.

You can watch it yourself here. Settle down with a coffee first. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

N-Channel MOSFET High-Side Drive: When, Why and How?

-
Image
I had previously shown how to drive N-channel MOSFETs in low-side configuration. You can find the tutorial here: http://electel.blogspot.com/2016/12/low-side-mosfet-drive-circuits-and_23.html I’ve been requested to write a tutorial/article regarding high-side MOSFET drive. So, here I’ll talk about N-channel MOSFET high-side drive. Let’s first look at the common low side configuration.  Fig. 1 - N-channel MOSFET configured as low-side switch Now let’s look at a MOSFET configured as a high-side switch. Fig. 2 - N-channel MOSFET configured as high-side switch You can quite easily see the difference between the high-side configuration and the low-side configuration. In the low-side configuration, the load is connected between the drain and +V, while the source is connected to ground. Thus, the gate drive is referenced to ground. So by applying a voltage of >7V (for Power MOSFETs) or >4V (for Logic Level MOSFETs), the MOSFET can be fully turned on. Now let’s talk about the high-si...
Read more

Using the high-low side driver IR2110 - explanation and plenty of example circuits

-
Image
In many situations, we need to use MOSFETs configured as high-side switches. Many a times we need to use MOSFETs configured as high-side and low-side switches. Such as in bridge circuits. In half-bridge circuits, we have 1 high-side MOSFET and 1 low-side MOSFET. In full-bridge circuits we have 2 high-side MOSFETs and 2 low-side MOSFETs. In such situations, there is a need to use high-side drive circuitry alongside low-side drive circuitry. The most common way of driving MOSFETs in such cases is to use high-low side MOSFET drivers. Undoubtedly, the most popular such driver chip is the IR2110. And in this article/tutorial, I will talk about the IR2110. You can download the IR2110 datasheet from the IR website. Here's the download link: www.irf.com/product-info/datasheets/data/ir2110.pdf First let’s take a look at the block diagram and the pin assignments and pin definitions (also called lead assignments and lead definitions): Fig. 1 - IR2110 block diagram (click on image to enlarge)...
Read more

Using the SG3525 PWM Controller - Explanation and Example: Circuit Diagram / Schematic of Push-Pull Converter

-
Image
PWM is used in all sorts of power control and converter circuits. Some common examples include motor control, DC-DC converters, DC-AC inverters and lamp dimmers. There are numerous PWM controllers available that make the use and application of PWM quite easy. One of the most popular of such controllers is the versatile and ubiquitous SG3525 produced by multiple manufacturers – ST Microelectronics, Fairchild Semiconductors, On Semiconductors, to name a few. SG3525 is used extensively in DC-DC converters, DC-AC inverters, home UPS systems, solar inverters, power supplies, battery chargers and numerous other applications. With proper understanding, you can soon start using SG3525 yourself in such applications or any other application really that demands PWM control. Before going on to the description and application, let’s first take a look at the block diagram and the pin layout. Pins 1 (Inverting Input) and 2 (Non Inverting Input) are the inputs to the on-board error amplifier. If you a...
Read more