Space-developed technologies in your car

Satellite guiding and new motorisation systems, the space industry is finding its way more and more into our vehicles. An innovation from the ESA is also involved with their assembly.

 

Nuna II: this solar-powered car belonging to the European Space Agency won the World Solar Challenge in 2003, just like Nuna in 2001. Credit: ESA/Alpha Centauri Nuon Solar Racing Team

“Put a tiger in your tank”: such was the promise of a large petrol company made to car drivers just a few decades ago. Today, most car manufacturers would proudly assert “we’re putting more and more space-developed technologies in your car”!

Satellites and motorisations
We could also cite the satellite positioning system which tells you where you are and how to get to your destination. And in the future, the intervention of onboard electronics coupled with satellites will increase, just as we explained in this article entitled Satellites in the Driving Seat? But the most visible revolution will perhaps be that of motorisation as several car manufacturers are seriously studying the fuel cell as a means of replacing the classic spark ignition engine which, in these times of expensive petrol and awareness as regards pollution, will curry less and less favour with tomorrow’s customers. The Japanese company, Honda, has gone even further by marketing a saloon car powered by a fuel cell, technology which owes much to the space industry. Did you know that actress Jamie Lee Curtis drives one? Read this Enjoy Space article.
The ESA, European Space Agency, has put a lot of work into a prototype of a solar-powered car. It must be said that we no longer count how many satellites and exploration probes draw their electricity from photovoltaic cells. It is worthy of note that the ESA has twice won the prestigious World Solar Challenge, an endurance race for solar-powered vehicles, with their Nuna and Nuna II prototypes.

A car assembly line at one of the Volkswagen factories. Credit: Volkswagen

From docking with the ISS to a car dashboard!
But this time, the ESA is dealing with cars on an assembly line. This is no longer a question of a competition, but an industrial application where we are looking for efficiency and productivity gain. The targeted operation concerns the installing of the dashboard which is carried out using a robot under the surveillance of an operator. The problem is that an assembly line does not necessarily move forward at a constant speed and that, despite the intervention of a worker, the resulting lack of synchronisation sometimes leads to knocks which damage the dashboard, not to mention the loss of time that this causes. The exact aligning of the speed of the assembly line with the robot during this phase would also lead to complex equipment associated with prohibitive costs. The solution has therefore come from space and more especially from the piloting logistics of the European ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) cargo ship belonging to the ESA.

Based on the ATV docking technology, the system developed by MDUSpace is capable of automatically co-ordinating itself with the movement of a car on an assembly line. Credit: MDUSpace Credit: MDUSpace

When this freighter approaches the International Space Station for docking, it uses a video camera system with object recognition software in order to align itself with its target and to faultlessly dock with the connection airlock. The European Space Agency’s TTPO, Technology Transfer Programme Office, and the company MDUSpace have transposed these logistics so that the robot responsible for inserting the dashboard “recognises” its target by means of a camera and corrects its movements in accordance with the speed variations of the car on the assembly line in real time. The system is actually capable of identifying a series of previously arranged targets that reflect a light beam. These targets therefore constitute the reference points on which the software bases its calculations for any necessary trajectory corrections, no matter whether it is a question of docking with the ISS or installing a dashboard! Subject obviously to a few programming changes...

An ATV space cargo ship approaching the ISS (illustration). In November 2010, a second freighter dubbed Johannes Kepler is to blast off to the Station. The last one, known by the name of Jules Verne, successfully accomplished its mission in 2008. Credit: ESA/D. Ducros

Published on 25 January 2010