Nissan's "Forest AC"

Nissan Motor Co Ltd has developed a new air conditioning system named 'Forest AC' which has been designed using a number of advanced technologies to increase cabin comfort with refreshing climate, fragrances and natural breeze of relaxing forest settings. It controls cabin temperature, humidity, aroma and ventilation systematically to create an optimal interior environment.

Driver's mental activities have been studied to design AC system for the first time and as a result, additional control of flow of air, humidity and aroma in addition to air cleaning and temperature control have been introduced which significantly affect the physiological state of passengers.

The major features of this forest AC, according to the company sources, are:

• Breezy Air
• Aroma
• Humidity Control
• Active control of Ventilation
• Odor Sensors

This Forest AC system generates 'plasmacluster ions' through ventilation system at higher densities helping maintain cabin air quality by improving reduction of airborne microbes and increased adhere odor reduction. In addition, it also uses a high performance filter which removes allergens more effectively.

"Forest AC" is expected to be launched with the new Fuga this year.

Battery that charges in seconds

Byoungwoo Kang and Gerbrand Ceder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT) have developed a lithium ion battery that can be charged in a time less than that required to read this sentence and the battery of laptop or mobile based on this principle can be charged in a time less than the time you'll take to read this article!!

A new manufacturing method for lithium-ion batteries could lead to smaller, lighter batteries that can be charged in just seconds. The low charging speed with earlier batteries was due to the way ions passed through the material. The material used earlier was mostly Lithium-Cobalt. Now, with proposed Lithium-Iron-Phosphate batteries, the charge transfer will be faster as indicated by the researches carried out at MIT. The crystal structure of lithium-iron-phosphate is such that it has perfectly sized tunnels for lithium ions to move through it. So, the ion transport should be very fast as compared to the ion speed that is practically obtained in lithium-cobalt batteries. this happens because the ions need to be properly aligned to pass through in Lithium-Cobalt solution. The lithium ions face difficulty in identifying the crystal structure and cannot find the tunnel. This has been corrected by providing so called 'beltway' by coating the surface of the electrolyte by Lithium-Iron-Phosphate which guides the Lithium ions and increases the speed of ion transport drastically. The sample was found to charge and discharge in 9 seconds. That means the standard battery of laptop, if modified by this principle, will take 6-8 minutes to charge!

Though the standard Lithium-Cobalt battery can store more charges than the new devised one for the same amount of mass, but that is compensated by high charging rates. It is cheaper too. Also, it does not lose the ability to charge over time as do the standard Lithium-Cobalt batteries. Another advantage is that the Lithium-Iron-Phosphate batteries will not suffer from overheating as was the case with Lithium-Cobalt battery.

If successful, this battery will find its greatest utilization in regenerative braking since brakes are applied for very small interval of time and a great amount of energy is wasted in the process. If the charging speed is very fast, the energy can be stored in battery.

Achyut: The one that never falls down!

     Ever thought of making a dancing robot looking like a human being? BITS Pilani Goa Campus, during Quark’09(Annual Technical Festival of BITS), unveiled India’s second humanoid robot ACHYUT 2 on Feb 7^th, 09. It was the centre of attraction all over there.  Acyut 2 is presently able to do a kung fu match, a demonstration dance, stairs-climbing and running race. This tremendous work has been done by a five-member team of the Centre for Robotics Intelligent Systems, BITS Pilani. Acyut 2 is all set to participate in RoboGames 2009 in San Francisco (U.S.A.).  Achyut 1, which participated in RoboGames 2008, couldnot manage to win a single medal. The team of Achyut 2 is hoping to do better this time.

  A humanoid robot is an autonomous robot with its overall appearance resembling to human being. It must be capable of adapting to changes in its environment and continue to reach its goal. It must have self maintenance system. Its activities in no way should be harmful to human i.e. it must interact safely with human and environment. The most essential difference between humanoid robots and other robots is that the movement of the robot has to be human-like, using legged locomotion so as to minimise the energy required for the locomotion. There must be proper planning and control for automatic obstacle detection, avoiding collisions and proper path selection for motion. Actuators and sensors are two most important and functional parts of a humanoid robot. Actuators are responsible for the motion of the robot while sensors enable it to get information about the environment and perform some special functions. In addition to these structural aspects, the humanoid robot must be able to perform some human tasks. The practical application of humaniod robots lies mostly in Artificial Intelligence and Research Activities. But, it can also be used to assist human or do on its own the work which may be dengerous for humans but does not harm the robot.

  Leonardo da Vinci was the first one to conceive the idea of a humanoid robot which is evident from Leonardo's robot. (a design of humanoid automaton by him that looks like an armored knight) However, the credit of making first humanoid robot in reality goes to Waseda University, Tokyo where WABOT-1, able to communicate in Japanese, was made in 1973. It has gotten better and better after that and Honda has given us well known ASIMO which is able to recognize not only objects and faces, but also different gestures and postures.

  The progress made so far in the field of humanoid robots suggests that it is practically possible to design and fabricate a robot for any kind of work. So, let’s wait for the day we all will be having robots as our day-to-day life companion!

 PS - Watch I Robot if you are really interested!!