Science And Sensibility

The Age

Saturday January 19, 2008

Ian Porter

Clever things sometimes come in odd-shaped packages, says Ian Porter.

WHEN you turn the key, a little face pops up out of the dashboard, like a meerkat sniffing the wind. But this little face is not sniffing the wind, it's reading your expression and gauging your mood from the tone of your voice. And you talk to it, because it would be impolite not to respond when it greets you with: "My name is Pivo2. I assist Jenny with driving."

Rather unromantically, Nissan calls it the Robotic Agent, or RA.

It looks like just another of those cute and cuddly toys the Japanese are so good at but it could be the new front line in tackling traffic accidents and cutting road trauma.

If Nissan's RA detects a hint of anger, a dose of frustration or a knot of anxiety within the driver it will spring into action with some soothing words such as: "Stay cool."

If the facial recognition system detects drowsiness, the RA might offer: "Aren't you sleepy? You have been driving a long time."

Then, tapping into the sat-nav system, RA might offer a solution: "There's a coffee shop 500 metres ahead."

It sounds a bit like Arthur C. Clarke's 2001, a Space Odyssey, with RA playing the role of HAL, the friendly computer - which later turns mutinous - but there is a very serious side to what Nissan is doing.

"We have done research which shows that when drivers are in a positive frame of mind, they are less prone to having an accident," said Masahiko Tabe, a senior manager at Nissan's sparkling new advanced technology centre in Tokyo.

"Therefore, our aim is to make the driver happy. If he is driving fast, RA will tell him to slow down. If she is tense, RA will tell her a joke."

The RA was unveiled at November's Tokyo motor show, installed in Nissan's eye-catching Pivo2 concept car. The Pivo2 is a radical vehicle looking like a large egg sitting on a saucer fitted with four small wheels.

The viewer's first reaction to the Pivo2 may be to smile but the car is bristling with innovative technology suitable for the cars of the coming decades.

Nissan has already incorporated the facial recognition system from the RA into an anti-drink driving technology that could save thousands of lives.

In Victoria during the past decade, between 34 and 72 people have died each year while driving under the influence of alcohol. The casualties caused by the same people are probably three times that number.

Until now, anti-drink driving systems have focused on recidivist offenders and usually involve the installation of an alcohol interlock on the ignition systems of the offender's car.

While that's a good place to start, Nissan believes more lives would be saved if every car was fitted with an alcohol warning system.

"But general drivers do not drink-drive all the time and it would be cumbersome for them to have to use an interlock system every time they drive," said Masasaki Kobayashi, another engineer at Nissan's tech centre. "So we have combined three technologies in this system to alert drivers if they are under the influence of alcohol."

One of the three systems is the facial recognition technology used by the RA in the Pivo2. Another is a sampling system which detects alcohol odours and alcohol secreted from the skin and the third detects erratic movement of the steering wheel.

Mr Kobayashi said alcohol usage can be detected either through odours in the air, or by a small detector fixed to the gearshift knob that the driver touches as the lever is moved from neutral.

If the reading from the gearshift detector or the odours in the cabin exceed a designated threshold, the car will play a pre-recorded message warning against driving.

If the reading exceeds set limits, the system can lock the automatic gearshift so the car is immobile.

Mr Kobayashi said the odour detectors were placed on each front seat, so the system could tell whether it was the driver or the passenger who was exhaling the alcohol odours.

The facial recognition system from the Pivo2 checks the main parts of the driver's face: eyebrows, eyelids, width of smile, forehead. If the software detects that the driver's blinking interval is getting longer, it will know the driver is becoming drowsy and start its audible warning routine.

If you are steering erratically, the steering wheel monitor also triggers the audible warning system but, as the car is in motion at this time, locking the gearshift lever is not an option.

So Nissan has devised a clever solution to the dilemma. If you don't have a passenger to give you a shake, Nissan gets the car to do it instead.

After the vocal warning, the car can give you a jolt through the seat belt. It will intermittently tighten and release the belt in a bid to wake you up and persuade you to pull over and rest.

Nissan has also been working hard on its drivetrains for the future, specifically electric motors and batteries, and the Pivo2 has also been used as a test bed for some of this work, which could return Nissan to the forefront of electric car development.

The company was one of the first to test-market a modern-day electric car - the Hypermini produced in the late 1990s - but financial problems and the subsequent restructuring under Renault's stewardship saw the electric car program put on the back-burner.

Nissan has now dusted off some Hyperminis and pressed them back into service, fitting them with state-of-the-art batteries and motors developed in joint ventures with leading electronics companies.

Working with the giant NEC company, Nissan has developed a laminated lithium-ion battery that is flatter and more compact - for the amount of energy stored - than traditional cylindrical lithium-ion batteries such as those used in portable devices.

(The Tesla electric car in California uses 6831 cylindrical lithium-ion batteries, all wired up in sequence.)

The Nissan battery cell looks like a metal bread board. Its thin profile is a plus for electric cars because batteries generate a lot of heat when discharging and being recharged, forcing electric cars to have serious heat exchangers (radiators in the old language), which themselves absorb some of the precious, and finite, onboard electric power.

The new flat battery cells have better heat dispersal and, therefore, can yield more of their stored power and also sustain high output for a longer period, Nissan says.

But it doesn't stop there, because the better heat regulation also extends the life of the battery - one of the critical clouds hanging over the development of electric cars.

It's all very well having a car that produces no exhaust fumes but if you have to change the battery pack every two years, the cost of ownership may prove too high, even for enviro-warriors.

When a battery is installed in a car, a computer can control the voltage and temperature of individual cells so that the battery of cells can be managed for optimum performance.

Nissan and NEC have already formed a manufacturing joint venture, Automotive Energy Supply Corporation, to manufacture and market the slim-line cells to all comers of the industry.

Another joint venture, this time with industrial giant Fujitsu, has invented what Nissan hopes is a breakthrough electric motor that turns decades of experience on its head.

All electric motors have a rotor (electromagnet) in the middle and a stator, or stationary copper wires, around the outside.

The new Nissan electric motor comprises three discs, with the stator sandwiched between two rotor discs.

With a huge increase in the surface area between the rotors and the stator, this new format produces twice the performance of a regular electric motor, Nissan claims. Or a motor half the size with the same power.

This new compact electric motor will be well suited for use in hydrogen fuel cell cars as the electric motors can be easily housed in the wheels, eliminating driveshafts and liberating more space inside the body for passengers and luggage.

That, in turn, will aid the manoeuvrability of the electric cars, as driveshafts on front-wheel-drive cars are responsible for the larger turning circle associated with front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive vehicles.

This manoeuvrability was highlighted on the Pivo2. The four wheels on the vehicle could each turn through 360 degrees, just like the three-seat bubble-shaped body on top. The body is able to rotate 360 degrees because all the mechanical functions such as steering and braking are controlled electronically. There are no mechanical connections (steering column, hydraulic brake lines) between the cabin and the chassis.

This means the Pivo2 driver can stop on the road next to a tight parking space, turn the body 90 degrees anti-clockwise, turn all the wheels 90 degrees so they point to the gutter and then just drive "straight" into the parking space.

It would be a brilliant solution in crowded cities or anywhere parking is at a premium.

Yes, the Pivo2 may look like something from a carnival sideshow but Nissan has crammed a lot of clever thinking into the little machine, some of which could be coming to you sooner rather than later.

© 2008 The Age

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