EUREKA project E! 2512 MINIMOBIL has developed a vehicle specifically designed for life in Europe’s congested cities that uses a hybrid drive combining the environmental benefits of an electric motor with the range of a petrol engine. The compact city car relieves congested roads and reduces urban pollution.
The MINIMOBIL measures a slim two by one metres, and is little bigger than a motorbike. It is ideal for swiftly moving through traffic, while doors positioned at the front a
The technology improvements that are giving us ever quieter cars are not proving popular with many car drivers. Car manufacturers now want to restore to the inside of a car the sounds their customers want to hear while preserving the reduction in exterior noise. But what exactly do their customers want to hear? – researchers at the University of Warwick’s Warwick Manufacturing Group are helping them answer that question.
Researchers at the University of Warwick’s Warwick Manufac
The Gaiker Technology Centre, member of the IK4 technological platform, has carried out in collaboration with ANTEC, S.A. and TENNECO a technological research project to manufacture a new range of ecological shock absorbers able to provide major security level and comfort to drivers and users of vehicles and to improve their competitiveness from traditional products.
The importance of this project is that it increases substantially the security of vehicles, by improving damping through th
With cars become ever more computerised, there is an increasing need for robust real-time embedded software to maintain the effectiveness and safety of critical onboard systems.
The IST-funded RISE project, which ended in February 2005, set out to address this demand by developing a software toolset specifically geared to the automotive industry.
RISE succeeded in delivering on all of its principal objectives and answers a genuine need in the automotive industry, according t
A new system that not only warns drivers of collision risks, but also independently jams on the brakes to minimize an inevitable crash has been developed in a research project at Linköping University. Calculations show that the system reduces the risk of severe and fatal traffic injuries by five percent.
The findings of the project, which has been carried out in collaboration between the Section for Control and Communication at Linköping University and Volvo Car Corporation, are no
In a bid to reduce the annual death of more than 50,000 people and the countless severe injuries on Europe’s roads, future onboard night vision systems have been developed that highlight unexpected obstacles and improve driver visibility.
The system, developed by a team of carmakers, automotive suppliers and university researchers under the IST programme’s EDEL project, is expected to increase safety by highlighting unexpected, sudden events; improving visibility of road signs
Who would have thought taking a simple scan of your finger could save your life?
Unlikely on the face of it, perhaps, but a consortium including Cranfield Impact Centre and Nissan Technical Centre Europe, has developed a prototype bone density scanning system which could be used to improve driver and passenger restraint systems in cars.
The system would work by taking an ultrasound scan of your finger and using the data to estimate the bone strength of each passenger,
A car that can automatically alert emergency services in the event of an accident, giving its precise location and the health status of occupants would save thousands of lives each year. Thanks to the work of AIDER such a vehicle is a step closer to becoming reality.
Developed over three years by 10 partners under the European Commission’s IST programme, the AIDER system has been completely tested in the field and, from the car maker’s perspective, contributes towards meeting the
The University of Waterloo has joined 16 other top North American universities as teams of engineering students compete to design the vehicles of the future. The Waterloo team, with a fuel-cell-powered vehicle design, is the only Canadian team in the Challenge X competition being held this week in Detroit. The team is sponsored by Natural Resources Canada and Hydrogenics Corporation.
“This is an exciting opportunity for young people to be involved in designing the environmental tec
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that airbags installed in automobiles have saved some 10,000 lives as of January 2004. A just-released study by a statistician at the University of Georgia, however, casts doubt on that assertion.
In fact, said UGA statistics professor Mary C. Meyer, a new analysis of existing data indicates that, controlling for other factors, airbags are actually associated with slightly increased probability of death in a
The Moscow chemists have suggested a way to produce insulin in pills instead of injections. They have developed polymeric capsules that would protect insulin from destructive effect of digestive juices. The research has been accomplished with financial support of the Ministry of Industry, Science and Technology of Russia within the framework of international scientific cooperation.
Once insulin appeared, diabetes mellitus is no longer a verdict for the patients. However, to contro
Imagine a car engine that saves you gas money and protects the environment. That may soon be a reality. Researchers at Karstad University in Sweden, working with the Swedish company Mecel, have developed a new method to make internal combustion engines more efficient and environmentally friendly.
To be able to tune internal combustion engines optimally, information is needed from the combustion process in the engine’s cylinders. This isn’t easy, because it’s hard
A giant leap forward in the realism of virtual reality (VR) may be just around the corner as a team of European researchers near the completion of a pioneering project to add textures, lighting effects and ‘feel’ to computer-generated 3D models.
Launched in 2002, the RealReflect project was the first attempt to use a new image acquisition technique known as Bidirectional Texture Function (BTF) that captures the look and feel of different materials. When this IST programme funded-
M+W Zander offers particle measurement cabinet for development of soot particle filters
M+W Zander has developped with partners a special Particle Measurement Cabinet (PMC) for the automobile industry. It prevents measurements of soot particles from being affected by interferences caused by mechanical vibrations as well as fluctuations in temperature and humidity. The PMC has already been sold to a number of automobile manufacturers and suppliers.
Development and qualific
Cars are now able to speak by means of sensors attached to wheel rims and seats. With the new technology a car tells you if the tyre pressures are too low or the driver is falling asleep. Intelligent tyres and seats increase driving comfort.
The Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT), Nokian Tyres and Emfit Oy are merging information technology solutions, some of which are already known while others are still being developed, and turning them into something that is an everyday feature
Fester, leichter und bereits in der Auto-Serienproduktion nutzbar: Warmumformung mit Nanobeschichtung ist das Ergebnis einer neuartigen Entwicklung. Diese weltweit neue Technologie wird erstmals in der Karosserieproduktion des neuen VW Passat eingesetzt. Die Volkswagen AG und die ThyssenKrupp Stahl AG unterstützten diese Entwicklung des Kasseler Maschinenbau-Fachgebiets Umformtechnik unter Leitung von Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Kurt Steinhoff mit der Saarbrücker Nano-X GmbH. Der Warmumformungsprüfsta
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