Bulging bumper could speed journey to computerised carriageways

Investigations by engineers at The University of Manchester into an extendable car bumper could help speed along the arrival of computer-controlled motorways. A paper presented at the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) World Congress and Exhibition recently offers a glimpse of how a high-tech, environmentally-friendly and efficient motorway network could operate safely in the future. The vision is that vehicles would not be independently driven, but regulated and controlled via information beamed from transmitters at the side of the road. Cars would also communicate and co-operate with the vehicles around them to ensure a safe and fast journey for everyone.

The authors, from the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, scooped Best Scientific Paper at the meeting of 3,000 key decision makers and technical experts from across the world.

Automated Highway Systems (AHS) and Co-operative Vehicle Highway Systems (CVHS) have been under development for many decades.

With the use of UK motorway space estimated to be as little as five per cent, the grouping or ‘platooning’ of cars is seen as one way to increase capacity and reduce congestion. As computer-controlled vehicles would be able to travel much closer together, it would mean less fuel consumption due to a reduction in aerodynamic drag.

In their award-winning paper, the University of Manchester academics note that concerns over legal and liability issues, in the event of failure, seem to have held back development.

The system proposed by the University of Manchester team would use a ‘bridging damper’ in the event of a signal failure. This would be an intelligent bumper, which would extend to touch the car in front, should the main communication system break down.

Computer simulations have indicated that a group of at least 20 cars could continue to travel safely and smoothly in the event of a main system failure, by detecting the status of the car immediately in front through their extended bumpers. Information on the other cars in the group would not be necessary.

The authors of the paper have investigated the use of a system that would see bumpers adjust to compensate for varying road conditions such as uphill and downhill stretches.

Although much of the research has been conducted using computer simulations, the research team have developed a small simplified pneumatic version of the damper device for further investigation.

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