Smart-Air-Car - Presentation & Video (Version 2)

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Griffin Robot TEAM SMART Transportation Version5

Tata producing Compressed Air Cars

Compressed air car from the Tata stable?

Is this too good to be true? There are reports that Tata Motors plans to make a compressed-air car. No official word yet.

BY OUR AUTO CORRESPONDENT

March 21, 2007: Tata Motors seems to be on an extended fast drive. The country�s largest automobile manufacturer is said to have entered into an agreement to develop a car which runs on compressed air. This mean that the car would be virtually pollution free, said a report.

The Indian carmaker has inked the deal in this regard with with French company MDI for the car. According to the report, MDI�s Air Car can be powered by an external compressed air pump or by an internal compressor running on petrol. According to a document on the MDI Air Car, the technology used is different from what we see on the road today. The document explains that compressed air technology allows for engines that are both non-polluting and economical.

Seemingly affordable, MDI AirCar could have a performance rate that stands up to current standards. Significantly, they do not pollute too. The car would be made of foam and fibre glass which has survived official crash tests.

According to another industry report, MDI and Tata Motors would work together to develop a new and cost-saving technology for various applications for the Indian market that meets with severe regulations for environmental protection. The new technology is expected to be passed on to other applications too where cost competitiveness and respect for environmental questions go hand in hand, it added.

The cost f the car is expected to be around �4,000 and would have a range of around 300km between refueling, said a report. It would have a top speed of around 60kmh using air alone and 200kmh using an air and fuel combination engine, it added.

Flying car video from last week

December 3, 2009 Mac Montandon

 On the Swiss Jetman, Flying Cars - A year ago a 50-year-old Swiss air-devil named Yves Rossy wowed the world by flying his homemade jetpack — really more of a mini jet plane worn on the back, but still — clear across the English Channel. Rossy’s fantastic machine burned four small jet engines to propel the 130-pound carbon wings and the man strapped to them. Pulse-quickening video footage of the flight zapped freely into countless homes and lives. It was the dawn of a beautiful new age of jetpackery.

That was then.

Last week, the day before those of us stateside feasted on birds of an altogether different sort, Rossy attempted an even more ambitious ride: 24 miles in 13 minutes at 140 MPH across the Straight of Gibraltar, from Morocco to southern Spain. But, as Morrissey wisely noted, plans can fall through, and so often they do. And fall Rossy did, halfway through the expected trip, splashing roughly down and then bobbing in the choppy Atlantic. Too much turbulence, wouldn’t you know. Happily, the former military pilot was not hurt. In fact, he appeared to emerge with even his ego unbruised, telling reporters that, “Nothing worthwhile has ever been achieved on the first attempt. One tries and tries again.”

Rossy’s bravery is certainly admirable but he has likely done very little to inspire other would-be James Bonds. There are far easier ways to go for a dip, after all. If any such creatures still exist, chances are they would rather be flying a car these days then a jetpack. At least that’s the impression one gets from this story that ran earlier this week.

If you feel like it is a perennial event that a piece of journalism wonders whatever happened to flying cars, that’s because it is. But this new item has the added benefit of containing new information. Like the fact that there are a dozen — that’s 12! — companies in this country alone developing flying car prototypes and at least one of them plans to swoop to market by the end of 2011. There are, of course, practical questions — will the FAA ever approve the idea, who in the world can afford them when they start at 100 K — but push all of that out of your pretty little heads for just a minute and let’s dream a big dream, shall we?

It’s the winter of 2011. The economy is, miraculously, now humming along and there are even, occasionally, jobs to be had. (I know, but stick with me.) Health care reform has passed and low-income women still have access to legal, financially viable abortions (I said stick with me!). We have won the war in Afghanistan, or, at least, we didn’t lose it entirely. And you are flying your car to work, Minority Report style. On the way home, you slalom the sky tenderly through snowflakes the size of a kitten’s paw. It’s quiet, so quiet, in your bubble-topped wonder-pod that you can almost hear the construction crews on Mars, the jet-fueled jackhammers clanging through space. You glide into your rooftop docking slot and laugh a little about all the rumpus alternate-side parking regulations once caused. ......

Our Tesla Visit yesterday by Rishub Kumar

We learned a lot at Tesla from Craig Carlson during our Tesla trip. There are models of cars, the roadster and a sedan called Model S. There are two prototypes for Tesla Model S, the show car and the mule. The mule is what the car will look like in the inside while the show car is what it will look like in the outside. There are 14 computers in one car so its important to make sure they are all working fine and will not malfunction. They have a red button to do a quick stop of the cars during test drive. They don't have a proving ground as most car companies do

The Roadster LiIon battery can be fully charged in 3.5 hours. We also saw a portable battery charger for charging on the road. It is hard to get a battery that is cheap because the batteries are so big and need to provide a lot of power. The cars will cost less if the batteries are cheap. Since it cost a lot, people don't want to buy the car. So, Tesla decided to make the car like a sports car so it is competing with cars that are also expensive - they went after a different set of buyers than Hondas or Toyotas. They also designed the car to be really safe.




Carl told us about an accident in Denmark between a Roadster, VW Tuareg and a Prius. The Tesla was standing still, and a Prius crashed the rear at 50 mph. The Roadster went underneath the VW Tuareg and the VW ended up on top of the Roadster. The carbon fiber protective top prevented serious injury to the driver. Look at the picture, it looks like a very bad accident. We learnt how important it was to design the car right and consider safety factors.

We ended up talking a lot about different technology to power the car. We realized how diffficult it is to charge the batteries, since it takes time to charge them up, and that is why this is not a long distance travel car yet. It is meant for short drives and when they tested the battery in the speedway, the battery lasted only 30 miles. Though typically the batteries last 350 miles. We discussed about this later, and we had to choose an alternative fuel technology that was easy. Solar Power would not be able to provide enough power to run the car. Carl mentioned that the amount of power that is generated in the Tesla battery can run a house for month. Thus, there are lots of issues we need to consider.

Telsa initially thought the cars will take 6 months to make, but it took 4 years. They wanted to use the Lotus shell to build their Tesla, but it wasn't very easy. We are trying to build a prototype of our flying car which we thought might take a week. It might take longer. We saw similar challenges and problems that Tesla is working on and what we are struggling with. For example - we have a small budget to build our prototype and they have a small budget too to launch their Model S.

We went to the lab where they test the cars. It was awesome as we got to sit inside the car. We were excited but were asked to keep quiet. The doors opened by a button which was new. The seats were very low and it was weird. The cars made no noise at all, but the show car did, which we saw later and it looked way better. We took cool pictures of the cars.

The visit to Tesla was very fun and we learned a lot!!!!!

Alternative Fuel for Smart Air Car by Jay Mulye

Air Flow Car by MDI

Pietro, German born Australian Engineer, Developer of Compressed air engine

Air Car

Air-Powered Car (Compressed Air)

Engines:
Compressed air cars are powered by engines fueled by compressed air, which is stored in a tank at high pressure such as 30 MPa (4500 psi or 300 bar). Rather than driving engine pistons with an ignited fuel-air mixture, compressed air cars use the expansion of compressed air, in a similar manner to the expansion of steam in a steam engine.
Storage tanks are often made of carbon-fiber for weight reduction while maintaining strength; if penetrated carbon fiber will crack but not produce shrapnel. This will answer some of the questions related to carrying heavy weight electrical batteries in the air

Advantages:
Refueling can be done at home using an air compressor or at service stations. The energy required for compressing air is produced at large centralized plants, making it less costly and more effective to manage carbon emissions than from individual vehicles.
Compressed air engines reduce the cost of vehicle production, because there is no need to build a cooling system, spark plugs, starter motor, or mufflers.
The rate of self-discharge is very low opposed to batteries that deplete their charge slowly over time. Therefore, the vehicle may be left unused for longer periods of time than electric cars.
Expansion of the compressed air lowers its temperature; this may be exploited for use as air conditioning.
Compressed-air vehicles emit few pollutants, mostly dust from brake and tire wear.
Air turbines, closely related to steam turbines, are a technology over 50 years old.
Reduction or elimination of hazardous chemicals such as gasoline or battery acids/metals
Some mechanical configurations may allow energy recovery during braking by compressing and storing air.


Examples/ Concepts:
· India’s largest automaker is set to start producing the world’s first commercial air-powered vehicle. The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre for Luxembourg-based MDI, uses compressed air, as opposed to the gas-and-oxygen explosions of internal-combustion models, to push its engine’s pistons.

· The Di Pietro Motor, Australia(Rotary Air Engine) The Di Pietro motor concept is based on a rotary piston. Different from existing rotary engines, the Di Pietro motor uses a simple cylindrical rotary piston (shaft driver) which rolls, without any friction, inside the cylindrical stator. The space between stator and rotor is divided in 6 expansion chambers by pivoting dividers. These dividers follow the motion of the shaft driver as it rolls around the stator wall. The motor shown is effectively a 6 cylinder expansion motor.
The cylindrical shaft driver, forced by the air pressure on its outer wall, moves eccentrically, thereby driving the motor shaft by means of two rolling elements (not shown) mounted on bearings on the shaft. The rolling motion of the shaft driver inside the stator is cushioned by a thin air film. Timing and duration of the air inlet and exhaust is governed by a slotted timer which is mounted on the output shaft and rotates with the same speed as the motor.
Variation of performance parameters of the motor is easily achieved by varying the time during which the air is allowed to enter the chamber: A longer air inlet period allows more air to flow into the chamber and therefore results in more torque. A shorter inlet period will limit the air supply and allows the air in the chamber to perform expansion work at a much higher efficiency. In this way compressed air (energy) consumption can be exchanged for higher torque and power output depending on the requirements of the application.
Motor speed and torque are simply controlled by throttling the amount or pressure of air into the motor. The Di Pietro motor gives instant torque at zero RPM and can be precisely controlled to give soft start and acceleration control.

Sources:
http://www.engineair.com.au/airmotor.htm
http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4217016.html
http://www.mdi.lu/english/miniflowair.phphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed_air_car#History

Carbon Fiber and Cellulosic Ethanol

Hello,

In science, we watched a video about carbon and it talked about carbon fiber and a type of ethanol made from cellulose rather than corn. Carbon fiber is much lighter and stronger than steel. If the Smat-Air-Car is built out of carbon fiber, it will be lighter, which in turn will make it more fuel efficient. Also, carbon fiber is very strong. It is used in race cars because it doesn't crumple around the driver like metal, but it breaks off taking the force of the impact with it. Another thing that I learned about is a new type of ethanol made from the cellulose of plants. We can use this instead of the hydrogen made from water because water is a very valuable resource and many places have a water shortage so people wouldn't approve of using a much needed resource to power cars. Cellulosic ethanol is made from all parts of a plant so it wouldn't use much needed resources like water. Studies done by the U.S. Department of Energy show that cellulosic ethanol reduces green house gas emissions by 85% over gasoline, while starch based ethanol may not reduce emissions at all because it uses natural gas to provide energy for the process. We should implement carbon fiber and switch the hydrogen fuel to cellulosic ethanol for our Smart-Air-Car. We can mention why we decided to do this instead of our previous idea of hydrogen in our presentation.

Thank You,
Mihir Iyer

Using the sixth sense

I presented the sixth sense a few months ago. Most people probably forgot about it but it is useful and could be used in our flying car.

Our smart-air car or smarter car can become better. The sixth sense can do a lot of things like taking pictures with your hands and going on the internet by projecting it on the wall. Since the smarter car is autopilot, you can do anything while driving. The car could have a touch screen windshield and you can go on the internet and look at your e-mail. And you can turn it on and off. If you wanted to look outside, then all you have to do is turn it off. You could have two modes on the windshield. It could be a computer and a camera. If you saw something interesting outside, you switch to camera mode and take a picture. Then it could do the same thing as a regular camera, by showing you the picture and letting you view them.

I look forward to receiving input.

http://www.moller.com/videos.htm#

Griffin Robots Rock!

ffin Robot TEAM SMART Transportation Version4d

A "gas station" opens on Norway's hydrogen highway

Hydro's President and CEO Eivind Reiten and State Secretary Steinulf Tungesvik of the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications took a spin in a hydrogen-powered car during the opening of Hydro's hydrogen fueling station in Porsgrunn last week.

"The future belongs to those who can develop new energy solutions with little impact on the environment," Reiten said at the opening ceremony.

"The work with the Hydrogen Highway and the hydrogen station here at Porsgrunn is an example that it is possible to find solutions that are good for the environment when politicians, the authorities, organizations and industry pull in the same direction."

About 40 public and private partners are cooperating in building the 'Hydrogen Highway' between Oslo and Stavanger.

In addition to Oslo, Porsgrunn and Stavanger, stations will be built in Lyngdal and Drammen for the Hydrogen Highway opening in 2009.

Reiten helped State Secretary Tungesvik fill up the first "tank" of hydrogen in one of the new vehicles. Tungesvik was also the first to actually drive one of the cars for a short tour.

"Hydrogen can be one of the future’s most important energy carriers for transportation. It is, however, vital to produce the hydrogen from renewable energy sources, or from fossil fuels in which the CO2 emissions has been taken care of," Tungesvik said, before sliding behind the wheel.

The petrochemicals plant at nearby Rafnes supplies hydrogen as a by-product of its other activities , and the energy used in the hydrogen production comes from pure hydropower. An undersea gas pipeline transports the hydrogen from Rafnes across a fjord to the hydrogen station.

The station is the first in Norway that is directly connected to the source of production, which also lessens the environmental impact of transport. The location near a large industrial site also makes it easier to expand later, as demand for hydrogen increases.

Parachute Car

This car uses a parachute and is very safe.

X-Hawk Flying Car

This is a video about how one of the cars, that Jay posted, works.
It is very cool because there are almost no visible add-ons for it to take-off, fly, and land.

Al Gore on Global Warming - Eye opening

http://www.cbs.com/late_night/late_show/video/?pid=Tp75Q1EpEhdIfu4zJlvk8T0j71L6vkTW&vs=Default&play=true

Watch the David Letterman show from here
 The full episode from 11/3 - Al Gore is the guest. 

M400 Sky Car

The M400 Skycar from Moller International is a VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) aircraft for public consumers. An onboard computer ensures that piloting the M400 is as easy as driving a car, just point the controls in the direction of desired travel.

The 4 passenger Moller M400 has a cruising speed of 275 mph, and a top speed of 375 mph, courtesy of 1200 horsepower from the 8 ethanol fueled Rotapower engines.

Safety in a vehicle like the Moller M400 is an important aspect, and therefore numerous safety features have been intergrated into the design including:
- Multiple engines, with the ability to operate with one or more out of action.
- Backup computer stabilisation systems.
- Aerodynamically stable glide ability.
- Dual parachutes, in the event of total loss of power the dual parachutes of the M400 can be deployed to bring the aircraft safely to the ground.


Similar and related vehicles:
PALV
Avrocar
Bell X-22
NASA AD-1
H-4 Spruce Goose

Here is a real flying car

Sixth Sense and Smart Transportation

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tv/TED-India-Pranav-Mistry/videoshow_ted/5231080.cms

Lets think of how we can roll this 6th sense technology into Smart Transportation

On the lighter side

What would we do to drive a flying car? FUNNY

High Speed Rail keeps train makers on track

Siemens

Russia's Siemens-built Sapsan train, seen in May, will shrink the Moscow-to-St. Petersburg trip to three hours and 45 minutes from 4½ hours.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia—As an engineer pulls the throttle, villagers track side gawk at the bullet-shaped train as it gathers speed. Soon, forests and wooden shacks are a blur as a dashboard display reads 250 kilometers an hour (155 miles per hour).
Ten years in the making, Russia's state-owned railway is testing eight aerodynamic trains that in December will rush travelers from here to Moscow in less than four hours. With fancy kitchens and leather seats in first class, the Sapsans (Russian for peregrine falcons) mark a change in Russia's egalitarian rail tradition.
More broadly, though, Russia's new trains mirror a global push in high-speed rail that spans from China to the U.S., an effort that is buffering Siemens AG, Hitachi Ltd., Bombardier Inc. and other industrial giants against the economic slump.
Global spending on trains, tracks and equipment is expected to reach €122 billion ($182 billion) this year, flat with last year, but up 18% from 2004, according to Unife, an international trade association. It projects that the figure will rise to €150 billion by 2016, propelled by stimulus projects and environmental concerns.

Going High-Speed

View Slideshow

AFP/Getty Images

For the "Sapsan" project, Russian Railways spent nearly $1 billion for its eight Siemens Velaro trains. A German-made Sapsan (Russian for "peregrine falcons") arrived at St. Petersburg station July 30, 2009.

More photos and interactive graphics

Rail spending "has a short-term effect on unemployment as well as a longer-term effect on economic growth," says Michael Clausecker, Unife's director general. Rail lines, he says, tend to anchor development of new towns, companies and jobs while increasing travel between cities.
A high-speed rail link between Madrid and Barcelona that opened last year has stolen former air travelers, cutting daily flights between the cities in half to 35. Spain plans to surpass Japan with the world's largest network of high-speed routes in 2010, and India and China plan to surpass Spain before long. France hopes to double its high-speed track to about 2,500 miles by 2020.
Denmark is shifting transportation funding from roads to public transportation, the bulk of which will be spent on rail.In the U.S., President Barack Obama has vowed to spend $13 billion over five years to build high-speed rail links between major cities, including $8 billion under the economic-stimulus plan.
The spending is aiding the fortunes of train makers.
Bombardier's rail-division revenue in the quarter ended July 31 rose 5% from a year earlier to $2.55 billion while total company revenue was flat. The Canadian manufacturer recently reported a $190 million order for 30 tram-trains for Karlsruhe, Germany, and a $2 billion contract to send 80 Zefiro high-speed trains to China by 2014.
China "is making the strategic investments" to build a high-speed rail network and sustainable transportation system, says Jianwei Zhang, president of Bombardier China. The country wants to build "the most advanced rail network in the world."
Japan's Hitachi shipped six high-speed bullet trains to the U.K. this summer and plans to build rail cars there. Revenue for the unit that includes rail rose 19% for the fiscal year ended March 31, making the business one of Hitachi's strongest.
Alstom SA's transportation sales increased 3% to a record €5.69 billion for the year ended March 31 as its order backlog climbed 13% to €19.51 billion. The transportation division, which makes up roughly 30% of Alstom's business, received a boost in train orders from Italy and the U.K. recently. The company projects continued strong demand, citing stimulus packages in the U.S., France and elsewhere in Europe, says Chief Executive Patrick Kron.Patrick Kron. The French company in March formed a joint venture to develop products in Russia, the largest railway market in Europe with 85,000 kilometers of electrified track and 1.3 billion passengers a year.
And while General Electric Co.'s rail operation primarily makes locomotives for freight trains, executives plan to sell fuel-efficient locomotives for faster passenger railroads in the U.S., Mongolia, Kazakhstan and elsewhere. GE wants to sell Amtrak more engines that go as fast as 123 mph, replacing "20-year-old locomotive clunkers," says Stephan Koller, a spokesman for GE Transportation. Trains that are even faster are further on the horizon as they would require expensive track upgrades.
For the Sapsan project, Russian Railways spent nearly $1 billion for its eight Siemens Velaro trains. "The market is really developing," says Edzard Lübben, the company's vice president for high-speed trains, sales of which are growing around 8% a year. "That's a huge growth rate during these times."
The Sapsans will trim the Moscow-to-St. Petersburg trip to three hours and 45 minutes from 4½ hours, running about 60 mph below their capacity because of difficulties upgrading tracks. The trip is expected to cost about $100 one way, which is roughly the same as the average plane fare.
"It makes everything more convenient," by removing airport security lines and the need to travel between an airport and the center of town says Irina Darienko, a delivery-operations specialist for Alcatel-Lucent in Moscow.She travels to St. Petersburg about three times a year for work and plans to ride the new trains.
Russian Railways says its eight-hour "night trains" between Moscow and St. Petersburg will continue to offer service to budget travelers. The Sapsans will replace the faster trains that run during the day.
"I'm sure they'll push away aircraft," says Alexander Dumnich, a captain of the famous Red Arrow train, which was introduced by Joseph Stalin in 1931 and pressed into military service during World War II.
Alexei Daibov, an auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers in St. Petersburg, is more skeptical. "I travel by plane," he says, expressing but he hopes a price war will lower the cost of plane tickets.
Write to Paul Glader at paul.glader@wsj.com

Another Flying Car

Flying Car

This car has pivoting propellers.

Experts design the world’s first practical flying car

Experts have designed the world’s first practical flying car aimed at frustrated commuters – and it looks like a Reliant Robin.

The bizarre three-wheeled vehicle promises relief to motorists stuck in traffic jams by turning into an aircraft capable of soaring up to 4,000ft above congested roads.

With a top speed of 125mph on land, the Personal Air and Land Vehicle, or PAL-V, corners like a motorbike by automatically tilting as it negotiates each bend.

But hidden in its roof and rear are a foldable rotor, propeller and tail section which allow it to take off and fly at speeds up to 120mph.

Its comical appearance betrays its rapid acceleration from 0 to 60 in just 5 seconds – a far cry from Del Boy Trotter’s yellow Robin Reliant in Only Fools and Horses.

Its inventors believe that when the the one-seater cars go on sale to the public, they would cost little more than an executive saloon car.

When airborne, the PAL-V is similar to the tiny autogyro aircraft Sean Connery flew in the 1967 James Bond movie ‘You Only Live Twice’.

Called a gyrocopter, the design includes a rotor on the roof to lift it through the air, and a propeller at the rear to provide forward thrust.

To fly the PAL-V you need a recreational pilot’s licence, which takes between 10 and 20 hours training to obtain, while a normal driver’s licence covers you for use on the road.

Experts have spent six years developing concept versions and are now building the first commercial prototype with a view to begin manufacturing the vehicles soon.

Their target audience are motorists who are fed up with traffic jams. John Bakker, who invented the PAL-V, said: “Since Henry Ford built the Model T Ford, people have been dreaming of a vehicle that could drive and fly.

“It took almost 90 years before this dream could be realized. Now it will.

“It’s fun, it drives like the most sporty solution on the road and it also flies. This will be a revolution in door to door mobility in the near future.

“In countries with underdeveloped infrastructure it means safe and faster transportation but also in developed countries it will save people lots of time.

“The PAL-V is a solution to the increasing levels of congestion in our cities, highways and skyways.

“Soon private flying will no longer be the exclusive domain of executives and celebrities.

“Driving and flying will be combined in one vehicle that could cost little more than an executive saloon car.”

The vehicle needs 165ft to take off in and just 16ft to land, and it can fly for 340 miles under its fuel-efficient and environmentally certified car engine.

The same engine works for both road and air travel and runs on normal unleaded petrol, which means you can refuel at any roadside service station.

It can be driven and flown using the same controls by switching between two different modes.

On the ground, the slim-line vehicle is as comfortable as a luxury car but has the agility of a motorbike, thanks to its patented “tilting” system.

The single rotor and propeller are folded away until the PAL-V is ready to fly.

In the air, the PAL-V flies under the 4,000 feet floor of commercial air space and can therefore take to the sky without having to file a flight plan.

The autogyro technology means that it can be steered and landed safely even if the engine fails as it descends upright rather than nose-diving.

Unlike a helicopter, the rotor of an autogyro is driven by aerodynamic forces alone once it is in flight.

The PAL-V’s Dutch makers anticipate a time when such vehicles are so widely used that people will fly along sky highways, directed by GPS and using radar to prevent collisions.

They also claim there are already plans to build up to 60 heli-sites across their home country to cope with a new era of air traffic.

They believe it could also be used commercially for surveillance purpose and by emergency services.

The project gathered momentum after new European rules made it cheaper and easier to obtain licenses and certification for aircraft under 600kg built using standard components.

A video on a British Air force Jet Fighter - it can take off vertically just look our Hot Hawk.

Hydrogen Car

H2GO™ Real Time Hydrogen Injection System

The H2GO™ system is the first complete package in a series of “green” technologies that RMC is building for the future. It is a “bridge” solution which can be implemented economically on any internal combustion engine and it can be implemented today.

H2GO™ provides an immediate solution for the global transportation industry in its quest to greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As well, in an era of higher gasoline prices, the H2GO™ technology will provide consumers with an immediate and substantial fuel cost savings.

H2GO™ was designed, developed and tested on Ronn Motor Company’s own finely built, eco-exotic supercar, the Scorpion™, as an effective means to deliver, market and showcase H2GO™, as well as prove the technology.

H2GO™ is designed to be easily and quickly be installed on any vehicle, from the largest turbo diesel powered truck to the typical gasoline powered family vehicle and high performance sports car.

H2GO™ creates hydrogen as a vehicle is driven on the road and does not use any on-board high pressure hydrogen storage tank.

Articles on Smart Transportation

This is a website I found that is complete with articles and other things on smart transportation
http://www.smart-transportation.com/presentations.html

Robot's Design

So far, our robot has all the attatchments it needs to succeed. Our first part of the tasks (getting the blue loop and black poles) is working fine. We are almost done with the final part of the tasks(taking down the car, hitting the triangular obstacles and ending in the circle). And the middle tasks (getting the 4 loops next to the car) need some work. Overall, it is still possible to finish by the dead line.
-Jay

Flying cars - Future is here now!

Get ready for takeoff: Flying cars are here!

Back in 1940, Henry Ford, chairman of his namesake motor company, said, “Mark my words, a combination airplane and motor is coming. You may smile, but it will come.” Mark his words, we did. And now, almost 70 years later we can say he was right. Flying cars are a reality.

Pilots and aircraft enthusiasts have been pursuing the dream of a flying car for decades. Their hard work, dedication and mountains upon mountains of cash have paid off. They’ve had to come up with the right materials, size and power. They’ve had to implement controls for driving and flying. They’ve had to consider road space, storage, fuel and foldable wings — not to mention wheel type, weight and don’t forget the legislation.
Not only have they managed to do all that but in most cases they’ve incorporated aesthetics, too. Some of these flying cars look great. OK, so nothing is actually available commercially, so don’t run to the dealership with your checkbook. But, truth be told, it doesn’t look like it will be long.
Here are seven of the best flying cars we could find:

________________________________________________________________
The Transition by Terrafugia – A Street-Legal Airplane

Terrafugia was founded in 2006 to “provide innovative solutions to the challenges facing personal aviation.” It is based in Massachusetts and is a privately funded company.
Their flying car, The Transition, is probably the most likely to go into commercial production first, though there’s no way of knowing for sure, of course.
At the moment Terrafugia is taking refundable deposits of $10,000 for their “roadable planes,” as they call them. They’re expected to cost somewhere in the region of $200,000 when they go on sale. The company appears to already have orders for about 60 of these.
Unlike most of the companies promoting their flying cars is that we haven’t gotten to see them actually, well, fly. And, really, until we see them fly, it’s only a dream isn’t it? Well Terrafugia have shown us that their Transition can fly; they did this at Plattsburgh International Airport in New York earlier this year in March 2009.
The Transition is a two-seater airplane car with foldable wings so it can drive on the road without endangering other cars and also can sit snugly in your garage. It runs on regular unleaded fuel from your local filling station for both driving AND flying. It can cruise at a steady 115 mph.
OK, so The Transition is still just a proof of concept but Terrafugia does plan to make its first customer delivery as early as 2011.
The Switchblade by Samson Motorworks
OK, so the Switchblade is more flying motorcycle than car, as it is a three-wheeler. Still, that’s not the point, as it’s a two-seater vehicle capable of driving on the road and flying in the air. If nothing else, the Switchblade — with its leather interior and sporty exterior — is one cool-looking vehicle.
The Switchblade uses a “scissors” wing, which swings under the belly of the plane when not in use and is protected by a sort of clamshell — akin to a penknife flicking back into its case.
The Switchblade is 15 feet, 6 inches long, five feet, six inches wide (the seats are side-by-side) and stands five-foot-one. The wingspan is 23 feet, five inches.
It’s said to cruise at more than 90 miles per hour on land and 134 mph in the air. Fuel consumption is estimated at about 60 mpg on the road and 22 mpg while airborne. Again, regular unleaded fuel from your neighborhood station is all you need.
Things have been moving quite rapidly in recent months for Samson Motorworks. The company has passed several of its “engineering milestones.” When they showed up at AirVenture last month in Wisconsin, the company had thousands of visitors, one of whom took out his checkbook and offered a deposit.
As a result of that, Samson Motorworks has since announced it is officially taking deposits for the Switchblade for those who want to secure an early delivery when it becomes available. The “target” price is $60,000, but that’s without engine or avionics. By the looks of things the Switchblade, could be hitting our air and road space sooner rather than later.
On Aug. 28, Switchblade creator and Samson President Sam Bousfield said in a press release, “we anticipate returning to AirVenture in 2010 next year with our first working prototype. That’ll be when the world of general aviation changes forever.”
Exepected to be available even sooner is a radio-controlled model that will be an exact replica at a quarter the scale. It’s expected to out soon.

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The X-Hawk by Urban Aeronautics Ltd. (UrbanAero)

UrbanAero is an Israeli company founded by Rafi Yoeli with a mission to “create, manufacture and market a family of VTOL, multi-mission aircraft capable of operating safely in complex urban and natural environments.”
Their creation, the X-Hawk flying car, outshines the standard “Vertical Take-Off and Landing” (VTOL) aircraft because it can take off and land like a helicopter but has no visible rotor blades.
How does it do that?
The X-Hawk has contained rotors and is therefore safer and quieter than standard helicopters. It can even “sustain a stable hover while in direct contact with a wall or the side of a mountain,” which of course means that it can be used anywhere, whether in the center of a city or remote rugged terrain.
Just think, medics could get to an accident scene in the middle of traffic, land safely in a crowd or conduct a rescue mission on a mountain side or a tower block. This takes the concept of flying cars into a whole new level.
The X-Hawk is said to be able to fly at speeds of 155 mph and reach an altitude of about 12,000 feet, with the ability to stay airborne for two hours. It uses “fly by wire technology” and meets all FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) requirements.
It could be ready as early as next year but it’s going to be expensive — an estimated cost of $1.5 million to $ 3.5 million. Still, if used by rescue services or the military to save lives, then it could well be worth it.

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Lucy THM by Pietro Terzi — a Personal Air Vehicle

Lucy is the brainchild of freelance designer and engineer Pietro Terzi. It is a micro-light aircraft, really, designed to give greater personal mobility.
OK, so technically it’s not a car but as it has a take off and landing run of less then 15 meters and can climb very steeply rather rapidly. It also has the ability to maintain control in flight at speeds of near zero, so it isn’t really an airplane either.
The possible applications for this type of “vehicle” are mind-blowing.
We can well imagine the military would have use for this type of vehicle, particularly in difficult terrain. So might emergency service personnel for medical emergencies, traffic control, rescue missions and police surveillance. And, of course, if you have enough money, what about purely personal travel?
It does look like a giant insect but the craft is designed to be an extension of the pilot, who is sat inside an “anthropomorphous fairing in a motorcycle-like posture.” The sensation is that you are maneuvering the controls to move yourself through the air – not the traditional way to guide an aircraft. Sounds cool, doesn’t it?
Lucy was on display in March at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan. As yet, we don’t know when we’ll be able to put a down payment on Lucy but the creators have said they expect the prototype to be complete and ready for flying before the year is out.
Volante by Col. K.P. Rice
Colonel Price has been building flying cars for about 30 years.
He also spent 30 years as a Marine Corps fighter/bomber pilot, has a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in electronics from Cornell University, so he’s anything but a wannabe builder of flying cars.
Price didn’t want to opt for the VTOL variety of flying car, as he felt that would be too noisy for a neighbourhood, especially if the driver were using it to get to work in the early morning or coming home from a night shift.
The Volante uses two engines: one for driving and one for flying.
According to Colonel Price the Volante is:• A second car that can be driven from the garage as often as you like without disturbing the flight section.• A plane which you can land and drive in bad weather instead of trying to fly through it, which can be the cause of disaster for many small planes.• A convenient way to gain advantage over the limitations of scheduled aircraft for mid-length trips
Most aircraft spend most of their time on the ground, so Price’s goal was to build a plane that was useful when it wasn’t in flight. Something affordable to the masses and not just the elite few.
He says he wants a vehicle that will “enhance the lives of the vast majority of neither rich nor poor pilots as well as potential pilots, who are looking for more utility in their investment at less cost and complexity in training than a current instrument rating and aircraft entails.”
His Volante is designed with all that in mind and so is both a car and a plane, but perhaps not really a “flying car,” I suppose.
The Milner Air Car

Imagine being able to drive to the nearest airport, take off, land at a destination airport and then drive off to your final destination, without switching vehicles. This is the opportunity supposedly offered by the Milner AirCar.
Other benefits are that you can make use of existing infrastructure, don’t have to pay hangar rental fees for your plane (as it will sit comfortably in your garage), allows you to drive rather than fly in inclement weather and is cheaper, overall, than conventional air travel.
Milner Motors was founded in 2005 to “develop innovative transportation solutions.”
The Milner AirCar will be a four door road-ready flying car with a foldable wing at the rear and a canard in the front. Estimated air speed is expected to be about 200 miles per hour, for up to 1000 miles at heights of up to 25,000 feet, which should allow the pilot to fly over most bad weather systems. On the ground it will be able to travel about as fast as any standard car.
At the moment, Milner is working on the car portion of the AirCar. When that is complete, they’ll bring in a company able to build the flying prototype.
Milner expects the consumer cost to run about $450,000.

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The Volantor M200 Sky Car by Moller International
Moller International was set up in 1983 as a spin off from Moller Corp. to focus on the design and development of personal VTOL. The company didn’t want to produce just an aircraft, though. They wanted something something safe, efficient, affordable and easy to drive on the road as well as fly in the air.
Moller has produced a number of different models, including the XM-2 in 1962, the XM-3 in 1966, XM-4 in 1970 and, more recently, the M150, M200 and M400.
The company’s been hampered by financial difficulties and is no longer taking refundable deposits for its cars but have just announced it is nearing completion of its fourth M200 ‘Jetson’ flying car prototype, with plans to produce about 40 perhaps as early as 2010.
Gotta admit, these vehicles look a bit like flying saucers and will operate more like a hovercraft even though Moller has specifically stated they are not hovercraft. Whatever the case, they will hover perhaps 10 feet off the ground (if they did go any higher, they would technically be classified as aircraft) and will be capable of vertical take offs and landings. Their maximum speed is likely to be about 50 miles per hour over any sort of terrain, for about an hour and a half.
One of the advantages posed by Moller’s version of a flying car is that the driver won’t need a pilot’s license to operate. The cost of owning a Volantor could be as little as $90,000 and the company’s already starting working on its orders.
Moller International maintains that cars as we know them are only an “interim step on the evolutionary path to independence from gravity” and if the Volantor’s any indication, the company may just be right.

That video was interesting. What if you put cars on trains?

The train that never stops

I love the idea of bullet trains zipping along and never stopping.

Here is the video

Our Robotics Competition - by Rishub Kumar

For the last few weeks we have been thinking and reading on smart transportation.
Everyone came up with original ideas and it was fun presenting and listening.

All of us came up with many ideas.
Rishub – Flying Car
Ajith – Electric Car + Bullet Train Grid
Derek – Integrate Speed Limit with GPS
Mihir – Car Sensors to avoid accidents
Raj – Encourage Carpools
Rohan – Hydrofoil boats
Sanjay – Smart Bikes
Jay – GIS+GPS

We all voted and the flying car got the most votes.
Our team is now thinking of flying cars - here is the sky car from here http://datalocker.wordpress.com/2009/01/14/flying-car/

Have you ever thought that apart from airplanes flying up in the sky cars can also fly? Well, inventors nowadays uncover their great potentials of making cars travel not only by land but also in the air. It all started with just a paramotor used by Gilo Cardozo to fly on air with a giant industrial fan strapped to his back. Upon thinking of this event that Cardozo had, he actually thought of using a car this time instead of a paramotor and eventually makes it flying up in the sky.

At present time flying a car is very possible following the following steps and procedures. The one who is driving the car should unpack the parafoil wing from the boot and manually deploy it from the rear of the car. The driver then switches the transmission from road mode, which drives the wheels, to flight mode, which powers the rear fan.

The fan’s thrust pushes the car forward, providing lift for the wing as the car reaches 35mph – takeoff speed. Once airborne, pedals in the footwell steer the Skycar by pulling cables that change the wing’s shape.

The Skycar has the ability to fly up to about 180 miles. If just in case the wing gets damaged or if it collapses, the pilot can fire a roof-mounted emergency parachute that allows the car to float safely back to earth.